Kurt, Hope you don't mind if I post this to the list. (I thought others might be interested as well)... ----- Original Message ----- From: Kurt Kessler To: Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 12:54 AM Subject: about Unix certifications >> Hey, I saw an old post of yours on kclug, regarding certifications. I am >> seriously considering get certification, but am not quite sure which one to >> choose. What are your thoughts on what is most in demand in the KC area? >> HP UX or Solaris? If you have time, would appreciate your opinion. Funny, I just got a reply back from a potential employer that I had interviewed with last month (he was also a former instructor of mine at the college). He said the primary reason they went with one of the other candidates is because that person had more Solaris experience than me. Personally, I think either of these certifications would be good. They're both relatively inexpensive, and I have heard that Sprint--for one--uses mostly HP-UX and Solaris. I think it would be difficult, to say the least, to study for these if you do not have the platform (i.e. hardware and OS) to work with. Also, keep in mind that--although Solaris gains market share from the other commercial Unixes every day--they are still losing market share to Linux overall. As far as Linux certs go, I know of one instance where a friend of an acquaintance got hired after taking Red Hat's seminar and passing the RHCE, but that's the only case where I've ever heard of anyone getting hired off the strength of a Linux cert alone. (Not to mention, RHCE is pretty damned expensive--more expensive than most people who are trying to get their foot in the door can afford). If you're interested in Linux certs at all, I'd recommend going with the ones from the Linux Professional Institue (LPI). I'm SAIR certified, and it never really got me anywhere (plus, I heard that they went under not too long ago). I think LPIC has a good chance of becoming the industry standard now (one of these days). I was a beta tester for LPI's Level II exams, and I thought their standards were pretty high.