| As I Linux sysadmin, here (in no particular order) are things that I've found most useful. I've no idea what level you're at, so if you already know this stuff, just give yourself a pat on the back; you're ahead of the game! Most important: Have fun! If you're not enjoying it, get out because there's no point in wasting your life on this. Learn to touch type: it's one of the most useful skills you can pick up and not just for IT work Join your local Linux User Group. If your area doesn't have a LUG, start one! Put this on your CV. Speaking of which, create a CV (resume) but putting down all the experience and skills you'd like to have. Then go and make it so! Get help with this by finding out which companies near you use Linux and asking for their help; which skills they're looking for and what technologies they're using. People are generally very happy to help people achieve things for themselves (and hate when they're really being asked to do the work for someone, so avoid that!). Learn vi or emacs. It doesn't really matter which, just spend some time using it for all your text editing. Knowing a good text editor well is hugely important. Distros: Install Gentoo from Stage 1 and run it for a while. Try Linux from Scratch at least once. Otherwise, just install a few different distros just for fun and to get an idea of what the differences are (they're not huge). Also, try out the BSDs at some point. Learn and use git. It's quite simple to understand exactly how it works, so do this. Use it for day-to-day stuff. Get a github account and try contributing to other projects. CLI. Use shell scripts for all sorts of things. Use one-line "for" loops for batch resizing images, or generating thumbnails. Forget about the GUI; it'll all have changed in a few years. CLI stuff will still be the same. Web servers: learning Apache and ngnix. Get yourself something like an Amazon account. Whatever is cheapest. Use the API to create and remove servers and configure them. Languages: shell scripting, Python and PHP are the ones you will encounter most. I see a bit of Ruby, but not a huge amount. MySQL is very common. Again, learn the command line stuff, not some particular GUI. Don't waste money on stupid stuff, aim to save about 65% of your net pay and become financially independent in 10 years. Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. ....and that's about enough of that! |