Tell me a little bit more about your opportunity and what you’re doing.
I’m working at a local company in my area. They specialize in high computing—HPC, high-performance computing—and Linux administration work. It’s pretty much Linux administration, but I’m dealing more with clusters of supercomputers. I’m just helping manage and provision that infrastructure.
They’re also moving their infrastructure over to the cloud, specifically AWS. It’s looking like, within a month or everything I’ll be doing will be intertwined with AWS.
Congratulations! You’ve been at it, what, a couple of months now?
I accepted this offer back in January—like late January, I want to say January 24th—and I’ve been doing it ever since.
How well prepared did you feel hitting that first day after your training and the apprenticeship?
Every company is going to have its way of doing things, but at the end of the day, it’s all still Linux.
Just having that good foundational background in Linux, along with that Red Hat certification, went a long way with my employer. There are people on my team who’ve been doing what we do for a while, but they aren’t certified. Not saying that certifications are the end-all, be-all, but that’s something that sets me apart from everybody else who applied for my job.
Having that cert, and just the foundational Linux knowledge—using what I learned in the apprenticeship along with my training during my time at Yellow Tail Tech—that helped out significantly because I’m using Linux every day now.
With the cloud shift, does your company offer training, incentives, or just throw you in?
It’s not like that. They are incentivizing all of us to get additional certifications.
Right now, I’m being pushed to get the RHCE, along with a few other AWS certifications, as is everyone else on my team. When we do get those certifications, they’ll compensate us with an increase in salary for each cert we earn.
As far as training goes, we have access to Pluralsight as a training platform, and there’s also another site I can’t think of off the top of my head. But training is provided.
Was cloud something you had your eye on before, or did this just unfold naturally?
Cloud was something I had my eye on. It’s something I still want to be more into Linux, it just ended up working out for me.
I actually mentioned, I believe, to you and a few other people that I wanted to get into AWS. This opportunity came along, and now I’m doing both.
You mentioned finance, how has your financial situation improved since taking the job?
Yes, it’s been a significant increase compared to my previous position’s salary. It’s increased.
Did you have any IT experience coming into Yellow Tail Tech?
Yes, I did.
Did that help, or was Linux a completely new opportunity for you?
I do believe it helped me. I had about a year and a half of previous IT experience. I went to school for it, I have my bachelor’s in IT, and before graduating, I was able to get a few CompTIA certifications, along with one Linux certification.
I was kind of doing a little bit of everything before enrolling in the program. Linux wasn’t something completely brand new and fresh to me. I did have somewhat of some understanding, but this training provided a deeper insight and understanding of Linux.
As for other technical concepts like networking, we covered that as well, and that’s a big component of Linux administration too.
I did have previous experience, and it did help out. But this program helped accelerate my understanding of both.
What advice would you offer to current Yellow Tail Tech students?
The advice I would give those individuals, whether they already have their certification and are going through the apprenticeship, or they’re just starting the program, is really to just have the end goal in mind. See yourself as already having what you set your goals out to be.
The first thing I did when I joined the program, besides the financial commitment, was to tell myself I was going to graduate from the program, get a job within a certain time, and get my certification within a specific timeframe. My mind was already set on what I wanted to do, and it was just about following through and making it happen.
And I did. I already knew I was going to do it, and I did it. That just confirmed it for me.
I’d say definitely have your goals in mind, stick to them every day, practice frequently, and immerse yourself in the tech space. If you want to do this, take it seriously—and it’ll be serious back to you.
What would you tell someone considering a life in tech?
Whoa. My guidance to people who want to get into tech and what the tech life is like… I’m just going to be honest: it’s not for everybody.
Have you thought much about where you see yourself in five years?
I think about that often. This is a stepping stone into what I wanna do in the future, and things, you know, may change, but as far as right now, I have my goals set on this, getting involved in the cloud space, you know, cloud administration, or being a cloud engineer or security engineer.
Those are things that I see myself doing, and I know this is a foundation to get into that level, and I know that since I’m just already involved within the space, it’s gonna be, you know, just that much easier for me to get to that next level.
Working heavily within the cloud in the next five years.
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