Should I get a sysadmin certification for Oracle Linux?

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So, I'm being offered to take a sysadmin certification for this particular distribution I know absolutely nothing about.
They give me the "necessary info" and then I take an exam.
The exam is free, but I must pass it, or else I must pay for it and then take it again.
Is this a waste of time and/or money? I would like to hear your opinions.
Personally it doesn't quite click with me. I'm fresh out of uni and I'm trying to learn new stuff, but idk what to do with my life anymore.
thx

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Most certifications by vendors of specific products are a waste of time. Unless you're actively looking to be running Oracle's distro, it's going to be meaningless to employers. I active go out of my way to avoid hiring people who list random and disparate certifications in their resume.

Certain general areas of study like CISSP or CCSP I may pay attention to if they've worked on large projects or production deployments because those are specific to an area of study and not a product.

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If your employer requests it, they'll pay for it. If you need to pay yourself, it's likely a scam.

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This sounds like a trap.

It's free unless you fail the test.

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If your employer wants it and is covering the cost, sure.

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I wonder what the rate of failure for first time takers is. Probably conspicuously enough to keep the program profitable...

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I’m fresh out of uni and I’m trying to learn new stuff, but idk what to do with my life anymore.

I'm assuming you are actively looking for a job in a field relevant to your degree? If not, that is your life until you find one; some branching out may be required if your particular field isn't in demand.

I’m being offered to take a sysadmin certification for this particular distribution I know absolutely nothing about...The exam is free, but I must pass it, or else I must pay for it and then take it again.

Unless this certification is specifically listed as a requirement for a job your are applying to, don't do the certification. They are normally expensive and not that helpful.

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My employer doesn't want it and doesn't need it. We offer programming courses and stuff like that, and my company got a deal with Oracle to offer these kind of certificates to our trainees as an added bonus. I'm being given the chance to participate as well just to inflate numbers or something.

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Oracle Linux (up until 9.3 I think?) is a direct clone of RHEL. After 9.3 (or maybe it's 9.2) it's a best attempt clone of RHEL (similar to Alma Linux or Rocky Linux).
If you want to learn RHEL then it's a fairly decent equivalent with a couple of their own quirks thrown in (ULN, ksplice and the UEK).

Also, I don't bother with certs or care if people have them. I have yet to find someone who knows a product better having got the cert than someone who's used the product without a cert.

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I actively go out of my way to avoid hiring people who list random and disparate certifications in their resume.

Why though? If something from the list is relevant, decide how much of a positive it is. If it isn't then just skip, but why avoid?

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That's why I said "random and disparate".

Oracle is Oracle Products, and not just "Linux". If someone feels the need to mention they are Oracle Linux certified, it tells me they think that's important and somehow it's wildly different from any other distro (it's not).

I'd rather hire somebody with general knowledge across Linux and can speak to various topics, not just Oracle Linux (whatever that even is). Who knows where to start investigating issues without having to read a manual, and who knows how to pull the right levers to get a desired effect.

Great engineers are confident enough to know they can adapt and can confidently speak to the general nature of things while understanding that any branding/flavoring of Linux is pointless unless you're vendor locked to said product. I'd never want to work with an engineer who thinks that's how it all works, because it most definitely is not.

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Not the person you replied to, but I'm in agreement with them. I did tech hiring for some years for junior roles, and it was quite common to see applicants with a complete alphabet soup of certifications. More often than not, these cert-heavy applicants would show a complete lack of ability to apply that knowledge. For example they might have a network cert of some kind, yet were unable to competently answer a basic hypothetical like "what steps would you take to diagnose a network connection issue?" I suspect a lot of these applicants crammed for their many certifications, memorized known answers to typical questions, but never actually made any effort to put the knowledge to work. There's nothing inherently wrong with certifications, but from past experience I'm always wary when I see a CV that's heavy on certs but light on experience (which could be work experience or school or personal projects).

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Lol, its not like they force you to retake the test if you don't want to.

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If it’s only free if you pass, and you have to pay out of your own pocket, don’t bother.

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who is they? and why are you being offered it? who is it through, your school, employer, random person whats apping you? do you find it necessary for your direction?

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Ah.

Yes, if they're directly through an Oracle partnership with your job that's legit then.

Your company likely gets this as part of a package that they buy from Oracle. I'd guess that they offer certifications as part of the courses that they teach.

They likely have a partnership with Oracle to buy (some of) the certifications. You're just getting that same deal (free first try, costs money afterwards).

So, if you've already studied for a certification, then it can save you money.

But unless it says otherwise, assume that it is just the test portion. In addition, some certifications require proctoring and that may at your expense. This is probably part of "the necessary info" package, but you can ask a supervisor about the details.

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It's a deal OPs employer (a school that offers tech courses to teach various certifications) has with Oracle.

OP is just getting the same deal that Students get when they purchase a course at his company. It's pretty standard to include the certification along with the course and they deal with Oracle so the company only has to pay a flat rate to offer certifications to their students.

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They basically have purchased an unlimited number of certifications from Oracle and let you access them as an employee benefit.

You still have to learn the material on your own though. Your employer probably has their course available material, for free to you, as well.

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It depends on how much time you have on your hands.

Oracle Linux is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone. Almost everything in an Oracle cert would apply to RHEL.

If that is useful knowledge for you, consider doing it. Then be sure to okay with RHEL to apply what you learned. Knowing RHEL is much more commercially useful than knowing Oracle Linux. RHEL is probably still the most important distro to be familiar with commercially. Oracle Linux, Rocky, Alma, and other are RHEL clones and many places use those.

If these skills are not useful for your job, or if you do not have the time to waste studying it, then do something more valuable.

The skills are useful. I will let others chime in with opinions on how valuable the certification itself is. Maybe not much.

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Not him, but it makes sense to avoid the kinds of people that only have "experience in theory."

Essentially, those who think they know something because they did something else.

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Should I get a sysadmin certification for Oracle Linux?