Advice

[Furmanek, Greg]

Gary, 

You can write "Becoming SysAdmin HOWTO"
from what you just wrote.

Greg

-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: Gary Nichols [mailto:gnichols@qwest.net]
-> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 1:17 PM
-> To: plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
-> Subject: RE: Advice
-> 
-> 
-> Greetings Tyler,
-> 
-> Allow me to insert my 2 bytes here.
-> 
-> As a hiring IT/IS Director/Manager for 4 years at several 
-> companies, I can
-> tell you that the one thing that counts above all others is 
-> experience,
-> experience, experience and experience.  I have seen hundreds 
-> of resumes for
-> SysAdmins.  I don't care if you have a Masters in Electro-Warp Core
-> Technology or an Associates in Basketweaving.  If you don't 
-> understand
-> TCP/IP, subneting, SMTP, Unix filesystems, computer 
-> hardware, etc... you
-> would be of no use to me.
-> 
-> I'm going to agree with a few others here that have posted 
-> and add my own:
-> 1) Acquire machines, whether they be 486's or P3's... buy a 
-> cheap Sun Sparc
-> on ebay... start building your own lab in your flat/apt/house/garage.
-> 2) Get good at network wiring.  Buy a punch kit... buy a set 
-> of crimpers...
-> build your own cables/crossovers.  This alone will seperate 
-> you from the
-> pack *grin*.
-> 3) Learn TCP/IP... the OSI layers... make up a funny rhyme 
-> to remember them
-> all.  (I can't share mine, as it would involve a lot of %#$@ words. )
-> 4) Buy some cheap hubs/switches/routers.  Learn how they all 
-> work together.
-> 5) Study Unix like you've never studied before.  REALLY 
-> understand it from
-> the kernel to the file systems to procs.... and for God's 
-> sake be able to do
-> file permissions in your head. :)
-> 6) Study variants... Linux (all flavors you can find), 
-> Solaris, BSD, etc.
-> What makes them different?  Why would one be better for the 
-> job than others?
-> What does it take to secure them?
-> 7) Move to applications and services.  Become familiar 
-> enough with Apache,
-> Sendmail, Qmail, Bind, inetd/xinetd, ssh, cvs, -insert your 
-> favorite app
-> here-.
-> 8) Study security!  Did I say study security?  securityfocus.com.  Go
-> there... read everything... subscribe to everything...
-> 9) Look for some entry level networking jobs.  You'll need 
-> to dig through
-> careerbuilder.com, but they are there.  If you can't find a 
-> jr SA job, go to
-> work for the company doing something else... tech support, 
-> qa, web stuff...
-> get your foot in the door and then show them "btw, I know 
-> how to do all this
-> cool stuff!".  Become best buds with the IT staff there.  
-> Take them to
-> lunch... buy them beers... pay their mortgage. (Well, ok... 
-> noone ever did
-> that for me... but the first two are a good start).
-> 10) Get at least one certification... more if you can afford 
-> it.  RHCE and
-> CCNA are good starts.  Stay away from M$ certs unless you 
-> plan on working in
-> a M$-friendly arena.  I'm not knocking M$ (ok, I am), but I 
-> prefer to stay
-> as far away from their closed-source crockware as I can.
-> 11) Most of all my friend, have a life!  Arizona is 
-> beautiful... enjoy it
-> once in a while!!! :-)
-> 
-> This is just my opinion, but is extracted from 4 years of 
-> hiring SA's.
-> 
-> Your milage may vary, batteries not included... no warranty implied.
-> 
-> ~ Gary
-> 
-> 
-> 
-> On Mar 21 2001, at 10:02, Tyler Hall was caught saying:
-> > Greetings,
-> >
-> > I need your guy's advice,  I'm hoping to get into the 
-> field of networking
-> in the near future.  Such as, managing a school or a 
-> company's network.
-> I'm going to school right now at Chandler-Gilbert Community 
-> College, to get
-> this stupid degree in "Microsoft Networking"  I think it's a 
-> waste of my
-> time and money.   I'm looking for someone that is in that 
-> field, and would
-> be willing to tell me, what steps I should take.  I 
-> currently just graduated
-> from high school, so i'm still young.   Any advice would be helpful.
-> >
-> > Please reply privately, so we don't disturb the public list :)
-> >
-> > Tyler Hall
-> 
-> 
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-> 


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