The Mentorship program is a phase-by-phase progress:

1. Reviewing Submitted Application: After you submit your application, and apply to project(s), it takes a minimum of two weeks of time to evaluate your application. You are advised to complete the prerequisite tasks during this time period failing which your application will not be considered for the mentorship program. You can check your application status by navigating to your Linux Foundation account. For details about how to submit application, and apply to project(s), see How to Apply.

2. Mentee Contract: If you are selected for the mentorship program, you will be contacted through email or phone, and you will have to undergo contract and HR processes.

3. Mentee Working: This is the time when you actually learn and contribute to the community. During this period, you are expected to dedicate your quality time, and work with your mentor in structuring a project planning, understanding open source culture, development tooling and infrastructure, making steady progress towards completing objectives, milestones, and tasks as defined in the project plan, and actively contribute to the community to successfully complete the course. You can start by making small contributions to the projects. You are highly encouraged to contribute to documentation.

4. Evaluation: You will be evaluated on a periodic basis by your mentors.The reason behind this is to get feedback from your mentor about your progress, and to check if you are completing your objectives and milestones as per the project planning , and are actively participating in community discussions, and so on. Note: Depending on the project, there will be three or four evaluations during the entire program.

5. Stipend: A stipend payment will be released after the second and forth evaluation. Stipends are released if your evaluation report shows satisfactory progress of your mentorship training, and the total stipend amount can vary from project to project.

6. Letter of Completion: If you successfully complete all your project milestones, deliverables and assigned tasks, which may include an exam, you will be asked to complete a feedback survey before you can officially graduate and receive a digital Letter of Completion.

Research: Before you ask questions, you are advised to take some time to find the answer by yourself, either using public channels like stackoverflow, medium or check with other mentees in the channel. This way it helps you to enhance your research and analytical skills. Even if you don’t find an answer, it ultimately sharpens your question.

Be Inclusive: It’s not just between you and your mentor. This mentorship program gives you an opportunity to interact with the entire community and its members. So, interact with other members and ensure that you follow the code of conduct and professionalism. Though you are allowed to socialize with the community on a professional level, know where to draw the line.

Work with your Mentor

Depending on projects, a mentor will be assigned to you throughout the program, from the application process time period to course completion. So, it is your responsibility to actively align with your mentor to ensure that you have completed all the tasks during the application process to be accepted. After being accepted as a mentee, go hand-in-hand with your mentor to ensure that you are learning effectively, getting answers to your questions, and are contributing to the project.

• Be proactive, and reach out to mentor(s) to schedule weekly check in meetings. Spend one of the 1st meetings aligning on expectations, communication channels/norms/tools, any vacation or academic scheduling conflict.

• Set up your development environment and tools and do some practice.

• Start contributing to your project, such as by writing clean codes, or clear instructions in the documents, and get them reviewed by your mentor on a timely basis. Ask for feedback or suggestions on your progress, and seek advice to perform well.

• During the application process time period,work on a project plan with your mentor that includes project objectives, milestones/deliverables, methodology, documentation. Project plan should be posted on the wiki for transparency and accountability at the beginning of your application in the program.

That said, respect your mentor’s time. Your mentor is volunteering his/her time to help you grow, taking time out of his/her busy schedule. So, regularly attend the scheduled meetings, provide your work status and take as much advantage as you can from your mentor to learn. Keep in mind that your mentor is the most valuable person to help you successfully graduate from the mentorship program.

Learn and Practice Open Source Culture

It can be intimidating initially if you are new to the open source world. However, always maintain the culture when you are working in an environment, as Bill S. Preston Esq says—“Stick to the Open Source Culture : Be excellent to each other.”

• It is synchronous in nature. Most collaboration is done via email, forum posts, mailing lists, and pull requests.

• Cooperation and consensus building is the greatest challenge.

• Because other people can’t see your face or hear your voice, emotions are lost and intent muddled.

Open source development is truly global. All cultures, all languages, all time zones, and all continents--yes, even Antarctica.

