
I have no idea what I'm doing - BronzeEagle
After driving a forklift for a few years I&#x27;ve decided I want to be a linux system administrator, I&#x27;m broke what do I do from here?
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lrondanini
My suggestion is to stop for a second thinking about the fact that you are
broke. It's the easiest problem to solve (unless you need 2 billion dollars).

In my opinion the first thing you need is a clear understanding of what your
goal is. Why do you want to be a linux admin? What do you like about it? What
makes you say, "I want to spend my life configuring linux systems"?

If answering these questions requires more than 1 minute of your time, you are
probably on the wrong direction.

Whatever you decide to do this is my advise. First, use internet. There are
amazing tutorials out there for anything you want to learn. Find something
that you enjoy and that makes you feel good. Experiment and "taste", the more
you explore the easier will be for you to understand what you want.

Keep your job or find another job to cover your expenses. This means you have
to work hard because probably you will have to study at night. I've been
there, it's tough but at the same time you'll feel alive, I promise.

Learn and practice! This is specially important in computer science. Build
something then try to find a way to break it. Once you broke it, build it
again!

Go to meetups for people in the same field you choose. You'll learn a lot.
You'll be able to start networking but mostly, you'll be able to measure your
preparation and this will tell you when is time to start searching for a job.

Searching for a job won't be easy with no academic preparation. Start from the
bottom and don't think about salary. For you is much more important to get
hired than a good salary. Remember, you need to get hired once to be in the
game!

I hired a PHP developer with a similar story as yours few years ago. I took
extra steps to understand his preparation but at the end I couldn't ignore the
effort and the commitment that this guy put into his preparation. Today he is
a valuable component of my team and he makes me very proud of what he has
accomplished.

Hope this will help!

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devnonymous
My advice would be to start small. Don't quit your day job but spend some time
learning more and if you feel you are ready, try getting some one off / part
time gigs to apply your knowledge in a real world setting if possible. If you
can afford to offer your part time efforts for free, I'd recommend
volunteering to open source projects.[1] These days most popular oss projects
have no trouble finding development contributions but sysadmin /
infrastructure help is hard to find. Once you have done some real world work
and made contacts, switching carreers should not be hard. Hang in there and
keep working at what you feel you should do. I personally know a number of
people who have switched carreers successfully. Don't despair.

[1] For instance:
[https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure)

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zhte415
This is a bit left-ball:

Give yourself an online profile with screencasts of what you can do.

Then sell yourself internationally as a trainer. Not high level stuff, but
stuff you're very solid in in English language. Sell yourself not to large
companies, but vendors of large companies. Charge fairly. Collect lots of name
cards and keep in contact with people, especially the trainees (that actually
work for the larger companies, but also keep in contact with the vendors). In
a few years time you could be able to secure a very senior position with a
larger company, or have already made a good enough living as a travelling
consultant not to care.

But get those videos up and find a hungry vendor, that's step #1.

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n17r4m
1) Get computer

2) Install Gentoo

3) Set up ssh / webserver / mail server / irc / etc...

4) Buy domain and point to your server

5) Successfully run your own site/blog/wiki for a while, have it do neat
stuff, write about and share your experiences of learning to be a sysadmin

6) While under oath, swear by the SysAdmins creed.

7) ???

8) Profit.

~~~
cmstoken
I'd recommend Ubuntu -- especially if you're just starting out.

~~~
nudpiedo
I would recommend gentoo. Especially if you don't want to be a consumer but
someone who cares (aka sysadmin). There is always time to move back to debian
world.

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JSeymourATL
> what do I do from here?

It's time to power network. Start attending local/regional linux meetups.
Introduce yourself to the fellow attendees, try to be helpful, make friends.

Incidentally, this is where you'll hear about 'hidden' job opportunities. Say
a contact realizes you know your stuff. He thinks you look normal-- he'll be
more likely to refer you a hiring executive in his network who could use
someone with your skills/background.

Check out Linux meet-ups--find one, get it on your calendar & go asap>
[http://linux-user-group.meetup.com/](http://linux-user-group.meetup.com/)

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atsaloli
Check out the reading list on the Sys Admin Body of Knowledge web site:
[http://www.sabok.org/](http://www.sabok.org/)

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nonkool
What makes you want to be a Linux sys admin? Here's my 2 cents: 1\. Create a
grand vision for yourself, 2\. See where being a sys admin fits into that 3\.
Give yourself a timeline into which both your vision and sys admin fit 4\.
With the big vision, start working small - create small daily tasks which will
slowly but surely get you there within your timeline. This includes your need
for funding your knowledge.

As they say, once you know the why, you can figure out the how.

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BronzeEagle
I should've been more specific, I have ~6 years of linux experience as a
hobbyist but most employers will not accept a hobby as a certified profession.
I have managed game servers/IRC/email/apache/nginx/etc I know perl and use
perl to automate some things, etc I know what I'm doing but I've yet to even
get an offer from any employers

~~~
lrondanini
Thanks, now we can try to help you!

First, stop using the word hobby! If it's an hobby it's an hobby, if it's a
profession you have to be professional!

Second, the way you are describing your experience doesn't really help you.
It's too vague. Describe instead the problems you have faced. How did you
solve them? What kind of value were you able to add to the entire system?
(more stable, faster,...)

Hiring someone is an investment and a commitment. To pass the investment part
you have to prove your skills, your ability to solve problems, your personal
motivation and your growth potentiality.

The commitment part is more subtle and complicated. It mostly applies to the
employer and it would take this conversation too far away. To keep it simple I
can tell you that is very very important to get information about the company
you are interviewing for. Try to think which challenges they may be facing and
ask about these challenges during the interview. Think to possible solutions
to these problems and discuss that with them. Don't worry about being right,
nobody would expect you to know exactly the problem a company is facing but it
would show vision and initiative on your side.

Last suggestion, you say "I know what I'm doing but...". No you don't, you
would have a job already. Keep pushing. Do not fall in the stupid trap of
thinking that the world is against you. I don't know you but I've been around
the world many times. I can tell you that you can make it. Don't give up and
keep working on your skills!

Good luck

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bruceb
Why do you want to be a Linux admin?

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atsaloli
Learn how to be a Linux user first. Are you using Linux right now? If not,
either install Linux on your computer, or get another computer you can install
Linux on, and start using that as your main computer. immersion is a great way
to learn.

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VOYD
"If I knew what I was doing, I'd be doing it right now" \- some country music
song.

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bbcbasic
TLDR: From forklift to man fork, but no food on my fork... what the fork do I
do?

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ild
Use VirtualBox as a virtual machine. Will make your live much easier.

~~~
anon987
Yep, VirtualBox + CentOS and go nuts. Don't waste your money buying a separate
computer, and don't waste your time trying to dual boot or removing Windows
and using Linux full time.

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arielpts
Do you have any computer experience?

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paulhauggis
Linux is free and can run on really old computers. buy a used/cheap computer
from Craigslist and download a distro and install.

There are tons of tutorials online that can get you started.

Once you get some experience, apply for a job.

