What are the prospects for Linux + CCNA?

Question

linux

Hello.
Admin is 11 years old.
Basically:
- Windows Server with 1C roles, MSSQL, mail server, etc;
- Cisco mainly DMVPN, EIGRP, etc;
- Linux partially for several years. Roles of Zabbix, MediaWiki, Asterisk. Yes, and then on my initiative.
I'm 36 years old, in general, I'm already old))) And for the second year now I've been thinking about moving on. I planned last year, but it suddenly hit my head that I wanted a boat with a motor and away we go. As a result, a couple of weeks ago I finished building a motor boat from scratch. The goal with the boat is completed and it's time to seriously grow professionally.
All this time I was rushing about where to stop - programming or DevOps, but there are doubts. Firstly, Linux is somewhere between Junior - Middle, despite the fact that I managed to work with Docker, Ansible, ELK, etc. Secondly, I read Donald Knuth, solved problems, wrote simple programs, and that was it.
And today I thought. Or maybe go to the 5-month course "Linux Administrator" from Otus? Thus, I systematize and gain new knowledge. Plus pass the exam at MSTU. Bauman on Cisco CCNA: Routing and Switching + Cisco CCNA: Security - just I have experience in ciscos of almost CCNA level, but it is necessary to systematize knowledge.
The result is a bunch of Linux + CCNA with certificates. In this way, it seems to me that it will be easier to find a good job in Moscow and even as a devops, even if only for the beginning of Junior DevOps.
Actually the question is: how do you like this option?

Answer 1

Hello,
As colleagues already wrote in the comments, "pure" Linux or Cisco admins are rarely needed now.
There are certainly such vacancies, but, in most cases, these vacancies are opened in banks, Internet or hosting providers, or other medium or large businesses.
In these companies, you will be limited by the ceiling on the growth of the position / salary within one company and your specialization, and the further path of your professional or material growth will lie either in the form of a transition to managers / leaders, or a transition to another similar company with a small increase in salary . Or a transition to an adjacent area - DevOps.
But that one already opens up before you a larger selection (at the moment) of vacancies, with a larger salary range, plus the possibility of remote work or relocation.
Therefore, in my opinion, it makes no sense to waste precious time for our (30+) age, but immediately aim where there are more opportunities.
Regarding education and courses:
If you want to strengthen and confirm your knowledge of Linux - take the RHCSA + RHCE exams. They are valued primarily for the fact that this is a practical exam, and if you work with customers from the countries of our "political partners", then the presence of these certificates to some extent already indicates the level of your preparation.
At the moment, exams cost something in the region of 15K rubles for each.
It makes no sense to spend money on courses if this is not some kind of high-level certification, where you need to learn some nuances from the teacher.
The materials available on the net (p2p-resources ;)) are enough for self-preparation and successful passing of these basic exams.
I also highly recommend studying and getting certified by one of the cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP), since most of the infrastructures, if not completely in the clouds, are partially moved there, and if you decide to follow the DevOps path, then you will have to work with them .
I would recommend starting with AWS Solition Architect Associate. The exam currently costs $ 150, preparation - again on your own.
At the same time, master everything you need to work: CI \ CD (for example, Jenkins), containers and their orchestration (Kubernetes, OpenShift), automation (Ansible, Chef), it would be nice to learn some programming language (Python).
I repeat that you should not waste time and money on courses, since most of them do not contain any secret information that will take your skill to a new level.
If you need a structured presentation of knowledge, there are enough books and video courses available on the Internet.
PS. This interview inspired me to become RedHat certified .