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.
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
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.
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.
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. \