On Friday while I was out of town I recieved a phone call about a job offer. The position was for a Linux NOC Administrator. There would also be 1-2 weeks each quater that I would be in either Europe or Asia. This is what I have been looking for.

Now, I have been using Linux for over 2 years and I still consider myself a n00b. This doesn’t mean that I do not know how to go in and modify /etc/hosts or configure network protocols, or even setup a lamp server. It means that I’m not fluent in it enough to take me out of the n00b stage.

I think that the only way that I am going to get really fluent at it is to just work in an invironment that will force me to become more fluent. The problem is that I lack the confidence that it takes to ask someone to pay me for learning. I know that companies pay to train all of the time, I just do not want to be a weak link.

I really need to become more fluent in MySQL. I think that I will start working on doing CLI to MySQL while working on Python scripting and programming. There are also some other skill that I cannot just take off the top of my head. Although, I do seem to get things working when it gets down to it. I just really need to learn the Linux system better.

So for now, I have passed on the opertunity to work as a Linux NOC Administrator. Something I really want to do. I feel that Linux and OSS has a great future in the IT industry, and I want to be there when they take a big bite from Microsoft. So for now, I will continue learning the skill sets it takes to make sure that I land the job, if the opertunity comes back around again, if for nothing else, it will also help me at my current job. I do some Linux Administration now, just not as much as I would like to do.