Advice

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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