I'm 22 and work at a software company doing system administration for part of my job. I'd like to eventually move into a full time SA role.
Would some kind of linux certification (such as http://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/) help with securing a job? I know a piece of paper cannot account for years of experience, but might it be helpful as I'm just starting out?
While some employers say they require certification, the majority don't really care.
Let's face it, a certification is simply another test that you have to pass, and as with any tests, there are "study guides" available which will coach you into passing the exam, but not really knowing the material.
This is fairly prevalent in the Microsoft ecosystem, where plenty of MCSA, MCthis, MCthat simply don't know how things really work. This phenomenon is not unique to Microsoft, the same could be said for Cisco, Oracle, IBM, etc... Of course, in the MS world, certs make a certain amount of sense, as the primary vendor controls the curriculum.
I can't speak to the Linux certifications, but it appears to be more fragmented. The Linux Cert FAQ lists 4 certification programs: CompTIA, LPI, Novell and RedHat. This represents quite a bit of fragmentation. There is no guarantee that whichever certification you have is the one the potential employer would be looking for.
Since you are in the Linux side of thing, you should be able to do plenty of self-study, as the software investment costs are close to nothing.
A good book on system administration would probably be a good investment. I personally recommend Essential System Administration by Frisch, but others swear by the "red book" (sorry, the name escapes me).
As an employer, I would choose someone with curiosity and a bit of acquired knowledge over someone with letters after their name... all things being equal.
True...I'd go with the experience and knowledge. Remember "time is"....you got it!
As a young software developer I got the MCSD certification. As soon as I changed my resume to include the cert I noticed more calls from recruiters. It also got me into more interviews. I still had to do well at the interview, and had to know what I was doing, but it gave me the opportunity. I still list that cert on my resume, and recruiters still notice it.
Don't waste money on a boot camp or expensive training classes. I went out and bought the best books I could find on the tests I was taking. I read every word in every book, did every example myself, and took every quiz. As competent as I may have been at the time in many of the test topics, there were things that MS wanted me to know that I had never touched. I am sure you will find the same thing with Redhat. I did very well on the tests using this method.
A note on training: I was a technical trainer for a while after the bubble burst, to pay the bills when the company I was working for went out of business. I have met some truly gifted technical trainers in my time. The guys at Wintellect come to mind. But while I was training I met some real morons with the title "Technical Trainer". And I can tell you that I was teaching subjects that I was not an expert in. The nationally-known training company I worked with would assign me just about anything. I am sure that some of the classes I taught would have been better taught by someone else. I am also sure that some of the classes I took (for free) in my days off could have been taught by someone better. The classes I lead usually cost $1500 - $2500 per week. Don't waste your money. Lay down some cash on some good books.
Its the same old saying, "it depends." If you have 10+ years programming, you dont need certs your past jobs will speak for you. On the other hand if you are new to the field our fresh out of college it helps a lot.
I find certs useful to bolster or add to your credibility or how they see if you can do the job. I was a business economics major going into the programming field. With my resume that lean more towards business, I did not get many calls at all. The ones I got were just horrible or way below what I wanted.
I hit the books and picked up a few certs and I started getting the interviews for jobs that I was interested in. I also found out that the bigger the company the more they rely on a system to narrow down resume entries, so they go by key words, and almost all of them include certification names as key words to look for.
Whilst certs are not the be all and end all when applying for new jobs, they do show willingness to learn. This is especially important when you've not a lot to put on your resume/CV if you're straight out of college. We'd probably take a bit more notice of someone for a trainee or junior position if there were some certs listed. That said it's a good interview process the weeds out the good from the bad.
There's no harm in doing the Redhat Certs, yeah they may be a bit geared towards their flavour of Linux but at the end of the day it's all grist to the mill.
I had my RHCE and the reasons I went for it were:
Like all certifications, you've got to do them for the right reasons: first and foremost it's a good way to learn and expand your knowledge.
Having the certification can also be useful to prospective employers since it could help them chose you over another candidate with similar experience.
The only thing that might temper your enthusiasm is the cost of the full track training.
The certification exam itself is not very expensive but the classroom training is, although I have to say they are quite good and I found them to be worth it.
I would go with the certification route for Red Hat. It will provide you with 2 benefits. One, for all those companies that hire based on a quick scan or a keyword search your resume will pop up. Two, it will guarantee that you are exposed to more business elements: ldap, nsf, mail...
During the time that you are studying for your certification, I would setup a small lab and do some axillary studying. Know a little networking, I would study and practice the items for the CCNA. I am not sure what your current background is, but I would learn bash, at least be able to read and understand perl, and sed/awk should put you at a good starting point. In your lab, I would also setup sendmail, ftp, and dns. Then break them or ask someone to break them, try and resolve the issues. When I first started out, I trolled newsgroups and tried to replicate someone's problem then try and fix it on my own.
Hope that helps.
In short, no .. but they are considered in the weeding out process for new applicants. Part of my job entails hiring new admins (at the senior level) .. many certificate holders can not build a program from source, can not spot a memory leak, can not audit code and can not work outside of the means that various package managers provide.
If I hire you, its because I sat you down in front of five machines with no external internet (no asking Google for help) and you completed an odd configuration within the given time. I have very little faith in commercial certifications, since the companies offering them need to sell them.
In short, I don't care if you dropped out of school at grade 9, if you demonstrate an ability to do the job and a personality that will blend well with everyone else, you get the job. Its that simple.
You may want to check out answers that are is in the following Server Fault question.