Before you apply to The Linux Foundation Mentorship program we strongly recommend you to read this guide. You will learn how to prepare and why this mentorship program can be beneficial for you, to mention just a few topics included in this guide.

So, let's get started.

Note: To learn about the Mentorship platform navigate to mentees section of this document.

By now, you should have a general idea about the Mentorship program. But, why bother about it at all? Well, if you are a Mentee or a developer who wants to learn and work on open-source software projects, then you have come to the right platform to fulfill your dream. Following are some reasons why you should apply for the mentorship program:

An Amazing Remote Learning Experience

This is a remote opportunity and there is no need to relocate or move to participate. During the Mentorship program, you not only are guided by the experts to hone your skills, but also get an opportunity to acquire some new ones, such as coding, writing, testing, project management, and many more. It's a great opportunity for you to grow in the world of open-source technologies. As mentees, you gain substantial exposure to real-world software development by working closely with active developers in the community. Following are excerpts of what our mentees say about the program:

“The Linux Kernel Mentorship is Life Changing. Throughout my internship, I have learned that the kernel community is very helpful, kind, and willing to help new developers. Working on open-source projects was a very liberating experience for me. There are no barriers in open source space. Anyone can work on open-source code irrespective of their nationality, creed, or company affiliations, which I find very beautiful and liberating. I believe it is a very intellectually stimulating experience for anyone.”

– Kelsey Skunberg, Linux Kernel Mentorship Program Mentee

“Before this internship I mainly worked on theoretical blockchain and cryptography research at Purdue University, and this internship gave me a perfect balance between development and research.”

– Jason You, mentee for Hyperledger Caliper visualization

"Initially open source development was new territory for me, and it was a bit intimidating at first (technical skills aside). But then I got to present my project at the next Hyperledger event. That was my first close-up experience with the Hyperledger community, and it opened up a world of possibilities. I met the maintainers of many projects, we exchanged ideas, and they answered many of my questions. And suddenly the open source Hyperledger ecosystem wasn’t intimidating anymore."

– Attila Klenik, Hyperledger Summer Intern Program alum and current mentor.

Get paid while learning

Mentees are eligible to receive a stipend, which is paid in two installments, provided that regular interval evaluations show you're making satisfactory progress. The final installment will be paid upon successful mentorship completion.

Get Hired

After you successfully complete the mentorship program, get connected to potential employers who are focused on your project and are offering interview opportunities. Your mentor may also refer you to a company.

Note: Any interactions you have with a company are strictly between you and the company, and are not part of or connected to the Mentorship program, nor do such interactions involve the Linux Foundation.

Hone your developer skills

As a mentee, you can apply to specific projects to learn new technologies.

Involve in the Community and build network

As a mentee, you get introduced to open source development infrastructure, tooling, and culture. You get the opportunity to build a network with the open-source communities. Not only do you get quite a cooperative community that stays one step ahead to help you during the entire program, you also develop close working relationships with open source professionals and industry business leaders to expand your professional network.

Take Pride

Think of the moment when your first PR (pull request) gets committed upstream in some application that will be used by the other developers across the globe. What a pride-taking moment! Isn’t it?

“The Linux Kernel Mentorship program was a life changing experience. Working on open source projects was a very liberating experience for me. There are no barriers in open source space. Anyone can work on open source code irrespective of their nationality, creed or company affiliations, which I find very beautiful and liberating. I believe it is a very intellectually stimulating experience for anyone.”

– Bharath Vedartham, Linux Kernel Mentee

“I had the honor of participating in the Linux Kernel Mentorship Program. Throughout the mentorship, I grew very fond of working on open source projects, learned to work with the open source communities, and my confidence as a developer has grown tremendously. The application process gave me the foundation needed to contribute to the Linux kernel by teaching me how to build patches, debug, complete boot tests, and start working with open source communities. I was able to grow these new skills throughout the mentorship program while working on my selected project.”

