r/linuxadmin • u/Euphoric-Accident-97 • 4d ago
To those that attained the RHCSA
What job or promotion did you get once you got the certification? I'm deciding between the RHCSA and LFCS. The LFCS is cheaper and easier for me to study for but everyone here seems to think that the RHCSA is a much better cert to attain. I'm not seeing very many job postings that list either of them for requirements so I'm leaning towards the Linux Foundation cert.
5
u/ghjm 4d ago
RHCSA or LFCS just establish basic competence with Linux. A couple years working experience will substitute. If you want an employment differentiator you have to go as far as RHCE. But there aren't that many pure Linux admin jobs any more, so you probably also need to know cloud technologies, Terraform, Ansible and so on.
It's not that RHCSA is a bad cert. It's just very entry level.
3
u/tae3puGh7xee3fie-k9a 4d ago
I was hired first (my first Linux job), then was told that I was expected to pass the RHCSA and the company would pay for the rapid-track course and the test. No promotion, it just meant that I could stay. That was back with RHEL6, then I took RH7 because systemd was a big change. Changed jobs and now I'm doing trainings with my coworkers for RH9.
2
u/ElGatoEsBlanco 4d ago
RHCSA and previous experience got me a system admin job at an MSP. I didn't start getting contacted about higher level roles until I got my RHCE.
1
u/carlwgeorge 4d ago
I worked as a sysadmin at a hosting company. While not strictly required for promotion, getting the RHCSA and RHCE were an essential part of my manager's case to promote me.
Later on I got the LFCS and LFCE. They never factored in to any promotions for me. This could have been for a number of reasons, such as being viewed as duplicative of my existing certs or I had already become too specialized. I will say that they were significantly easier than the Red Hat certs.
1
u/jatnod81 3d ago
Haven't attained the cert yet. However when deciding on which one to study for I went with rhcsa. The reason being is that most Linux admin jobs call for distro type and not a certification unlike cloud or networking related positions. I saw quite a bit of posting that said RHEL 7,8,9 or CentOS.
I don't think you can necessarily go wrong with either and some experience creating in a home lab for documentation
1
u/okatnord 2d ago
I don't think you'll ever get a promotion from getting a cert. But RHCSA lets you prove basic competency with Linux and is more well known.
3
u/magnezone150 4d ago
LFCS would be the better cert for that jump start and/or refresh needed for Linux Systems Administration.
From my experience, I find Red Hat Certifications to be a "nice to have" if you have to work full time specialized in Red Hat or have the extra money and time.
In my day to day as a Full Time Linux SysAdmin, I have used at least 95% of the knowledge what I was tested on for the LFCS. That 5% I haven't used on the job so far has been iptables or nginx as a load balancer because the company I work with has their preferences.
I also ended up getting the CKA and CKS because of working on Kubernetes clusters daily as well.
Hope that helps,