Made it as a Unix Admin...well..sorta...lol

I switched to being a Unix Admin at my job because I was the only person on my team who wanted to do it. The Unix Admin trained me and I am easing my way into it. I actually love Unix and hope to learn all I can. I'm still working on finishing my degree and I still have no certs lol. So it's possible to move up in the IT world with no experience. If you show you have a passion to learn. Granted I was probably at the right place at the right time I am thankful for the opportunity. This site has helped me get focus on my career goals. Thank you

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Comments

YFZblu

Definitely a rare opportunity - Nice work!

puertorico1985

Congratulations! Keep working hard, and you will definitely go places you never thought possible.

Master Of Puppets

Congrats, that's awesome!

coreyb80

Congrats and keep at it!

Danielm7

Congrats! Right place at the right time is right, could be the start of a great career for you.

Asif Dasl

Danielm7 wrote: »

Congrats! Right place at the right time is right, could be the start of a great career for you.

Could not have said it better myself! Congrats OP!

sj4088

QuantumKnight wrote: »

I switched to being a Unix Admin at my job because I was the only person on my team who wanted to do it. The Unix Admin trained me and I am easing my way into it. I actually love Unix and hope to learn all I can. I'm still working on finishing my degree and I still have no certs lol. So it's possible to move up in the IT world with no experience. If you show you have a passion to learn. Granted I was probably at the right place at the right time I am thankful for the opportunity. This site has helped me get focus on my career goals. Thank you

What position did you move up from?

ChooseLife

Congrats and welcome to the light side of the force

You may now start growing you beard and grouchy attitude

QuantumKnight

I worked with Active Directory.

QuantumKnight

Thank you everyone for your support. Does anyone know about how much time one should spend in their first Unix role? I'm going to start on the RedHat and CCNA certs so I'm going take my time to learn everything I can. I'm happy and excited for this opportunity and want to make the best career out of it.

lsud00d

ChooseLife wrote: »

Congrats and welcome to the light side of the force
You may now start growing you beard and grouchy attitude

Beard + 'nix = ladiessss*

*I wish

onesaint

beards+beer = 'nix

I don't think there is a 'nix gathering where those two aren't present in abundance.

@OP Congrats! Stick with your role until you've learned all you can from it, then move on. In the Unix world certs don't cary as much weight as knowledge and experience. Pick up some Ruby or Python as well as Bash scripting. Couple that with your network understanding and RHEL knowledge and you'll be golden.

gbdavidx

where did you switch from? any pay raise? how much are you making?

westrock

QuantumKnight wrote: »

Thank you everyone for your support. Does anyone know about how much time one should spend in their first Unix role? I'm going to start on the RedHat and CCNA certs

Are you working in Unix or Linux? They are quiet similar, but they do have some subtle differences. If your in Unix you are probably in a Solaris environment. Personally I prefer Linux over Unix as I feel the command tool usage is a little more intuitive.

My first recommendation is to get comfortable with the command tool and then "vi". Vi is the text editor you can ALWAYS use. Alot of people like the graphical ones, from textedit to kwrite ( <--- which is great for programming). But some time you will find yourself in situations where you do not have access to the "windows" desktop and vi is there to save the day.

In fact my real recommendation is to try and do as little as possible with GUI's. Learn where the actual data is edit it directly (when possible).

Also, you can try and learn Perl. It is included on just about every single *nix operating system there is. It is extremely powerful for manipulating data and files.

UnixGuy

+1 for the beard, beer. What's this "chicks" you're talking about?

Congratulations! Happy for you

Like others have said, spend as much time as you want, learn everything on the job. EVERYTHING you can. Learn scripting and automation. If you can, learn everything you can about storage, backup, virtualization, ...etc

enjoy

jdancer

Gratz. Now get your employer to pay for your RHCSA cert.

QuantumKnight

westrock wrote: »

Are you working in Unix or Linux? They are quiet similar, but they do have some subtle differences. If your in Unix you are probably in a Solaris environment. Personally I prefer Linux over Unix as I feel the command tool usage is a little more intuitive.

My first recommendation is to get comfortable with the command tool and then "vi". Vi is the text editor you can ALWAYS use. Alot of people like the graphical ones, from textedit to kwrite ( <--- which is great for programming). But some time you will find yourself in situations where you do not have access to the "windows" desktop and vi is there to save the day.

In fact my real recommendation is to try and do as little as possible with GUI's. Learn where the actual data is edit it directly (when possible).

Also, you can try and learn Perl. It is included on just about every single *nix operating system there is. It is extremely powerful for manipulating data and files.

Thank you for this information. I will be working with Both Unix and Linux but it will mainly be a Solair and HP-UX environment. Everything is done in the command line though putty. I did get a basic overview of vi, it will take me some getting use to it so I do not mistakenly delete any important information.

As far as perl, I've been confused on what to programming language to start with. I've seen post saying one should learn Bash, Perl, Ruby and Python. I dont know which would be better for this position.

QuantumKnight

UnixGuy wrote: »

+1 for the beard, beer. What's this "chicks" you're talking about?

Congratulations! Happy for you

Like others have said, spend as much time as you want, learn everything on the job. EVERYTHING you can. Learn scripting and automation. If you can, learn everything you can about storage, backup, virtualization, ...etc

enjoy

Thank you,

As for storage, backup, and virtualization what would you recommend that I start to get me a good start?

onesaint

Bash (or just shell programming) covers the foundation. You want to learn that first (like VI) as far as scripting goes. It covers quick one liners you can run on any machine with a shell and the concepts will translate to other languages easily.

Then pick a additional language to extend your knowledge. Perl is the old default and has it's pluses. Python is the new kid (of sorts) and the apple of everyone's eye. Ruby is the even newer kid, but not as widely used as Python or Perl. Although Ruby on Rails is popular, but that's another story.

For all others considerations (from storage to directory services) read over LPIC-1/2 and RHCSA books first. Those give good foundations which are required before diving into the more advanced topics. Look over Amazon for high reviews and pick from those. 'nix is an ocean you have to navigate and swim through. Take your time and ensure you have a good foundation moving forward.

UnixGuy

I agree with "onesaint", LPIC1-2 and RHCSA are a good start. For storage/virtualization/backup best thing is learn everything in your current environment.