– Kelsey Skunberg, Linux Kernel Mentorship Program Mentee

“Open source development was new territory for me, and it was a bit intimidating at first. But then I got to present my project work on the next Hyperledger event. That was my first close-up experience with the Hyperledger community, and it opened up a world of possibilities. I met the maintainers of many projects, we exchanged ideas, and they answered many of my questions.It is safe to say that this whole experience put me on the track to get more involved with specific projects, and later becoming a maintainer of Hyperledger Caliper. And, as the next step on the road, I had the pleasure to mentor a Caliper-related internship project this year.”

– Attila Klenik, Hyperledger Summer Intern Program alum and current mentor\

\

To successfully graduate from this mentorship program, you need to be focused, and actively engage with your mentor, and if applicable other mentees. Be professional with your communication when you ask or post anything in the communication channel. Not just that, you need to be specific while asking questions from your mentors. Apart from these, following are some points to keep in mind:

Communicate: Keeping the line of communication open between you and your mentor(s) will build trust, respect, and a positive relationship that facilitates the successful completion of the project.

• Schedule weekly check-ins to review progress, blockers, and upcoming tasks.

• Clarify communication channels/norms with your mentor(s), project team, and broader community: email, chat, calls, wiki, and etc.

• Be aware of communication challenges across time zones and language/cultural differences. Be on time for scheduled meetings and be respectful of your mentor’s time (remember your mentors are volunteers).

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions, be upfront about gaps in skill and knowledge.

• Inform your mentor(s) of vacation or breaks in advance and plans to make up for lost days.

Connect: Gaining a broader understanding of the open source community, industry, and potential career paths can help generate new ideas and make you a more effective and long-term contributing member of the community.

• Take the initiative to network with other professionals beyond your immediate team that you come in contact with either remotely or F2F at hackfest, meetup, bootcamp, or conferences and so on.

• Use project mailing list to reach out to and connect with the current cohort of peer mentors.

• Explore projects and understand how the open source community is organized, for example Working Groups and Special Interest Groups, and how you may be able to participate or contribute.

‌ Document: Documenting your progress, agreed-on project plan, weekly goals/tasks, milestones, changes/modifications helps keep yourself on track and others you work with on the same page.

• Develop a project plan at the start of the program and refine/revist/document changes as things progress

• Maintain a log to track your progress and consider using the log as the basis of discussions during your weekly check-ins with mentor(s)

• Work on project documentations as part of deliverables so that code can be used by others and to continue the development momentum

Give Feedback: At the end of the program you are asked to provide a feedback and answer several questions that will be used in blog posts about the Linux Foundation Mentorship program.

You can have a look at some useful resources:

• Mentor Guide : You can also take a look at the .

• List of Organizations: You can see a list of organisations that participated in previous years, by visiting the project site.

• Knowledge Base Articles: You can find information related to advice to mentees, mentors, project applicants, by visiting the wiki page of the project.

• Blog Posts: You can find information related to the Linux Foundation Mentorship program on these blog pages:

  • and

  Following are some blog posts written by mentees, sharing their experience:

You have done everything, starting from creating a profile to finding an exciting project, and completing the prerequisite tasks. But, you didn’t get selected. That’s sad, but do not lose hope.

We suggest you to:

• Ask for feedback on your application

• Try new projects

• Stay connected

• Don’t give up— Keep trying

Review Your Eligibility

Create a Profile

Submit Application

Congratulations! You have successfully applied to the Mentorship program. Now what? Your application will be reviewed and project admin will contact you with the next steps.

Note: You can check your application status by navigating to your account page.\

Eligibility Rules

The following eligibility rules apply to all mentee applicants.

• Be at least 18 years old by the time the mentorship program starts.

• Not be a prior or an active participant in another Linux Foundation mentorship program.

• Be eligible to work in the country and jurisdiction where you will be participating in the Mentorship program.

• Not reside in a country or jurisdiction where participation in the mentorship is prohibited under applicable U.S. federal, state or local laws or the laws of other countries

• Seeking to participate on your own behalf as an individual

• Not be subject to any existing obligations to third parties (such as contractual obligations to an employer) that would restrict or prohibit your participation in a mentorship program.

• Meet all criteria set by the program to which a mentees is applying, i.e. any custom prerequisites and requirements.

