about Unix certifications

[Jonathan Hale]

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 <kurt-kessler at home.com>
To: <maclaoch at earthlink.net>
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.