Outreachy/Mentors

Welcome Outreachy Mentors!
Please let the coordinator of this program for OpenStack know if you would like to help out mentoring for the program.

People interested in mentoring please add your name to the list. More resources for mentors on the Mentors page.

'''NOTICE: This internship shouldn't be so time consuming for mentors, the selected applicant should be independent/proactive enough to do their own research before asking you for guidance. That is something we evaluate during the application process.''' Make sure you get involved enough in this stage so you can guarantee a good mentorship experience.

Before the application deadline
Checklist:
 * Mentors should login and apply for a mentor role for OpenStack on https://outreachy.gnome.org/ (the OpenStackID provider can be used).
 * Guide applicants to get involved with the project: how to setup their contributor accounts, how to setup their development environment, how to pick an relatively easy-to-fix bug, how to interact with the other project contributors. Help them with their first contribution: point them in the right direction code-wise and help them to debug.
 * Add a task idea for your project in https://www.outreachy.org/communities/cfp/openstack/submit-project/
 * Help them to write their application (they will need to explain what are they going to do during the internship and a brief timeline for completion of that task)
 * Make sure all the conversations happen in the public channels (as possible). You are not alone, the rest of the community should be able to help with the blockers the applicants is facing.

In this stage you will be able to define if the applicant is independent/proactive enough to do their own research. Under any circumstance you are expected to handhold the applicant..

First contribution
All applicants are required to make a small contribution to the project they are applying to work on. As a mentor, you will need to help applicants identify a suitable first task and help them out with it during the application process.

Internship task
You would need to define a task for the interns to perform during the internship period. Add this idea to Internship_ideas.

Checklist:
 * The task can be accomplished in three months (internship period)
 * This task has a low/medium priority within the project roadmap

Please discuss with the applicants the details of the work they'll be doing during the internship period. It is best if the accepted participants work as part of the team, starting with smaller tasks (i.e. bugs) and progressing over time to more complex tasks (i.e. blueprints), with each task being suggested by you based on the current priorities of the team. So the applicants just need to know what areas of the project they are likely to work on and a tentative timeline.

The project should consist of manageable and relevant tasks that can be incorporated into the project throughout the internship period. Stand-alone projects proposed by an applicant are not suitable at all for people who are not established contributors. Please try to avoid situations when participants work on features that are not yet designed or agreed-upon, have too many moving parts, and would only land in the main code-base after the internship is over as a best-case scenario. This rarely works out. Instead, look for agreed-upon manageable bugs and small features that have a shared theme and would allow the participant to feel the satisfaction of landing her changes throughout the internship.

Internship selection
All mentors/coordinators and everyone that was involved during the application process will be asked to submit their ranking for the current round applicants. This will be done privately.

During the internship
Checklist:
 * Help them with everyday doubts (usually things as "I'm getting this error when running Devstack", "how should I start working on this bug").
 * Check how your mentee is doing with the assigned task: are they able to design what they have to do? set up a meeting to plan things and guide them on how they should be facing things. This can be done in a weekly meeting.
 * Apart from the main task, mentors should guide mentees to perform other tasks (bug triaging, reviewing, testing, docs).

Towards the end of the internship
Checklist:
 * Make sure they are making progress with the task that was assigned to them and make sure they are not feeling blocked.
 * Help them to find the next step on their careers (maybe as a full time position working on OpenStack).