Linux engineers

[The Web Space Bar]

Good evening all.
I am sure most of you here in the Linux thread have some level of skill in Linux or atleast have some level of interest in it.

Have any of you done any international exams , if so , which ones ?

Would you say that a Red Hat certification is of more value these days than a MCITP ?

Im asking as I am of the opinion that the Microsoft market for engineers is over saturated and outsourced to other countries way too easily.

Not that I'm saying Linux support doesn't get outsourced , I just think a company would covet a knowledgeable Linux engineer more than a Windows engineer. It just seems quicker to replace a windows engineer than one with good Linux skills.

Would like to see what you guys have to say on this topic.

[koffiejunkie]

I have noticed a huge surge in incoming messages since I listed my RHCE on LinkedIn. Granted, this is in the UK - I don't know what the demand for Linux skill is like these days in S.A. Certainly when I came over (end 2006) there didn't seem to be many opportunities for Linux folk, and almost none that paid halfway decent money.

Either ways, in my opinion RHCE is the better one to have amongs the Linux certs. I like LPI, and I found it harder (although I did it several years before doing RHCE), but RHCE certainly have more industry weight.

I can't say how this compares to the MS certs. I suppose for the lower end of the market - desktop and small company network support - things might be biased in the MS folks' favour, but certainly where I work, where we need people with a high level of skill, we're having a hard time finding both Linux and Windows folk.

[Nuro]

I have been a Linux admin for 10 years now. By the time I did my RHCE, I moved to a company that uses SLES. After SLES, came Ubuntu server. These days when we hire, we just get the guy to write a quick 30 minute technical test. It gives us a better idea if he knows anything (the test includes questions about kernels, filesystems, regular expressions, bash etc).

[Rocket-Boy]

The RHCE is quite decent, it actually means something because you have to have a wide understanding of linux to get it.
Its not like an MCTIP/MCSE where you can just learn it. I have been a linux admin for 6 years now and im starting to see growth in the linux sector for servers. What is beneficial is to have both, someone that knows Ms and linux at a high level is good for integration and being able to communicate and fault find across platforms helps.

[ponder]

Thing is if you hire a linux dude he can also do MS stuff, the opposite is rarely true.

[Peon]

What ponder says. I can do both and earn *$%& or do peanut work.

[Rocket-Boy]

Thing is if you hire a linux dude he can also do MS stuff, the opposite is rarely true.

^this. I also really like how linux is scary as hell to people who dont know it, I like to keep that fear alive in them

[MickZA]

Thing is if you hire a linux dude he can also do MS stuff, the opposite is rarely true.

I agree with Ponder, it's extremely unlikely you'll ever find yourself in a pure Linux environment in SA.

That said, assuming you have no Linux grounding, RHCE is the probably the way to go but I don't place a lot of faith in certificates alone.

[koffiejunkie]

Thing is if you hire a linux dude he can also do MS stuff, the opposite is rarely true.

Most Linux dudes I've encountered in ZA has MS skills ranging from pretty mediocre to moderate at best - about as much as they need to be able to replace Windows servers with Linux boxen.

Anyway, as the ZA Linux market grows and matures, we'll see more people who know only Linux and don't have any real Windows experience other than desktoppy stuff.