• Not be a maintainer, recurring contributor, etc.. with more than minimal involvement with the open source project that offers a mentorship program.

How many mentorship terms are there per year?

The Linux Foundation provides mentorship programs throughout the year, each with specific term dates. To access detailed information about the program term dates, please refer to the programs you are interested in.

How long is a mentee engaged in the program?

The process can vary based on the project's guidelines but usually involves applying, participating, and contributing. Even after the program ends, mentees can stay involved with the community.

How much stipend do the mentees get?

It might vary based on the geographical location of the mentees. For details, see Mentee Stipends.

Does the program offer travel funding?

Several projects and foundations offer mentorship programs that may provide travel funding support to mentees who successfully complete the program. Such funding aims to help mentees attend conferences to present their mentorship results and learnings, as well as to network with others in the community. It's recommended that you check with each individual program to learn more about the support available and detailed requirements.

Is the mentee selection process transparent and in the open?

Yes, the Linux Foundation maintains transparency in the mentee selection process. Selection is based on the application materials they submitted and interview/additional assessment tasks if assigned by the mentor. If mentees meet the eligibility requirements, applications are submitted, and all the assigned tasks are completed, their applications will be reviewed.

Are mentees encouraged to make a career in open source development?

Absolutely! For mentees who successfully graduate, Linux Foundation promotes their work and contribution on social channels so that their profile comes into the eye of potential employers, and sponsors them to attend conferences so that they get a chance to present their work to the greater community and meet potential employers. Linux Foundation also encourages mentors to connect mentees with their contacts and networks and refer deserved candidates to participating companies.

Does the Linux Foundation give the mentee visibility into the community and corporations supporting open source development?

Yes, Linux Foundation offers mentees the opportunity to network with the open source project community and prospective employers at a conference! It also encourages mentees to blog about their experience and Linux Foundation amplifies their blog on its website and social media channels.

How much time did mentors expect to commit to mentoring?

There is no fixed number of hours set for mentors as long as they manage to help mentees smoothly progress throughout the mentorship program, starting from the application process to the end of the program. They should create a timetable to meet the set project plan.

Are mentees from Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus allowed to participate in the LFX Mentorship Program 2022?

Due to certain circumstances, mentorship programs for 2022, organized by the Linux Foundation, are not accepting mentee applications from Russia, Belarus, or the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LNR). However, mentees located within Ukraine but outside of the DNR and LNR can apply to the LF mentorship programs.

What is The Linux Foundation Mentorship Program?

The Linux Foundation Mentorship program serves an important role in creating a structured hands-on learning opportunity for mentees—students, new and active programmers who want to learn open source software development— to gain exposure to open source development. The program matches mentees, based on their skills and interests, with mentors to learn and contribute to open source projects, and get paid for it.

Accepted mentees get opportunities to learn open-source software development, and get hired by the potential employers participating in the program. The interesting part is you write code for the open-source software products that are used by the whole world– sounds exciting, doesn't it? So, take pride. Apply to the Mentorship program to be guided by Mentors, and become a part of open-source communities; learn, get paid, and get hired.

Goals of the Program

This program is designed to help developers with necessary skills— many of whom are first-time open source contributors— experiment, learn, and contribute effectively to open source communities, which can initially seem overwhelmingly vast.

Following are the core goals of the Mentorship Program:

• Help mentees learn and enhance their technical skills, and inspire them to become long-term active contributors.

• Teach aspiring developers the open source culture and collaboration norms, and guide them to participate in open source community more effectively by using collaboration tools and infrastructure.

• Strengthen projects and the communities that are crucial to the Linux ecosystem by improving security and quality of releases.

• Provide a skilled and diverse talented pool of prospective employees trained by experts to companies in the ecosystem of related technology.

• Add well-trained and educated diverse talent to projects, and inspire them to write code for open-source software products for the benefit of the entire community and users.

Program Structure

The Mentorship program is a 12-week full-time or 24-week part-time training program. There will be a time period for prerequisite tasks completion, skill evaluation, review and selection process prior to starting of actual training.

