On Saturday 10 Jan 2009, Rock Buddy wrote: > I am a newbie here. I wonder if this is the right place to raise this > query. I wish to know how does RHCE certification really helps.
To me (as an employer), a RHCE is not of much value. We have our own Linux Admin quiz of about 45 questions (based on material covered in RH033). Over the past couple of years, I have interviewed 30+ candidates, either carrying a RHCE or studying for it. 95% of them barely answered 10-11 questions correctly. About 2-3 answered 15-17 questions correctly. > I am RHCE myself. The classes don't really help much beyond the > scope of the exam and the hands on experience one can get is when > some employer is willing to accept a fresher. The RHCE curriculum is decent, what I have found lacking is application of mind. These are people with 1-3 years experience. Their grasp of the Linux command line utilities and the ability to put them together into simple shell scripts is poor. The other issue with the RHCE is that it is distribution specific. I prefer LPI Level 1 as it is distribution agnostic and tests your sys. admin. knowledge at the CLI level. To raise the level of your sys. admin. skills, you should train yourself beyond the RHCE (or LPI) on your own. Believe me, if you have access to a PC you can do self study/training and learn a lot w/o the need of a work place or training institute. Such go getters will get the better jobs and better salary. > In recent times, I noticed > the trend asking for minimum 6months of Linux experience. I remember > the time when RHCE certified professionals were in short supply but > with the word spreading fast there is a glut and that, coupled with > recession has taken a toll on how much an RHCE certified guy earns. > There are some who earn as Rs 7000 to 8000 PM. Good sys. admins. can get decent salary even in recessionary times. Entry level candidates should have realistic salary expectations, they should not expect 15-20K when they cannot deliver 15-20K worth of work. > Are the times indeed so bad or the companies are just exploiting? It is a matter of supply/demand. As someone else stated, the end customer is also squeezing the consultants/service providers. -- Arun Khan -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
