Get into consulting if you can. You get exposed to everthing from the latest technology to the worst/best personalities. I've been doing it off and on for the last 10 years and I love it.

 

CCNA is crap. I have mine from back in 2001. Better to go for CCNP/CCIE. You don't have to know much to pass the CCNA.

 

^^it still looks good.

 

Like already stated, ccna is almost worthless. I know an enterprise level senior network engineer over on the east coast and he has zero certs. Any idiot can take a ccna, or even a ccie test, but its a question of how well they can actually make use of the stuff practically. Just start learning on your own and start playing with ****. Break it, fix it. Thats going to be much more useful.

 

i could pass the ccna i am not saying its a difficult test. But its always better to have more certs because there may be that interview one day where it looks good just to have a stack of certs.

 

IMO, there's a lot more to being a good admin than knowing how to hack the planet with ubuntu. You have to understand the server hardware (which, admittedly isn't that complicated when it comes to the intel/amd stuff, but blades can get somewhat tricky), SAN, network, physical security and systems security, clustering technologies and concepts, etc. There may be a lot of people out there right now who know linux, but it's not that easy when you get in to a very large environment where big money is on the line.

 

...But I like hacking the planet with ubuntu

 

^^lol Ubuntu should be a home user system. Gentoo is the only real distro.

And any server running a windows OS is already in need of a new admin. Should be running OpenBSD.

 

hp-ux anybody? :s

 

DO NOT WANT. I built out an HP box last summer. Never again. The way it deals with EMC devices is TERRIBLE.

While I like linux (we use RH), AIX would have to be my favorite.

 

gosh..............

just think, i could have tons of certs OR 12 years of actual experience.... gosh. thats a real tough one to debate.

btw - in a nutshell...

Windows = games
Linux = everything else

 

^^the linux slogan should be:

"linux, when you're ready to leave childish things behind and run a business"

 

Thanks for all the responses.

Looks like there's a decent field out there in nor*cal.

I'm looking forward for the career move here soon!!

peace.

p.s. Greg: I'll pay for your CCNA if you pass it first try. In full.. CASH.