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Mentoring

Revision as of 21:07, 28 September 2016 by Ekhugen (talk | contribs) (Lightweight mentoring)

Mentoring - Sponsored by Women of OpenStack

Mentoring is an important tool for growing our OpenStack Community. Mentoring helps new Community members come on board, and it helps existing Community members expand their skills and reputation. Mentees help their mentors expand their worldview and challenge their mindset. This process of gaining knowledge and challenging existing ideas is vital to our OpenStack Community.

The OpenStack Foundation sponsors two levels of mentoring:

  • Outreachy mentoring - an intense internship-type experience over a particular three month period for groups who are underrepresented in Open Source software
  • Upstream Training - a two-day class for beginners in the Community, held on-site the two days prior to the Summit


The Women of OpenStack sponsors additional mentoring initiatives: Lightweight Mentoring and Speed Mentoring.

Lightweight mentoring

This Mentoring program is a several-months-long, but lightweight, program aimed at bringing together mentors and mentees who may not be co-located. We suggest that mentees already be part of the OpenStack Community and have gone through, or be familiar with, the Upstream University training materials. This program supports two categories of mentoring:

  1. Technical: Mentors with experience in a particular area of OpenStack help their mentees grow in that area. This could be a focus area like release management or marketing, or a particular project like Nova or Neutron.
  2. Career: Mentors help their mentees define what kind of career they'd like in the community and move toward those goals. Mentors and mentees may or may not have the same focus area in the OpenStack Community.


Current Mentoring Program Members: If you've been matched with a mentor or mentee, please check our our Getting Started Guide for tips on your first meeting. Also check out our guides for mentors and mentees. We recommend that each mentoring relationship last no more than 6 months. If you are part of the Mentoring program and would like to opt out, please email Emily.


'Mentor/mentee matches will be made 4 times per year, before each Summit and Project Teams Gathering. The next round of matches is due to be finished by October 20, 2016.

Speed Mentoring

Speed Mentoring is a session held at OpenStack Summits and open to everyone, not just women. This mentoring session is like speed dating: a mentor meets with a group of mentees for a limited amount of time and then moves to another group, cycling through as many mentee groups as possible during the session.


Mentor Signups

Are you interested in a being a mentor? We are always looking for mentors of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. Mentors should have between 1 and 4 hours a month free to spend with their mentee. Read our guidelines and if you're ready to sign up, please fill out our questionnaire!