Possible Sysadmin Position: What should I certify in/read?

TxdoHawk

A friend of mine in NJ works as a sysadmin for a commodities trading company. His boss is trying to help a related company find a sysadmin, a replacement for one that's leaving. This is theoretically my meal ticket into a high-paying job and back into NJ.

Now, here's the deal. This friend of mine is only finally finishing college and has no certification whatsoever. However, he got into the job through his former GF's father. My battle will (theoretically at least) be a little more uphill, so I need to pad my resume between now and graduation in December.

I have plenty of experience putting together my own systems, and have worked a 4+ year job of essentially functioning as tech support at my campus library. I've been told these will both be big plus marks on my record, but my college degree in Business Information Systems has taught me almost nothing useful. I am almost 100% self taught, so I feel the need to shore up my experience with hard-core, displayable knowledge in the form of certification.

Herein lies the problem: I have no idea what I should be looking at for this kind of job. What should I certify in? What else should I read, beyond what I'll be required to study for certification?

necroSYS

You haven't given us any idea about the systems you're going to be administering.

Windows Servers? MCP, I suppose (I wouldn't get the full-blown MCSE unless you want to blow $$$$ on a cert that will be worth less than you paid for it in a year and a half.)

Linux servers?

Network routers/switches?

bigpanda

You'll want your MCSA. Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator.

There's books by MS's press that you can purchase, plenty of online classes that you can take or through companies like New Horizons. You can also purchase sample tests which will get you ready for the types of questions that MS's cert tests ask.

You'll need to know how to build/configure/maintain servers, troubleshoot hardware failures, implement a backup process and make sure that it's followed as well as how to restore systems and data from backups, knowledge of antivirus applications, how to implement, maintain, monitor and deal with threats when they come up (and they will), . That's for starters.

Depending on what industry you'll be working for there can also be security/procedural regulations such as SOX and HIPAA that may come into play. I've been working in the IT field for a large corporation although in offices with between 150 - 650 users and as they are a publicly traded company, knowledge of SOX and what you will need to pass audits is becoming vital for SA's. I'd also recommend whiteboarding any changes to your systems and making sure that you have backups and are familiar with full system restores before you do them so you can minimize any downtime should something go awry.

Other things to consider that you'll probably need to tackle at some point include AD, SQL, IIS, IAS, RAS, DNS, DHCP, WINS and the like. (some of those like AD, DNS and DHCP are core essentials that you'll need to know)

bigpanda

Necro brought about another good point. Switches. If you can, familiarize yourself with the commands necessary to work with and configure switches, hubs, routers, firewalls, WAPs, etc. from a command line interface for the brand that they'll be using. Cisco is usually a pretty solid one to familiarize yourself with although I'm working with both those and Nortel switches for VOIP now.

You might also want to mention how big this company is and if you'll be the only SA there. I've been thrust into the position over the last month rather than slowly wading in and it's been pretty grueling and I still have TONS to learn yet but am picking things up quick since I have to.

TxdoHawk

Thanks for the advice so far guys. I'm going to try and glean more information about the company and what they are running ASAP, I'll bump this with a new post when I have more solid info.

PirateJon

RE: networking. Most places these functions are seperate. If you had a ton of cisco certs, I would question why you were applying for a windows admin position.

You haven't given us any idea about the systems you're going to be administering.

This is the key right here.