So, I’m being offered to take a sysadmin certification for this particular distribution I know absolutely nothing about. They give me the “necessary info” and then I take an exam. The exam is free, but I must pass it, or else I must pay for it and then take it again. Is this a waste of time and/or money? I would like to hear your opinions. Personally it doesn’t quite click with me. I’m fresh out of uni and I’m trying to learn new stuff, but idk what to do with my life anymore. thx
Why though? If something from the list is relevant, decide how much of a positive it is. If it isn’t then just skip, but why avoid?
Not him, but it makes sense to avoid the kinds of people that only have “experience in theory.”
Essentially, those who think they know something because they did something else.
Not the person you replied to, but I’m in agreement with them. I did tech hiring for some years for junior roles, and it was quite common to see applicants with a complete alphabet soup of certifications. More often than not, these cert-heavy applicants would show a complete lack of ability to apply that knowledge. For example they might have a network cert of some kind, yet were unable to competently answer a basic hypothetical like “what steps would you take to diagnose a network connection issue?” I suspect a lot of these applicants crammed for their many certifications, memorized known answers to typical questions, but never actually made any effort to put the knowledge to work. There’s nothing inherently wrong with certifications, but from past experience I’m always wary when I see a CV that’s heavy on certs but light on experience (which could be work experience or school or personal projects).
That’s why I said “random and disparate”.
Oracle is Oracle Products™, and not just “Linux”. If someone feels the need to mention they are Oracle Linux™ certified, it tells me they think that’s important and somehow it’s wildly different from any other distro (it’s not).
I’d rather hire somebody with general knowledge across Linux and can speak to various topics, not just Oracle Linux™ (whatever that even is). Who knows where to start investigating issues without having to read a manual, and who knows how to pull the right levers to get a desired effect.
Great engineers are confident enough to know they can adapt and can confidently speak to the general nature of things while understanding that any branding/flavoring of Linux is pointless unless you’re vendor locked to said product. I’d never want to work with an engineer who thinks that’s how it all works, because it most definitely is not.