Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist
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@Dashrender said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Basline IT is the name of the game, meaning what someone would need to know running up to L0 in any IT discipline. What are the common things everyone in IT should know regardless of level, regardless of discipline.
That really does seem almost to broad. For example, a DBA really doesn't need to know filesystem or RAID levels, do they? As long as the infrastructure team gives them the IOPs needed, I think they're pretty OK - what am I missing?
It's like my AIX admin friend - he honestly can't network his way out of a paper bag, yet he has a decent salary managing AIX servers and never worries about the network aspect of it.
I don't say this to dissuade this need/desire for a common knowledge, I think it's really useful.
Do you think anyone working as a DBA should not need to know about filesystems and RAID levels? MS requires that knowledge for entry level SQL Server DBAs for a reason. If you don't know that stuff, would you want to trust someone to understand how to administer a database platform? Part of the issue we face as an industry is that if we always assume someone else will do everything, we have to permit zero shared knowledge which is likely what results in so many people literally not knowing what applications and databases are, yet work in IT (they say.) There has to be a baseline of what is acceptable knowledge.
Right, and your AIX friend from your description regardless of this thread, sounds like someoneI would never accept as an intern. If he doesn't understand networking, how does he determine what his server is doing? There is a lot of networking in the system admin portion of AIX. As a former AIX admin, that means to me he can't even do his AIX portion to an L0 AIX level.
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@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Powershell 101
Linux CLI 101Those would be too specific. Shouldn't be anything vendor related in a baseline. ANd while those are awesome skills, they are very focused purely on system administration. A network admin would never benefit from knowing those details. Knowing shells in general, yes. Knowing those specifically, no. They aren't general enough.
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TCP/IP suite, the protocols that makes up the suite, the tools that are made into the suite and how to use them in the corresponding OS of the network (Linux/MS).
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@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
TCP/IP suite, the protocols that makes up the suite, the tools that are made into the suite and how to use them in the corresponding OS of the network (Linux/MS).
I would suggest a minimum of knowing what ping does, and understanding what TCP/IP is.
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@dafyre said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
TCP/IP suite, the protocols that makes up the suite, the tools that are made into the suite and how to use them in the corresponding OS of the network (Linux/MS).
I would suggest a minimum of knowing what ping does, and understanding what TCP/IP is.
That's why I mentioned the Net+ as that part. It covers a lot.
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Understanding what a network file system is?
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What are backups?
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Basic security concepts
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@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Basic security concepts
Both computer and user based.
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Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
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@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
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@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Understanding what a network file system is?
Just so I'm on the same page - do you mean like NFS and SMB?
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@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
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@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
I think Scott's question is pre university. This is also ultimately why university is nearly useless to IT folks.
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@Dashrender said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
I think Scott's question is pre university. This is also ultimately why university is nearly useless to IT folks.
This topic is going to require a different post eventually, but do you think somebody needs to remarket IT to be more of a skill/trade instead of a career?
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@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
Also, if Scott's statements are to be true/believed to be the basis, then university is meant for exactly that - it's not meant to teach you specifics.
I'm not sure when going to college meant that you were learning job skills that you would walk out of School and directly into a good paying job - that's what internships are for.
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@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@Dashrender said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
I think Scott's question is pre university. This is also ultimately why university is nearly useless to IT folks.
This topic is going to require a different post eventually, but do you think somebody needs to remarket IT to be more of a skill/trade instead of a career?
That's a great question - and to answer it simply - YES. IT is to broad, it's not a career. Network Admin, DBA, Systems Admin - these are careers. Understanding IT is a the skill that allows you to do these jobs.
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@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
Wait what? Every university/college I have talked to that has an IT program is predominantly Windows and Cisco based. Microsoft has some great deals for education and it is the "market" leader as many professors I've talked to profess. I have a fairly large sample size but it's limited to two states at this point in time.
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@coliver said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
Wait what? Every university/college I have talked to that has an IT program is predominantly Windows and Cisco based. Microsoft has some great deals for education and it is the "market" leader as many professors I've talked to profess. I have a fairly large sample size but it's limited to two states at this point in time.
I never used Cisco in my classes. If anything, they taught me the basics of routing, but was agnostic about the network environment. Pretty much they went from "Okay, you know how to subnet. Lets get into WAN management" and that was it.
Unless you go to Dreamspark to download your software as a student, you only get the 6-month license and that will last for only a couple of classes.
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@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@coliver said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@NerdyDad said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@scottalanmiller said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
@alex.olynyk said in Of What Should Baseline IT Education Consist:
Group Policy, sorry thats vendor specific
Yes, and higher end. Very systems admin focused. Think what we'd expect from someone who wanted to enter university.
But coming from somebody that went through college, they are only going to teach you theory and principles and nothing too much vendor specific. If they do teach something vendor centric, then it will more than likely be Linux-based at it is easier to get your hands on (legitimately anyways) and deploy while sticking with the principle/theory.
Wait what? Every university/college I have talked to that has an IT program is predominantly Windows and Cisco based. Microsoft has some great deals for education and it is the "market" leader as many professors I've talked to profess. I have a fairly large sample size but it's limited to two states at this point in time.
I never used Cisco in my classes. If anything, they taught me the basics of routing, but was agnostic about the network environment. Pretty much they went from "Okay, you know how to subnet. Lets get into WAN management" and that was it.
Unless you go to Dreamspark to download your software as a student, you only get the 6-month license and that will last for only a couple of classes.
Dreamspark is very inexpensive to colleges. But that's not really where you would be using it. Most lab environments in multiple colleges were Microsoft based. Even the sysadmin labs are almost 100% Microsoft.. due to Microsoft basically giving away licenses to college for academic purposes.
