Re: Career Progress

Hi,

Firstly thanks for all the responses. Answers were very helpful.

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 8:58 AM, ken Foskey <[email protected]> wrote:

> 2-) I am thinking to get LPI certificates, then maybe Linux+, but RHCE
> > is the last option since this is a bit expensive.  Is LPI enough or
> > should I focus on others too?
>
> LPI is really comprehensive.  Doing this yourself shows a lot of
> commitment, if company is redhat then offer to do RHCE at your expense
> when hired.
>

Yes, I know. I don't think to take all of them at once but the first
certificate (which is LPIC-1) would be a good starting point. I have been
mostly using Red-Hat products, so RHCE seems a better option but as I said
before it is a bit expensive. Offering to the company would be better later
on.

Getting a good job anywhere is a milestone for us all.  Taking and
> keeping a bad job is character building and resume building.  You do not
> know a good job until you have had a bad one.


Definitely!

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Dean Hamstead <[email protected]> wrote:

Unfortunately you are in QLD so the slug jobs list isnt likely that
> helpfull.
>

Oh, sorry, I am in Sydney Campus. So, I am living in Sydney.


Having just taken a new position, can i suggest to you that you dont
> just take the first position thats offered too you. Infact, if you
> dont like the look of the place in the invervie - dont bother accepting
> a second interview. Some of the places were little better than IT sweat
> shops and the money they offered was rubbish. Take all the interviews
> you can (they are good experience), then have a good look around the
> work place, especialy where you will actually be working, meet your
> manager/team leader, then consider if you want to take the position.
>
> This may sound ludicrous depending on how hard employment is in
> XYZ country of origin, but its the luxury we have right now.
>

Thanks, I will consider this.

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 3:04 PM, Jamie Powell <[email protected]>
wrote:

Certs - never hurt but are sometimes over-valued.  Are you taking these to
> learn or to validate what you already know?  If for learning value, check
> the syllabus/exams/course first and make sure you evaluate it along those
> lines.  If it's for validation, you may also want to test the job market
> first.  Getting some good local experience may be worth far more, so it
> never hurts to go straight for the prize.
>

I am taking certificates to validate what I know, however it will definitely
show what I don't know too, so I can work on those things too. I also agree
with you that local experience may be worth much more, (it is same as in my
country) but as you said, it never hurts. I take them just in case.


Salary - What are you after?  What is your experience?  I'd prefer to go
> into that off-list but as a guide, sweatshop support work pays $30-50k and
> professional roles pay anywhere from sub $40k (rarely) to >$140k ($70-100k
> is probably more typical).  You may also be able to get a little bit less in
> your first role in Australia than the market worth of your skills,
> especially if there are language or immigration sponsorship issues involved
> - but we can work around these things.


I have not had any ideal salary in my mind, but if I compare with other
industries, I don't see much difference. This could be because I don't know
the Australian market yet.

Are you in Queensland or at CQU Sydney?  If you're in Sydney I'd like to
> have a chat about a couple of possibilities I have and see if I can help you
> out generally - please contact me off list.
>

Thanks. I am going to send an e-mail.

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 4:30 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On Sat, 8 Mar 2008, ken Foskey <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 02:46 +1100, Serdar Sahin wrote:
> > > 2-) I am thinking to get LPI certificates, then maybe Linux+, but RHCE
> > > is the last option since this is a bit expensive.  Is LPI enough or
> > > should I focus on others too?
> >
> > LPI is really comprehensive.  Doing this yourself shows a lot of
> > commitment, if company is redhat then offer to do RHCE at your expense
> > when hired.
>
> Also remember that you only have to pay for the exam, not the training
> courses. If cost is still an issue, you can go for an RHCT instead.
>

Yes, I know, but my friends who took RHCE certificate say that taking
training course is very good to understand the exam, because this is
performance based. I also prefer LPIC-1 rather than RHCT.


> > > 4-) There are not lots of web server management job ads. I think this
> > > is because Aussies use American websites, there are not lots of
> > > websites for only Aussies. Should I improve my other skills? If so,
> > > for which products or services?
> >
> > Scripting and administration is a booming industry here.
>
> Relatively few Web sites are hosted locally, mainly due to the high cost
> of
> bandwidth here. Australian companies still need Web sites and Web
> services,
> though, and the wonders of the Internet mean that servers don't have to be
> housed inside the country.


High cost of bandwidth should not affect system administrators, because they
can still manage the servers no matter where the servers are. They just
can't go to the data centers to examine hardware problems and the other
stuff, but now technology is very good than before. Nowadays, almost every
data center has remote KVM machines, remote reboot, and even remote OS
installation facilities (and much more).

If you ask me why hosting industry seems smaller for me in Australia,
although Australia has one of the highest internet penetration on the World
(should be around 70-75), I would say this is because you speak English. For
example if you were a Polish or Chinese or Korean, you may open
Polish-Chinese-Korean Facebook, Myspace, online gaming websites, or clone of
the other big projects. However, in Australia, you cannot beat Facebook
unless there is an another big project in USA, but it has more possibility
in other non-english speaking countries. For example, one of the portals in
my country has 5 million e-mail accounts. How come you can open such a
website and get millions of users for only free mail service? What can you
offer that gmail, hotmail or yahoo does not have? You have the same language
and almost same cultural background. So, you have to be very specific to be
preferable website, like Australian stock market websites or news site etc.
This limits too much.

These are my opinions of course.This might not be the reason.


> > Advertised jobs are the ones they want to fill cheap.  Take the low paid
> > job, get the runs on the board and then network for a new better paid
> > job.  Friends get more good jobs than newspapers.
>
> +1
>
> Friends and contacts are better than anything. Join Linux Australia, join
> a
> LUG, get on their mailing lists. Get to know people, make friends.
>

Yes, of course. Relationships work in everywhere. :) I will hopefully attend
your following meetings and would like to talk more at there.

Thanks a lot for your answers, these were very clear.

Serdar,

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