Career question - UNIX - will it be in demand in 10 + years / what traits do you need to be good at it?

I used command line on Digital Vax in the late 80s for a few months.  I was just a user.
I have a limited knowledge of DOS but not scared of command line.

Ive good skills troubleshooting HW / SW issues on PCs and have for the last 10 years PC repair business but its not making enough money now.  As a one man show I stayed away from servers and worked on workgroups in very small companies and home offices etc.
Im self trained learning to task.  Ive no courses behind me but have natural aptitude for computers.   I want to work for a company again (the man - if he will have me!)

Im need to get skilled up in something thats in demand and will be for a considerable amount of time.  Kid to feed now :-)

Ive a feeling too many people are going the Cisco / Microsoft Sys admin role.  Im wondering would a UNIX / Linux direction be better?  What aspect of UNIX to learn? How easily this could lead to a job?  What course to do?

Your thoughts anyone?

Thanks arnold.

Im tired of supporting people Solo.  I havnt had a holiday in 10 years that the phone doesnt ring and someone needs help somewhere and Ive to remote and/or phone support.  Its no way to live.  Im not interested in taking on employees.  I want to move away from self employment to working for the man.  

Organic growth - building on what you know already is perhaps the way to go but change could also be good.

What ever I choose it needs to be a path to employment relatively soon and something there is demand for in the future.

Ive got a bit lazy as well fixing the same old same old op sys.

The positive thing is that a % drop in business gives me an opportunity to look at a new direction. So many times Ive been like a headless chicken with so much solo work.

So AD - Active Directory. OK I will have a look as I have always shy away from servers.

> VMWARE ESXi server and build yourself VMs using centos which is a derivative from redHat.

Will have a look at that.

Anyone any other suggestions?

Re UNIX - is it difficult to get employment or is experience required generally before any employer would let you loose on their systems. Is it very high end?

Im self taught to date but Im going to need some certs and more luck it seems.
Better to be talented/have an instinct than only to be good at multiple choice questions.

I still have enough funds coming in but I need to have some sort of elevation plan in the next 6 mths.

I have been working solo (responsibility wise) for so long I feel almost institutionalised and might have a bit of adjusting to working within a team and having management over my head.  I work hard so I should be able to please.  The upside will be 5PM friday clock out.  

Onwards and upwards.

Thanks all for the insights ideas people.

Posted on another forum ..........


Also consider Citrix certification. A big player in many markets, and there's a SEVERE lack of expertise in the country. You seem to be more comfortable on the windows side, so that might assist with that.


I would agree with this. As said earlier in this thread cloud and virtualization technology is growing every day and there is a lack of skills.
Look at Vmware http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/, Citrix http://training.citrix.com/cms/education/certification/ or Microsoft Hyper-v http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en...ification.aspx

Best of luck

Hi, Thanks for all the advice, I will report back soon.

Thanks everyone