{"id":5029,"date":"2022-01-27T11:20:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T16:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lpi.org\/simone-simo-bertull-lpi-certifications-what-your-path\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T04:26:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T08:26:28","slug":"simone-simo-bertull-lpi-certifications-what-your-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lpi.org\/vi\/blog\/2022\/01\/27\/simone-simo-bertull-lpi-certifications-what-your-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Simone \u201cSimo\u201d Bertulli: LPI\u2019s Certifications – What Is Your Path?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this post I will do something different from the previous ones: I will be matching the LPI\u2019s certifications panel with specific job descriptions and career paths.<\/p>\n

LPI offers technical certifications for every level of training and on different subjects. Each certification aims at a specific objective and groups together topics that best prepare people with the skills they need to apply the technology at work.<\/p>\n

The LPI certification program is a smooth, well-run framework. OK: I am slightly biased, here\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I do believe that, to exploit each of these certifications entirely, it is helpful to think about them, to approach them, in terms of professional paths, paths that are not necessarily linked to aiming for the highest step of specialization, but to consolidate your knowledge in a specific area of interest or application.<\/p>\n

Your career\u2019s colors<\/h2>\n

In other words: the certifications, as a whole, are a palette: it\u2019s you who is going to choose the best colors for your painting, your career.<\/p>\n

Hence, I would not say that there is only “the one” path that is necessarily the best, but that there are many, the best fit being the one with the specific skills required by the work market for one particular role.<\/p>\n

Another good reason this approach can be helpful is that there is never just “the one” technology in the open-source world to which we have to refer, to deal with, to work on.<\/p>\n

With a set of technologies and tasks in mind, having a path as defined or structured as possible allows you to create very well consolidated and, therefore, more \u201cvertical\u201d skill sets, focusing on the quality of training on them.<\/p>\n

Begin from the beginning<\/h2>\n

Generally speaking, the starting point is the Linux Essentials<\/strong> https:\/\/www.lpi.org\/our-certifications\/linux-essentials-overview<\/a> certification and the first step of the professional path, the LPIC-1<\/strong> certification https:\/\/www.lpi.org\/our-certifications\/lpic-1-overview<\/a>, to get the basics of system and network administration.<\/p>\n

I also strongly recommend the BSD Specialist<\/strong> https:\/\/www.lpi.org\/it\/our-certifications\/bsd-overview<\/a> certification, as it is very similar to the LPIC-1 one in terms of competence and knowledge covered, but with a few important differences.<\/p>\n

Differences because, after all, we are talking about diverse ecosystems from a technical point of view. In my opinion the LPIC-1 and the BSD Specialist certifications aren\u2019t interchangeable (given the \u201cverticality\u201d of the different operating systems ). This is why they must be evaluated in a global view of their complementarity, within the broad Open Source universe.<\/p>\n

I wanted to consider Linux Essentials as the starting point just to remind everybody how important small steps are at the beginning of a long journey ;-).<\/p>\n

Below, we see the roadmap of certifications as proposed by LPI itself:
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LPI
LPI roadmap – the future’s hiring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nFollowing what we can see above, I will share with you my personal opinion about how an IT professional can \u201cplay\u201d, with the roadmap, as from my own experiences at work and analyzing how certifications play their role in multiple environments.<\/p>\n

Path #1: Linux Essentials + LPIC-1 + BSD Specialist<\/h2>\n

Position<\/strong>: Junior Sysadmin.<\/p>\n

The Junior Sysadmin title can be associated with several job titles, such as “Unix Administrator”, “Server Administrator”, or “IT Administrator”. Sometimes, with technical support or help desk too.<\/p>\n

This first path aims to give solid knowledge to start working in the Linux \/ Open Source world, thus allowing certified people to be able to cover the following roles in various operating environments:<\/p>\n