Is Hadoop Administration right for me?

When we first announced that we are working on a new Hadoop Administration course we had several students and members of Hadoop In Real World community asking different flavors of “Is Hadoop Administration right for me?” question.

At Hadoop In Real World, we have over 25,000 students in our Hadoop Starter Kit and Hadoop Developer In Real World courses combined. 25,000 is a lot of students and they are very diverse in their skill sets & career paths. We have members who are trying to launch or switch careers, we have members who already  administer enterprise software like databases, windows or Linux systems, middleware components like Websphere, RabbitMQ etc.

So you can imagine based on where you are in your career path your “Is Hadoop Administration right for me?” question will be slightly different. We got so many questions on this topic so we decided to make a video answering the top 7 “Is Hadoop Administration right for me?” questions.

Let’s now go back to the post. We have also created a video person of this post. Click here to watch the video. Here is a most asked question-

#1. I don’t have a programming background, is Hadoop Administration right for me ?

You don’t need to have a programming background to work in Hadoop Administration. As a Hadoop Administrator, your main job would be to install, configure and maintain Hadoop environments and tools from the Hadoop ecosystem and these functions do not require a programming background. If you know to work with Linux, you are in an excellent position in becoming a Hadoop Administrator. Even if you don’t know Linux already, don’t worry, spend some time learning basic Linux commands, that would help you to get started with Hadoop Administration and you can slowly improve your Linux skills as you go. More importantly, if you are willing to learning new things, excited to debug, troubleshoot and solve problems, you will be a great fit to become a Hadoop Administrator.

#2. We hear this next question a lot lately – I am fresh out of college or planning to switch careers, is it easier to start a career in Hadoop Administration?

Short answer is Yes. For those who are trying to start their careers, you can pick up Hadoop administration with relative ease. Also when you are trying to jump start your career, it is best to start your career in a field which is strong and has a lot of demand. Hadoop perfectly fits that criteria. Since you are beginning your career, having something like Hadoop on your resume, puts you on the spotlight. If you are already in a technical job and planning to switch careers, Hadoop administration is easy to get in to and this is true for someone who is trying to start their career as well.

Many companies already have a fully matured Hadoop administration team and they are always in the lookout for administrators to augment their existing team. Since these companies already have a matured admin team, they are willing to hire less experienced Hadoop administrators and this is where you come in. As long as you are able to demonstrate to an employer that you have a good understanding of Hadoop and know the concepts of Hadoop Administration and more importantly have the will to learn, companies will be happy to hire an aspiring Hadoop administrator like yourself without hesitation.

#3. Everyone has this next question in mind but hesitate to ask. Will I see an increase in my paycheck if I get in to Hadoop Administration ?

This is a good question. Our answer is, don’t wait any longer, just jump right in. Many years ago when Hadoop was relatively new in the market, there was no separate position for Hadoop administrators. Developers who worked in Hadoop also took the role of Hadoop administrators. Now, that is the not the case, Hadoop production environments are now huge and complex and we need dedicated Hadoop administrators with the right skill set.

Even after all these years, we still find it hard to hire qualified Hadoop Administrators in spite of companies ready to pay top dollars. So there is no better time to get in to Hadoop Administration. Simply put, Hadoop Administration = High Demand = Top Dollars !

#4. I am currently working as a Database Administrator, is Hadoop Administration a good fit for me?

Are you kidding? Get started right away. We have witnessed many DBAs and people with database background successfully transitioned to a Hadoop Administrator role. It is a great fit because you already work with systems which deals with data. You are already familiar with performance and capacity issues when the size of your database grows beyond a threshold and more importantly coming from a database background, you are good with troubleshooting and solving problems. You will feel right at home managing Hadoop. So get started right away.

#5. Next couple of questions are very similar. I am currently a systems administrator who manage and administer Linux/Windows/Storage systems, is Hadoop Administration a good fit for me ?

Let’s see. You currently work on enterprise products. Since you work with systems like Linux/Windows/Storage you are probably familiar with concepts like clustering, monitoring etc. Which means you already have all the skills necessary to become a successful Hadoop Administrator. All you need is to know how Hadoop works and understand the different components and functionality in Hadoop Administration and you are well on your way in becoming a successful Hadoop administrator

#6. I currently manage middleware components like Tomcat/Websphere/RabbitMQ/Business Objects etc., is Hadoop Administration a good fit for me ?

Same answer as the previous question. You already have all the skills, get started with Hadoop administration right away !

#7. I am a Hadoop developer now, does it make sense to learn Hadoop Administration ?

As a Hadoop developer you paycheck is already higher than developers in other comparable domains, with Hadoop administration in your resume your value in the marketplace will get a boost. Also, understanding Hadoop administration components will only make you a strong Hadoop developer as you now know the “under the hood” details of Hadoop to an extent which will help you write and develop better software to run on Hadoop.

#8. Final question, I am a programmer now, can I get in to Hadoop Administration?

Whether you are programmer who wants to test your skills in Hadoop Administration or simply want to augment your skills by learning Hadoop administration, you will not have any trouble picking up the needed skills for Hadoop administrator. As mentioned before, in many companies not in the distant past and even now programmers/developers also play the role of Hadoop administrators. So start learning !

Alright, those were our most common questions and hopefully we answers your flavor of “Is Hadoop Administration right for me?” in one of the those.

When we launched Hadoop Developer In Real World course back in Nov 2015, we were thrilled and excited with the positive response that we got from the students and members of the Hadoop In Real World community. Few months later, we started receiving requests to create a Hadoop Administration course. So we started looking into building an administration course. Hadoop developer course was successful because the course taught real world problems and gave the students the confidence to survive in real production Hadoop environments.

Hadoop clusters can be chaotic at times and in many companies Hadoop is at the center of everything so when a Hadoop environment goes down, who do you think gets the first call?, it is the administrators. So things could get pretty stressful very quickly. So our goal with Hadoop Administrator In Real World course from the very beginning is to teach the students all the skills necessary to administer and manage Hadoop clusters with confidence and stress free.

You can check out the full curriculum of the course here. Shoot us an email @ info@hadoopinrealworld.com if you have any questions and we will be happy to answer.

Thank you for reading this post and thank you for being a part of Hadoop In Real World community.