Homelab #NetworkingEvent #HelpdeskIntern #ITJobs
Hey fellow aspiring IT professionals! 👋 So, I recently attended a networking event where a recruiter dropped some knowledge on me – apparently, setting up a homelab is a fantastic personal project for helpdesk interns. But honestly, where do I even begin with that? Can it really make that big of a difference in landing a job in the tech industry?
Here are my thoughts and some potential solutions:
- What is a Homelab? Start by understanding what a homelab is and how it can benefit your IT career.
- Research and Planning Look into the different components you’ll need for your homelab setup. There are plenty of resources online to guide you.
- Start Small You don’t need a fancy, expensive setup right off the bat. Begin with basic equipment and gradually expand as you gain more experience.
- Hands-On Learning Setting up a homelab will give you practical, hands-on experience that can set you apart from other candidates during job interviews.
- Community Support Don’t be afraid to reach out to online communities and forums for help and advice. There are plenty of experienced tech professionals willing to lend a hand.
Ultimately, a homelab can be a valuable tool for learning and advancing your IT skills. Embrace the challenge and see it as an opportunity to grow and showcase your potential to future employers. Have you set up a homelab before? Any tips or advice for those just starting out? Let’s share our knowledge and help each other succeed in the tech industry! 💻🌟
If I have two candidates that have no experience in IT and one has a homelab and talks about it in the interview, there is a 99% chance they’re the one I’m going to hire.
A homelab project can be something as simple as “I setup a Minecraft server for me and my friends to play on.” I’ll then ask questions about how you built it, what issues you ran into, and how you resolved them. But you’re showing me that you’re getting into IT because you like technology and want to learn how things work.
Honestly I think they are super over-hyped.
Its not something I would ever put on a resume.
Its not even something as a person that is tapped to be on the hiring committee for my group that I want to hear about during an interview.
Can you build skill with it?
Noooo not really.
Cool you can do an initial config of something and troubleshoot some home use of it maybe.
Are you getting any actual exposure to the skills you need in an enterprise environment with it nope.
I know that our local community college has a pretty good continuing education program that offers basically free classes where you will do a bunch of well constructed labs.
That is set up already with good solid enterprise problems.
If you’re interested in a security focus, check this out https://taggartinstitute.org/p/the-homelab-almanac
Pick up a used business class desktop. Install proxmox. Use your new proxmox host spin up vm’s and lxc containers. Experiment. Spin up opensense. Spin up a headless debian server, install minecraft on it, setup pihole, spinup twingate in a container.
You now have some basic experience with virtualization, containers, networking, working in a shell, and ZTN. Homelabbing shows an interest in the field, gets you more familiar with some of the things you’ll be dealing with, and might even help solidify where you want to focus in the future.
Start simple with Cisco packet tracer.
You can then go next level with something like GNS3 or get physical devices and try to configure them after factory reset. Juniper offers day 1,2, and possibly 3 materials for getting them setup.
Homelabs are easier on 2nd or 3rd jobs – esp if you can get some scrapped equipment from that first job. But there are alternatives as well.
Homelabs show commitment to learning. Its a “leg up” on the competition. I bought a used server for $250 and made it into a proxmox host about 6-7 years ago. Greatly boosted my Linux admin skills. Well worth the money and time investment.
If you want to do networking lab with packet tracer. If you have a decent pc you can spin up some vms to play with stuff .