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Opportunities/Career Advice: Difference between revisions
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What I said to announce my first office hours, in June:
: Hi, I'm Sumana Harihareswara. I work at the Wikimedia Foundation and am a mentor in this round. And I'm your career development advisor.
: I'm really interested in helping you, the OPW interns, think about your post-OPW career choices. Apply for a job? Start a business or nonprofit? Seek a grant? Go to Hacker School? Get a degree? Take some time off? If you don't know what to do after the internship ends, I want to help you think about that and decide.
: So I'm holding IRC office hours where any of you can ask questions and get advice, in the channel or via private message.* The first bunch are this week:
: * Right now and for the next 2.5 hours - till 21:00 UTC
: * Tomorrow (Tuesday 10 June) 12:00-14:00 UTC
: * Friday June 13 0:00-2:00 UTC (in North America, still Thursday June 12)
: Drop in! #opw on GNOME IRC.
: -- Sumana Harihareswara
: http://www.harihareswara.net/
: * (Also I'm planning a bunch of other stuff that we talked about in the welcome meeting on May 27. One-on-one counseling, additions to https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen/Opportunities , emails about job openings, and informational presentations.)
And then I sent reminder emails to the list about 1 or 2 hours before
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Around 6 weeks into the 12-week internship, I emailed the interns
: Hi interns! You have gone past the halfway mark on your internship and congratulations.
: Tips:
: * Check out https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen/2014/MayAugust#Accepted_Participants to see if there's another intern near you, and to know who your project's coordinator is (if your mentor goes missing, that coordinator is someone you can contact).
: * Are you talking with your mentor at least twice a week, preferably several times a week, on IRC or the phone or videochat? Interns who talk to their mentors more often usually have a better experience. You can schedule them at regular times to make it easier. If you haven't heard from your mentor in more than two weeks, contact your project coordinator or Marina.
: * Your fellow interns blog at http://planeteria.org/wfs/ and hang out at #opw on the GNOME IRC network - come by and swap triumphs and tears!
: * Remember, you have a $500 travel allowance. Use it: https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen/TravelAllowance
: * It's a good sign if you can think back each week and see how your skills have improved. Getting praise and criticism from your mentor helps you grow. If you keep waiting for feedback from your mentor (code review, for instance) and don't get as much of it as you want, it's fine for you to ask for more, or ask to get it faster.
: Thank you for contributing to open source!
: [signature]
=== Salary negotiation ===
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alumni & mentors
: Reminder: you can and should negotiate when you're getting a job offer, to increase how much money you get and how much vacation, bonuses, and other benefits you get.
: http://valerieaurora.org/howto_salary/ gives you tips on how to do this. (It's by Valerie Aurora, head of the Ada Initiative.)
: [signature]
=== "What's there to learn?" sessions ===
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You can see some meeting logs in the meeting logs wiki page.
: We're holding a one-hour "What's There to Learn?" presentation on Wednesday, 4pm ET/1pm PT (20:00 UTC), in IRC (#opw in GNOME IRC). This is in a couple of days. https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen/Meetings has logs from the past meetings.
: I haven't yet finalized who all will be presenting how engineering works at their organization, but one speaker will be from the New York Public Library's research and development department.
: I'm running this to help you understand your career options better -- to understand the big picture of how software development organizations work, and what various job titles/skills mean.
=== Specific opportunities ===
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Sometimes I spread the word about specific opportunities, like:
: Today's the deadline to apply for the Knight-Mozilla fellowship, a paid 10-month job. If you're looking for a job starting in 2015, and "you're someone who enjoys solving problems through code," you should apply. Yes, even if you would need a visa to work in the US. Yes, even if you're a novice coder.
http://erikaowens.com/blog/who-should-apply-knight-mozilla-fellowship-you▼
▲: http://erikaowens.com/blog/who-should-apply-knight-mozilla-fellowship-you
Includes a moving allowance! http://opennews.org/fellowships/info.html▼
▲: Includes a moving allowance! http://opennews.org/fellowships/info.html
If you have questions please email Erika Owens: erika@mozillafoundation.org▼
▲: If you have questions please email Erika Owens: erika@mozillafoundation.org
: [signature]▼
▲[signature]
=== Talking to your mentor about your career ===
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Around 9 weeks into the internship I sent this to the interns + mentors:
: Hi interns! I recommend that you have a chat with one of your mentors this month to talk about next steps for your career. This can take as little as 20 minutes.
: 5 minutes: "What specifically did I like about this internship - what would I like to get more of?" (Think specifically: what languages, tools, people, activities, and conversations did you enjoy?)
: 10 minutes: "What do I want next, and what are my constraints?" (It's okay not to know! This is a good time to ask your mentor what they think you would be good at, and to ask your mentor how they got where they are.)
: 5 minutes: "What are my next steps?" Examples: update your resume/CV, reach out to your university career office to schedule some mock interviews, reply to people you met at conferences, blog about what kind of job you want, apply for a grant, apply to Hacker School or talk to a venture capitalist.
: I am also happy to talk with you about career options. Since your mentors know you better than I do, I figure you should talk to them first -- let me know if you'd like to talk with me, either instead of or after talking with your mentors!
: [signature]
(And I sent some reminder followups telling them to do it. I don't know
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I also sent a similar mail to the mentors:
: This month, I recommend that you talk with your interns about their careers, and about the next steps you think they should take after the internship. Here's how I usually structure that conversation:
: 5 minutes: "What specifically did you like about your internship - what would you like to get more of?" (If the answer is vague, ask specifically: what languages, tools, people, activities, conversations did they enjoy?)
: 10 minutes: "What do you think you want next, and what are your constraints?" (This is a good time to tell them what you think they would be good at, and to quickly explain your own job history in case it's relevant. Often interns think their only choices are grad school or another job, and assume they have to stay in their own country; if so, tell them it's not true.)
: 5 minutes: "What are your next steps?" Examples: she needs to update her resume, reach out to her university career office to schedule some mock interviews, reply to people she met at conferences, blog about what kind of job she wants, apply to Hacker School or talk to a venture capitalist.
: best,
: Sumana Harihareswara
: OPW career development advisor, mid-2014
I really don't know how many mentors actually did this, and it bothers me, and I think scheduling specific three-person conversations (you, the intern, and the mentor) for at least some of the interns would be a better way to ensure these conversations happen.
I sent a weak note to the alums list asking about people who were stalling out in their career next steps but got no response. A fresh thread would probably be good.
And I think you saw my "The continuing adventures (transitioning to volunteer)" email which I turned into a blog post
http://www.harihareswara.net/sumana/2014/09/26/0 .
= Blog Posts =
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