Does anyone else here participate in the selfhosting hobby without a formal IT related education or a career in a similar field? I’ve only had one or two programming courses as part of my university education, but it was only very basic Python and C. I’ve never formally learned how to use containers, version control or anything else. Sometimes I regret not pursuing an education in IT/programming because there are so many things I’d like to accomplish but can’t (for example if there’s a feature missing in some project, or to feel safe in my abilities to harden my servers and my network in order to expose services to the open internet).
IT started as a hobby for me. My initial career was digital art/design. When I was 12/13 my dad let me have a pc, that I had to build from a box of scraps he got from work. I kept adding/upgrading that pc until windows pissed me off. Years later I kept it up on ppc and Intel Macs, when I started college. (No degree at all, went to a fancy art school and they ended up killing my program, so I just got a job instead)
I pretty much got my current job by already running a few various servers at home on arm boards and a NAS, helping with basic o365 admin tasks, and being able to crack open/max out the MacPro6,1s at work. I was only supposed to resize art files lol By the time we named a CTO, he just straight up asked me to run IT for him.
I do have formal education in the field, but that doesn’t mean that I’m easily capable of e.g. writing a module for Nginx or even most website frameworks or knowledgable enough about administration to feel comfortable exposing a dynamic website (as opposed to static HTML+CSS) to the internet.
A lot of it is learning by doing, though, and for a lot of things books are a great resource (some stuff is outdated as soon as it’s published, but general system administration or programming knowledge doesn’t get outdated that fast).
I have no formal training but have been in IT for over thirty years.
The IT way
Was going to say this, I’m a professional too beginning without formal training (whatever exactly thst covers). Did some certificates and stuff later on which may or may not still be relevant (due to specific fields).
- Buy books
- Read
A “formal education” mostly involves reading a book. These books can be identified, purchaed, and read without enrolling in any course.
I have a whole shelf full of text books for IT degrees and certifications. Despite never enrolling in any classes, amazingly, the books still allowed me to read them.
Starting to mess around with selfhosting, no IT background but grew up on computers.
Ah, self-taught. The slowest, most difficult way.
…hm, knee jerked a little, but you are right, it is a slow and difficult route. Perhaps sometimes also the most thorough, surprising, or rewarding way ? not sure tbh…
It has certainly been a slow start lol.
I was that guy. And then ended up with that career partly because of it.
Me too. I do not work in IT, I do not even work at a computer.
Started installing first ripped Windows, later Linux on handmedown laptops starting around 2010.
And tweaking the shit out of it, later also to escape the Googleverse.
Selfhosting since 2014.
I can’t do everything either but I’m confident enough to let my server face the world. It doesn’t take all that much knowledge, mostly common sense.
I guess there’s some secondary knowledge, like knowing where to find useful instructions (archwiki) or knowing that Linux software often (but not always) doesn’t bother with sane defaults.
If this narrative seems to be coming from the prehistoric past then there’s your answer: give it more time. Do what you can do now, and surely your knowledge/capability will grow. Esp. tweaking Linux!
I was working in sales when I started self hosting like a decade ago. But the things I taught myself then led me to a career in data analysis. Same company.
Ive been self hosting for years, have a 24/7/365 web server public facing, with 20+ services hosted, including a Lemmy instance. No formal education, qualification or any actual experience in any way. Never had a single course or anything. I work as a commercial manager on complex and large infrastructure construction and engineering projects.
Well, I’ve had a computer in front of me since the 70s. Don’t conflate longevity with knowledge tho. I’ve had no formal training, even tho I ‘ran’ the IT dept for a small construction company in another life. One of my jobs was to train old head construction workers on how to use a lap top, a digital camera, how to interface with our servers to upload data from the field. That was wild.
But, no formal training here. Most of what I know I learned by: Reading, screwing it up, doing it again, ad nauseam. And then when something worked, write that shit down.
Basically same here except Millennial timelines. I only really know what I use myself.
I only really know what I use myself.
That’s basically how I know just about anything. Hands on failure until it works. And when you think about it, success is merely a string of failures. Given that, I’m succeeding like a mofo. lol
Great post. For those who don’t know, breaking shit is a good way to learn.
I’m from a social work background. Psych major.
Computer stuff was always a hobby.
Have a server and 2.5gbe network setup, have my own custom router, 2 small game servers and one big media server(240tb). Never had any sort of IT or networking job. This is just fun to do things never worked in the field
I have no formal training and work in real estate so I’ve taught myself GNU/Linux CLI commands, docker and basic networking stuff with the help of the Internet, YouTube and some LLM assistance. I now self-host around a dozen services via docker on an old Dell XPS laptop for myself. This did lead me to consider a career change and I applied for and got into a free study course for the CompTIA Network+ and Security+ certificates so we’ll see if that ends up just becoming extra help for my hobby or a means to get into IT more broadly.
Where did you apply for the free course? That’s awesome!
Of all places I was in a Goodwill and they had an ad for a program called LIFT IT come on over the airwaves in between some banger oldies. It was a bit competitive. I think they had over 200 applicants and only 17 made it but it’s worth checking out if you live in the states. I’m in Colorado. Not sure if it’s available elsewhere.
No formal training only help from self hosting community 🤟
I do. I have no IT background whatsoever. Just interest and ADHD.
