Certification and Employment

[Shayne Patton]

Bryan Richard wrote:

>Hi Shane,
>
>On Tue, Feb 03, 2004 at 08:40:30PM -0600, Shayne Patton wrote:
>
>
>>OK, my first real question.  How many of you all have jobs where you
>>work w/ Linux/OSS/gnu.
>>
>>
>
>I've worked for a number of years as a software developer for Linux but
>now I work for a media company setting up conferences that tend to
>revolve around Linux/OSS.
>
>
>
>>Out of the people that do, do you think having a
>>linux cert or 2 is helpful in finding a job working w/ Linux?
>>
>>
>
>Good question. I'm not all that big of a fan of certification in
>general. My job brings me in contact with a lot of people who are in the
>Linux/OSS community (we publish Linux Magazine, I set the technical
>program for ClusterWorld, PHPCon, Datacenter Computing, &c.) and I can't
>think of anyone off the top of my head that is Linux or software
>development certified. I sometimes run across someone certified in
>Cisco but it's mainly used for educational purposes.
>
>Back when I worked in MS shops you couldn't swing a mouse without
>smacking an MSCE or Java cert. I think it's much more valuable to work
>on projects that will get you noticed. If you know the interviewer has
>used your project and you can say "Yeah, I wrote that," I think that
>says tons more than having taken a test.
>
>What type of certification would you be looking at? RedHat Linux? IEEE
>Software Development?
>
>
>
>>2nd real question.  I really would like to get involved with a volunteer
>>project or something where I can get actual "real-world" practice rather
>>than just setting stuff up on my LAN in the basement.  Does anyone know
>>of any projects around the metro where I could actually help with a
>>Linux/OSS project?
>>
>>
>
>Why local? When I was publishing PyZine -- which helped me get my
>current job -- I was in Los Angeles and my editor was in Texas. I've
>never actually been to the office of the company that I work for. If you
>can't find something local find something you want to work on and ping
>the developers. Nine times out of ten they gladly welcome another set of
>eyes to hunt bugs.
>
>- Bryan
>
>
>
Which cert?  Well, I doubt I'll actually waste time and money on taking
a test to tell me I know stuff.  I just wanted some other folks opinions
who actually do this for a living.  If I did go for anything, it'd
probably be LP1 and LP2.  Thanks for all the input thus far and keep it
coming.
Why local?  Because I'm not nearly as code savey as I'd like to be and
don't think that I could spot many bugs (yet!).  Mainly though, I love
servers and LAN setup.  To do most of this, you need to be onsite
initially.  Though once they're setup, the remote administration is nice
(not to mention kinda fun).  Anyway, does it matter that I can't code
for ****?  How did you all get started?

Universally,
Shayne