It looks like some changes are coming in my job situation. Without releasing too much out of the bag (except the first one), it looks like I’ve been officially requested as a half-time Solaris admin for a project we have with the FDA. My responsibilities would be split between End User Computing and the FDA project. Should be effective in getting “official” Unix experience on my resume but it is unclear if I’ll make more money or if my services will be simply be “on loan” since there won’t be any HR record changes.
The second position is with a company in Columbia, MD that is looking for a PHP/MySQL developer with Unix experience. I emailed the guy last night and he came back with a series of questions which I wrote an essay answering this evening. While I am interested in this job due to proximity to home, I hardly want to leave Northrop Grumman. In fact, I feel like my career with Northrop is just beginning to open up. Company B will have to provide a great offer.
Options are nice though. We will see.
{ 8 comments }
Jerald Sheets 10.18.05 at 9:47 am
It doesn’t really matter.
You put a good year in with “Solaris Admin” as your duties & title, and you’re well on your way.
The trick is to make the commitment to really sell into the UNIX thing. Go download OpenSolaris… Put it on a beater box at the house, and go nuts. It’s *very* different from Linux, and will take some getting used to, but if you can tough it through, you can do *EXTREMELY* well for yourself over time.
IN your area is the DC SYstems Administrator’s guild (http://www.dc-sage.org). They have two mailing lists: dc-sage and dc-sage-chat. The first is moderated, and the second one is not. (take or leave the second one… It makes for good conversation sometimes). The other is the OldBay SAGE. http://www.oldbaysage.org.
Those two groups alone can give you a big enough mindshare of sysadmins to bounce stuff off of as you’re entering the field. Introduce yourself, and let people know you’re new to the field, and there’s a lot of folks VERY willing to help in those two groups.
Also, I recommend to EVERYONE starting out in career Systems Administration (on UNIX, of course) the book “Essential System Administration” 3rd Edition by Aeleen Frisch. It is the “Rosetta Stone” of Systems Admin work across all the popular commercial and non-commercial platforms out there.
Good luck, and if you need anything at all, you always know you can call.
Jerald Sheets 10.18.05 at 10:47 am
It doesn’t really matter.
You put a good year in with “Solaris Admin” as your duties & title, and you’re well on your way.
The trick is to make the commitment to really sell into the UNIX thing. Go download OpenSolaris… Put it on a beater box at the house, and go nuts. It’s *very* different from Linux, and will take some getting used to, but if you can tough it through, you can do *EXTREMELY* well for yourself over time.
IN your area is the DC SYstems Administrator’s guild (http://www.dc-sage.org). They have two mailing lists: dc-sage and dc-sage-chat. The first is moderated, and the second one is not. (take or leave the second one… It makes for good conversation sometimes). The other is the OldBay SAGE. <a href=”http://www.oldbaysage.org.
http://www.oldbaysage.org.<br />
Those two groups alone can give you a big enough mindshare of sysadmins to bounce stuff off of as you’re entering the field. Introduce yourself, and let people know you’re new to the field, and there’s a lot of folks VERY willing to help in those two groups.
Also, I recommend to EVERYONE starting out in career Systems Administration (on UNIX, of course) the book “Essential System Administration” 3rd Edition by Aeleen Frisch. It is the “Rosetta Stone” of Systems Admin work across all the popular commercial and non-commercial platforms out there.
Good luck, and if you need anything at all, you always know you can call.
Jerald Sheets 10.18.05 at 10:47 am
It doesn’t really matter.
You put a good year in with “Solaris Admin” as your duties & title, and you’re well on your way.
The trick is to make the commitment to really sell into the UNIX thing. Go download OpenSolaris… Put it on a beater box at the house, and go nuts. It’s *very* different from Linux, and will take some getting used to, but if you can tough it through, you can do *EXTREMELY* well for yourself over time.
IN your area is the DC SYstems Administrator’s guild (http://www.dc-sage.org). They have two mailing lists: dc-sage and dc-sage-chat. The first is moderated, and the second one is not. (take or leave the second one… It makes for good conversation sometimes). The other is the OldBay SAGE. <a href=”http://www.oldbaysage.org.
http://www.oldbaysage.org.<br />
Those two groups alone can give you a big enough mindshare of sysadmins to bounce stuff off of as you’re entering the field. Introduce yourself, and let people know you’re new to the field, and there’s a lot of folks VERY willing to help in those two groups.
Also, I recommend to EVERYONE starting out in career Systems Administration (on UNIX, of course) the book “Essential System Administration” 3rd Edition by Aeleen Frisch. It is the “Rosetta Stone” of Systems Admin work across all the popular commercial and non-commercial platforms out there.
Good luck, and if you need anything at all, you always know you can call.
Jerald Sheets 10.18.05 at 10:47 am
It doesn’t really matter.
You put a good year in with “Solaris Admin” as your duties & title, and you’re well on your way.
The trick is to make the commitment to really sell into the UNIX thing. Go download OpenSolaris… Put it on a beater box at the house, and go nuts. It’s *very* different from Linux, and will take some getting used to, but if you can tough it through, you can do *EXTREMELY* well for yourself over time.
IN your area is the DC SYstems Administrator’s guild (http://www.dc-sage.org). They have two mailing lists: dc-sage and dc-sage-chat. The first is moderated, and the second one is not. (take or leave the second one… It makes for good conversation sometimes). The other is the OldBay SAGE. <a href=”http://www.oldbaysage.org.
http://www.oldbaysage.org.<br />
Those two groups alone can give you a big enough mindshare of sysadmins to bounce stuff off of as you’re entering the field. Introduce yourself, and let people know you’re new to the field, and there’s a lot of folks VERY willing to help in those two groups.
Also, I recommend to EVERYONE starting out in career Systems Administration (on UNIX, of course) the book “Essential System Administration” 3rd Edition by Aeleen Frisch. It is the “Rosetta Stone” of Systems Admin work across all the popular commercial and non-commercial platforms out there.
Good luck, and if you need anything at all, you always know you can call.
Aaron Brazell 10.18.05 at 1:27 pm
I will probably download OpenSolaris this weekend and begin tinkering with it.
Aaron Brazell 10.18.05 at 2:27 pm
I will probably download OpenSolaris this weekend and begin tinkering with it.
Aaron Brazell 10.18.05 at 2:27 pm
I will probably download OpenSolaris this weekend and begin tinkering with it.
Aaron Brazell 10.18.05 at 2:27 pm
I will probably download OpenSolaris this weekend and begin tinkering with it.
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