1. Mentee prerequisite and skill evaluation process - 2 weeks (not applicable to all projects)

2. Mentee application process - 6 weeks

3. Review and selection process - 2 weeks

4. Mentee contract and HR process - 2 weeks

5. Mentorship full-time program - 12 weeks (40 hrs/week)

6. Mentorship part-time program - 24 weeks (20 hrs/week)

7. Write and publish a blog about your experience and the project you completed. Get in touch with project admins for help.

8. Get digital Letter of Completion

9. Attending an event: a project event scheduled during/after the mentorship program

Mentee evaluations are conducted three or four times throughout the duration of the mentorship program in order to provide mentees with feedback on their progress. Depending on the program, your mentor may choose to have 1:1 check-ins, virtual meetings or written evaluations.

Only after receiving a satisfactory evaluation, mentees can submit an Expensify report to receive stipends.

Note: Mentees are also asked to share their experience, provide feedback and suggestions at the end of the mentorship so that Linux Foundation can make improvements to program. \

Yes, we understand. If you haven’t been involved in an open source project before it can be intimidating initially. But don’t worry, the entire community is here to help you at each step as you learn.

Sit back and Observe

Before you interact with the community members, it’s always advisable for you to observe how the community members are interacting within themselves, for example what communication channels are they using, how are they bringing up issues whenever they face any, how to send current progress, and so many. Seeing how other community members interact will help you adjust and learn the social norms in the community.

Don’t wait for an invitation, take initiative

Our tools and meetings are open by default, so jump in and introduce yourself, ask questions and share ideas:

• Establish routine

• Minimize distractions

• Nurture relationships

• Effectively manage time

• Set mini (daily or weekly) goals

• Regular and frequent check-ins with mentor(s) to stay on track

• Be mindful of timezones and others’ communication preferences

The Linux Foundation maintains open-source and open community projects where participants choose to work together, and in that process experience differences in language, location, nationality, and experience. In such a diverse environment, misunderstandings and disagreements happen, which in most cases can be resolved informally. In rare cases, however, behavior can intimidate, harass, or otherwise disrupt one or more people in the community, which Linux Foundation will not tolerate.

A Code of Conduct (CoC) is useful to define accepted and acceptable behaviors and to promote high standards of professional practice. It also provides a benchmark for self evaluation and acts as a vehicle for better identity of the organization.

This CoC applies to any member of the Linux Foundation’s project community – developers, participants in meetings, teleconferences, mailing lists, conferences or functions, etc. Note that this code complements rather than replaces legal rights and obligations pertaining to any particular situation.

Statement of Intent

The Linux Foundation is committed to maintaining a positive work environment. This commitment calls for a workplace where participants at all levels behave according to the rules of the following code. A foundational concept of this code is that we all share responsibility for our work environment.

Code

1. Treat each other with respect, professionalism, fairness, and sensitivity to our many differences and strengths, including in situations of high pressure and urgency.

2. Never harass or bully anyone verbally, physically or sexually.

3. Never discriminate on the basis of personal characteristics or group membership.

4. Communicate constructively and avoid demeaning behavior or language.

5. Seek, accept, and offer objective work criticism, and acknowledge properly the contributions of others.

6. Be honest about your own qualifications, and about any circumstances that might lead to conflicts of interest.

7. Respect the privacy of others and the confidentiality of data you access.

8. With respect to cultural differences, be conservative in what you do and liberal in what you accept from others, but not to the point of accepting disrespectful, unprofessional or unfair or unwelcome behavior or advances.

9. Promote the rules of this Code and take action (especially if you are in a leadership position) to bring the discussion back to a more civil level whenever inappropriate behaviors are observed.

10. Stay on topic: Make sure that you are posting to the correct channel and avoid off-topic discussions. Remember when you update an issue or respond to an email you are potentially sending to a large number of people.

11. Step down considerately: Members of every project come and go. When you leave or disengage from the project, in whole or in part, we ask that you do so in a way that minimizes disruption to the project. This means you should tell people you are leaving and take the proper steps to ensure that others can pick up where you left off.