> > Just curious;not for-or-against certifications. > > What are options for a would be linux professional? > > One could scream around about his interests or skills but on what > basis do you decide. > > 1. Be passionate about your interests. If you are not, find something which you are really really interested in. You need to love what you do, and if you already do that, money, fame, jobs , increments will follow. Your passion will show up to your prospective employer while they interview you and also later with your deliverables . This not only applies for if you want to be a Linux Professional, but in general.
2. If you CHOOSE to be a Linux Professional based on your interests and passion, welcome to the great and open world of opportunities and land of self learning and collaboration. Start reading documents, get the books which give you introduction and insight on the technologies you are interested in. There is wide range of resources freely available. 3. Play around with your system. Try installing various distros, learning tools, utilities, applications, doing cool things with your system. GPL'ed software gives you the power to use it, learn it, play around with it, modify however you want and also share the cool stuff with your friends. 4. And here is the best part. FOSS is all about collaboration. Choose a open source project of your interest, start learning about it, test it and start contributing if you like. There is no one who will stop you from doing it, and you dont need to be in a job to do this. You will get to interact with the people from all over the world who have years of experience and expertise on the technologies of your interest. You would benefit tremendously and improve on your technical skill just hanging around with the experts. Also you'll get to see how different people approach the same problem, different styles of working, coding styles etc. You can pick and choose whatever you like and evolve as you go. 5. Be on the mailing lists, irc channels, attend events, interact with people. Get visibility while you do so. One's who are contributing well, and are smart enough get recommended and do not even need to do certifications etc. If you do all this, I can personally guarantee you that you will end up with good work and also enough money. You may also get lucky and find a mentor who could personally guide you in the right direction. I clearly see two groups here, one is the experienced professionals, most of whom are recruiters as well, who have interviewed the certified professionals and are really unhappy with the quality and have lost the trust on the certifications. Second group is the freshers who think if they do certifications , they have better chance at getting jobs. In crux, for the second group, Certifications may give you better chances of landing up with a job as a fresher than not having one. But that will happen only if you have passion for your work, and have taken efforts to learn things on your own while doing the certifications and if you are thorough with it. If you believe you will mug for a few days, pass the certification exams successfully , and suddenly will be preferred for a job, think again. Certification or no certification, your knowledge, passion and soft skills is what will get you a job. This is what your prospective employers will look in you. My personal advise is, if you choose to do a certification, its a good thing, but you should spend time and efforts learning what you will. Its the journey that will matter not the destination alone. Thanks Gourav _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
