Advice needed on choosing 5 Red Hat certifications to advance in DevOps and System Architecture
Posted by OniHanz@reddit | linuxadmin | View on Reddit | 10 comments
Hello,
I’m currently working in a "DevOps" role and have the opportunity to pursue 5 Red Hat certifications. I want to make the best choices to strengthen my profile in key areas like automation, containerization, and security.
Background
- 10 years of experience with Linux in personal and academic use.
- A Master’s degree in System Architecture and 2 years of professional experience in DevOps and system administration.
- Comfortable with Linux administration fundamentals and basic automation using Ansible.
Career Goals
I aim to advance my skills in core "DevOps" and cloud-native areas, particularly in Kubernetes, containers, and infrastructure security.
What certifications would you recommend, and in what order ?
moderatenerd@reddit
Depending on what you do day to day getting 5 certs may help or may not... Are you a level one help desk guy or a level 5 architect working at FAANG?
If the latter certs won't help. Getting a new job will. Even if you are a beginner 5 certs isn't the end all be all in getting a new job.
That being said I have 10 years of real world sysadmin exp. 2 years as a Linux engineer. I plan to get some linux certs and maybe AWS but I have no confidence they will help me get a new job.
RegisterIndependent8@reddit
There is ALWAYS some element of luck in all aspirations 👋🙂
OniHanz@reddit (OP)
My company financed the Red Hat Learning Subscription Premium (LS520) for €8,700, so I’d like to make the most of that investment by earning certifications. The issue is that many of the ‘advanced’ certifications require other prerequisite certifications. This makes planning a bit complicated, as I need to find a set of certifications that flow well together while maximizing value.
DarrenRainey@reddit
You could email redhats support and ask what they would recommened as a training path. Without knowing your background / prrevious certifications I would probally starrt with the RHCSA (Red Hat Certified System Administrator) then move to the RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) therrs a list here: https://www.redhat.com/en/services/certifications but after a few general ones like the RHCSA / RHCE most of them are specialising in certian tools like ansiable, docker/podman etc.
OniHanz@reddit (OP)
I was planning to follow that path with RHCSA (EX200), RHCE (EX294), Ansible Automation (EX407), OpenShift Administration (EX280), and Security Specialist (EX415) after getting recommendations from the Red Hat sales team. But I already have knowledge of about 80% of the content in these courses… That’s why I made this post in the first place, to see if anyone had suggestions for a more tailored or advanced path that might make the best use of the subscription.
BloodyIron@reddit
Honestly certifications are going to be a waste of your time. If you want to expand your skills, build out a home lab.
Certifications don't matter in IT like they do in say... Engineering or being an Electrician.
You have plenty of experience and you're going to get far more out of building a lab and building practical systems matching the actual things you want to learn. Whether that's Red Hat or not.
Companies worth working for, offering jobs that actually pay well, care more about what you can tangibly do for them, what you're prepared to learn, and soft skills. Not pieces of paper that are on top of your 10+ years of practical experience, and your Master's Degree.
You're going to waste your time and money going for RH certs at this point. Unless you're trying to get like DoD work and they contractually require it.
CMDR_Shazbot@reddit
If his company is paying for it there's little downside, but I do agree- a great homelab has been my I've breaker for many large companies. I don't have any degrees nor certifications.
BloodyIron@reddit
The downside is that it doesn't help tangibly for future employment as the practical experience is valued more by employers. And also, there's no actual guarantee this employer will pay them more. It's like pulling teeth getting any employer to even discuss compensation adjustments after directly relevant certifications are acquired while working.
The downside is that they're going to spend their time on promises that it helps anything, when in practical sense (as in proven throughout the industry) it rarely ever actually is worthwhile. This is of course taking into consideration they already have 10 YEARS of relevant experience.
Quick_East_6495@reddit
I am currently in a similar position as you. Live in Europe and my current company is a RHEL partner.
And I am currently busy with the RHCSA and for the research that I've done and I think the current path should be for me is.
- RHCSA: EX200
- RHCE: EX294
RHCSA & RHCE are the prerequisite and a good fundamentals even if you know Linux already and good on your resume.
Since the current RHCE is basically a Ansible exam, which allot of people don't agree with since in the past you would get more advance configurations and what deeper knowledge.
However no fear, they are all under RH358 (Red Hat Services Management and Automation). RH342: (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting) If you want to be able to troubleshoot and fix this
- RH358: Red Hat Services Management and Automation
- RH342: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
I think for your case it depends if you want to go deeper into Linux than the RH358 & R342 is a good. But in your case you want to do also Security and containers(which I also want but want to have a deeper RHEL understanding)
I would go for the EX415 for some security and if you want to do more automation you can also go for advance
Ansible cert, but I think you will also be okay with the RHCE.
- EX415 Red Hat Certified Specialist in Security: Linux exam
- EX374: Red Hat Certified Specialist in Developing Automation with Ansible Automation Platform
You need basic container knowledge before learning about Openshift (Kubernetes). You can go for the EX188 for containers and EX280 for a Openshift admin and even further with EX380
- EX188 Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers
- EX280: Red Hat Certified OpenShift Administrator
- EX380: Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Automation and Integration
And also if you get RHCSA + RHCE + 5 speciality certifications will lead you to the RHCA.
Goodluck mate!
K4kumba@reddit
If I had the chance, I would get RHCE for starters, and then work towards RHCA (nothing that to get RHCA is more than 5 certifications) https://www.redhat.com/en/services/certification/rhca?pfe-hg6rd6k1e=rhce Or if you want to go purely serverless/ cloud: https://www.redhat.com/en/services/certification/rhca?pfe-hg6rd6k1e=RHCEMD