My experience to become Outreachy Intern for Apache Airflow

#opensource #outreachy

Hello, I will use this space to share with you about my experience of how I got to be an intern at Outreachy. Each experience is unique and diferent ⛵️, I have read other experiences and all are really inspiring. This is mine!I hope you like it! 🙇

Outreachy is a paid, remote internship program, whose purpose is to support people from groups underrepresented in tech. They help newcomers to free software and open source make their first contributions. The internship lasts three months in any of these periods: Mayo - August or December - March.
There are three parts to the Outreachy application process:

1️⃣ Initial application period

During this period, applicants fill out an initial application form
Outreachy organizers review initial applications and their essays

2️⃣ Contribution period

During this period, applicants contact mentors and make contributions
Applicants are required to record a contribution

3️⃣ Intern selection period

Mentors tell Outreachy organizers which interns they want to select.

You can find more about it HERE

When I found out about Outreachy, I started to contact previous interns 📫, I asked about their experience in the program, I read their blogs which kept me motivated for every application I made. LinkedIn and Twitter are good tools for this, introduce yourself and politely ask them to share their experience or give you suggestions for your application. On Youtube, there are good videos of Outreachy interns.

First attempt 🏂

Let’s start with rejections 😅. Once I read the requirements, I applied for the first time to Outreachy. The amount of information that Outreachy has on the website can be overwhelming at first, but later you will realize that it is necessary and sufficient 📚. I started with my essays. I did my best to make my essays beautiful. I followed the suggestions that the organizers made for each question. They really want your application to move to the next stage!

However, I did not meet a fundamental requirement: ”Be in the country of origin with eligibility to work”. Due to the pandemic, the borders of my country closed 🚧, therefore I could not start in Outreachy. My first rejection! It was sad but the organizers of Outreachy encouraged me to apply for the next period 💪.
I encourage you to communicate with the organizers about your doubts, your concerns, be honest with them about your time commitments and they will advise you in the best way.

Second attempt 🏊

I met all the requirements this time.I was very anxious this week that Outrechy would give us the results, then I got it: "Welcome to the contribution period of the Outreachy May 2021 internship round!" yay! I passed to the contribution period! 🙌

For my contribution period I chose the Linux Kernel related projects, I didn't have much Kernel experience but decided to take that as a challenge. After a month of configurations and installations, I was unable to send a single Pull Request (PR) 😱. How frustrating was that! The listing period is closed again and and i was out again!😳

As always, after the stage of frustration comes the stage of acceptance and reflection. I started to think that I did wrong, why did it go so wrong? And my answer was to have chosen a project that I don't have much knowledge about, it was difficult for me to understand the basic concepts of the Kernel configurations. I tried it! 💪

My recommendation here is that you try to choose a project where you already have some knowledge or experience, check the "Level of experience" requested for each project. Don't pick a project unless you're sure what it's about! Outreachy has all the information about it on the website.Stay updated!

Third attempt 🏄

On my third try, I improved my essays 😇 and as if nothing had happened before (two rejections), I applied again, with a positive mind! Always thinking: I will do my best! I will be able to do multiple pull requests! I'm ready to contribute!

I went to the contribution stage again, woohoo! This time I chose the Apache Airflow project, Experience level: Bash(3), Python(4) and CI systems(2). This period lasts one month, you have to try to send a contribution, detect problems or present an improvement or a good idea, which are also considered contributions. I love that!
Our mentors gave us an introduction to Airflow, they presented really cool slides and an amazing demo. It was really good! They gave us the guidelines to start. 🚀

It has been almost two weeks since I couldn't send any contribution. So I thought the best strategy I could do is to follow the steps in the documentation and make the software work on my machine. I proposed improvements in the readme, some details were missing that could make the Docker installation process easier, I proposed these changes in the open slack channels or through GitHub. I submitted my pull request and that's how in the third week my first PR was merged 🥲.

Here my mentors played a very important role, they encouraged us to send contributions, they reviewed our changes and gave us constant feedback. My mentors considered my application for the final stage, and that's how I became an Outreachy intern! It took me time, but I am finally in! 💃

This was my experience, yours may be just an attempt, if it is what you really want, keep persevering! I will leave you with a few keys that worked for me.

👾 Do not underestimate any contribution, no matter how small it is.
👾 You will see many contributions before yours, don't let that overwhelm you, persevere! Create your own journey and have fun.
👾 Support other applicants who are trying hard to submit a contribution, encourage them too.
Collaborate! Show your positive energy, help your mentors!
👾 Think out loud, ask questions in open channels like Slack, emails, write to your mentor.
👾 Learn how to make questions
👾 Get involved, identify with the product.
👾 Ask yourself everything. What is the purpose of what I am doing? Isn't there a better way to do it?
👾 If you have improvements in mind, say it or write it, this can be the starting point of a great implementation.
👾 Most importantly, don't give up before you try and give it your all!