How to become a Unix administrator?

Well, you can become an expert in Unix system administration - you may follow the below mentioned track. Please note that it may or may not work to your advantage. Instead of suggesting a few tips on the available courses, I would point out a few practical ways to achieve your dream.

1. Meet up the system administrators

It has been observed that Unix System Administrators are passionate about the work they do. They will definitely be eager to talk about what and how they go about their work.

If your office has a Unix Admin, it would be a good idea to have a close acquaintance with them and learn the practical side of Unix administration.

2. Join the groups related to your interest

Join the Unix groups and discussion forums. That way you can get all the information you want. If in doubt, you can definitely ask for suggestions and guidance.

Maybe a few groups may not be helpful for the newbies. Check out a few groups and settle down on those that you are comfortable with.

3. Go with the related websites

There are many websites that help you learn the Unix. Certain good sites are www.dataexpedition.com , www.freeengineer.org etc.

You may search for better sites capable of letting you get good knowledge about Unix and Unix administration.

You already have the working experience with Suse and Linux, which are Linux based systems. From here your approach should be getting the experience in UNIX systems configuration, maintenance and server management. Most of the enterprise these days prefer FreeBSD or similar other UNIX distro. So your focus should be in getting the experience in them.

Here are some of skills that I can suggest you.

1. Shell Scripting : Learn how to program shell (be it BASH shell or C-Shell) and use the terminal for administration. This way your skills can be transferable to Linux and UNIX operating system. I'd say if you are going to be in hosting industry or the mainframe then this skill is very handy. There are other skills too such as python scripting that can be good for deployment.

2. Docker deployment : Docker deployments are popular these days. And many companies need UNIX or Linux professionals who know how to deploy them. So this skill is in demand a lot. It also pays more compared to most of the deployment jobs. There are some of the virtual image deployment jobs that also are in demand. I'll say if you know vagrant image deployment then that is a good option too.

3. UNIX Certification You can get the UNIX certification and this will boost your credentials. The thing however here is that the certification varies depending on where you take it. For example many BSD have their own certification and also OpenGroup have their own version. Do note that some companies don't care for certification if you have experience. If you don't have experience then certification can be a good way to get some exposure.

Technical support jobs can be really good option to get some hands on experience. Just make sure that such companies have some decent number of projects running. As that saves your time in the workplace.

After technical support job moving into Mainframe would be a wise choice. Not only you get to learn UNIX but also you get to get into scripting to some extent. Mainframe jobs are more complex and it'll require you to view the long term. So it all depends on where you want the UNIX career to go from there.

Most of the experience you're going to get is in the UNIX job. So I suggest starting with a company be it small or MNC to begin your career. It takes time for such career but it is definitely possible. UNIX admin is challenging job in enterprise environment so you have to work hard.