RHCE and other certs?

[Evan Klitzke]

Hi everyone,

I am a third year undergraduate student (at UC Berkeley) right now, and
have been using Linux for a couple of years now. Right now I am thinking
about doing sysadmin work after I graduate.

Last summer I was able to get a full time internship at a startup doing
system administration work. It went really well, and I have been
continuing to work there part time this past school year. During that
time I did a lot of work, including assisting in the migration of our
server/development environment when the startup was acquired by a much
larger company. Based on my experiences at this job, I am very confident
in my technical skills. I've worked with several other Linux sysadmins,
many of whom who have been doing Unix/Linux system administration for
most of their careers. While I can't claim to match them in experience
or knowledge, I feel that a few specific area aside (e.g. database
things), I have a very strong level of technical knowledge. My
experiences participating in this and several other mailing lists
confirms this.

I've looked at a number of job websites, and most system administrator
positions require several years of experience. The introductory
positions (i.e. the ones that require essentially no experience) are
hard to find and are generally not very compelling. I've been thinking
about getting an LPI or RHCE certification before graduating in the
hopes that when the time comes I'll be able to get a more interesting
job. Based on the LPI material I've looked at (including the O'Reilly
"In A Nutshell" LPI book), I think that I could get a level 2
certification fairly easy. The RHCE material looks a bit more advanced,
but I still know a good deal of it, and if I studied I could get one
before I graduate (next year). That being said, both exams are fairly
costly for a student: LPI-2 would be four $150 exams, and the RHCE exam
is $750. Additionally, I'd have to take the RHCE exam again anyway
(albeit at a lower price) in a few years anyway to keep the
certification.

My question is: how valuable do you think that these kinds of
certifications are? I feel like getting them might prove to employers
that I might not be as green as I appear, when it becomes time to go job
hunting. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be a lot of demand for
these certifications, and my impression is that very few people actually
get them. Are these certifications important, or are they just skipped
over on resumes?

Thanks a lot!
Evan Klitzke