{"id":608,"date":"2022-07-13T12:56:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T19:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/?p=608"},"modified":"2023-12-14T13:34:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T21:34:08","slug":"outreachy-mentors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/outreachy-mentors\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Outreachy mentors on how they teach interns \u2014 and what interns have taught them"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/i>In 2017, Mozilla partnered with <\/i>Outreachy<\/i><\/a>, an organization that connects people from underrepresented groups with three-month paid internships in open source. We\u2019ve since hosted over 100 Outreachy interns<\/a> \u2014 many of whom joined our team full-time, and all of whom helped the Mozillians who mentored them become better leaders and engineers. Below, three of those mentors \u2014 Software Engineers Niklas Baumgardner, Joel Maher and Katherine Patenio \u2014 share their approach to selecting and coaching applicants, explain what Mozilla does to support participants and reflect on the mentorship lessons they\u2019ve learned.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How did you get involved with Outreachy?<\/b><\/p>\n

Joel: <\/i>I got involved years ago, before it was even called Outreachy. I\u2019d done a lot of mentoring with other organizations \u2060\u2014 Canadian universities, Summer of Code<\/a> \u2014 and I thought this would be another great opportunity to find new talent and become a better mentor. And it has been; I\u2019ve stuck with it because it\u2019s been a very successful program, not only in terms of interns completing their projects, but in terms of hiring. At least a dozen Outreachy participants have joined the full-time team, and they\u2019ve brought so much creativity to the code base.<\/p>\n

Katherine: <\/i>I\u2019m about to start my second round as an Outreachy mentor; the first one was right after I joined Mozilla last year. I wanted the mentoring experience, and I wanted to help people learn new skills \u2014 it wasn\u2019t so long ago that I was trying to find my way in the industry, and one of the things I really valued during that time was mentorship. So it\u2019s a way for me to give back. For this next cohort, I\u2019ll be co-mentoring with Niklas, on a project for the Picture-in-Picture<\/a> feature in Firefox. We\u2019ve had a bunch of applicants working on patches for the last month, and we just selected our intern.<\/p>\n

Niklas:<\/i> Yeah, I\u2019m looking forward to starting the actual internship phase. This is my first go-round with Outreachy, but I\u2019ve mentored students through Mozilla\u2019s partnership with Michigan State University, which is actually how I joined the company \u2014 I was an intern in that program myself. So this feels like I\u2019m coming full circle. Hopefully I\u2019ll get to do for our new intern what my mentors, Mike Conley<\/a> and Gjis Kruitbosch<\/a>, did for me. And then as interns join the team, they can become mentors themselves and continue that tradition.<\/p>\n

How do you choose projects and interns?<\/b><\/p>\n

Katherine: <\/i>Usually, we start with the project \u2014 we\u2019ll map out some things we think we could complete in a quarter, and find one or two mentors at Mozilla for each project. Then before we select a candidate for a project, the applicants go through what\u2019s called a contribution period, where they post patches for Firefox and other Mozilla projects. It helps them get to know the code base, and it\u2019s a good opportunity to contribute and learn new skills, even if they don\u2019t end up interning.<\/p>\n

Niklas: <\/i>The contribution period has been great \u2014 the applicants are very passionate, including about Firefox and open source in general. In fact, many of them were already contributing to other open-source projects, which is cool.<\/p>\n

Joel: <\/i>Sometimes the hardest part is choosing who will go on to intern \u2014 applicants share these patches and you think, \u201cWow, there are so many great people to choose from.\u201d On some projects, we try to find a way to get two people on board.<\/p>\n

How do each of you approach mentoring an intern?<\/b><\/p>\n

Niklas: <\/i>Something I\u2019ve been working on recently with the Michigan State University students is remembering that everyone learns in a different way, and it\u2019s my job to understand the best way for each of them. It might be easiest to just tell them the answer to their question, for example, but will they actually learn from that? I\u2019ve been trying to guide them to find the solution on their own instead \u2014 asking more questions and helping them really think through what to do. That way when they face the next problem, they\u2019ll have a better idea of how to approach it.<\/p>\n

Katherine: <\/i>I also focus a lot on developing a relationship with the mentee \u2014 forming a connection. If they\u2019re facing a problem, I\u2019ll share my own experiences and try to give advice based on that. Maybe it was something I\u2019ve run into in the past, and could have done better.<\/p>\n

When they have a programming problem, I try to start by getting a sense of the big picture. Then if I don\u2019t personally know the answer, I\u2019ll point them toward someone else who has more knowledge in that domain. That\u2019s also a chance for me to learn \u2014 so we\u2019re learning about mentoring, but about Firefox as well.<\/p>\n

Joel: <\/i>Something I like to do is spend the first few weeks observing as much as I can. That\u2019s not to say I give them the project and they\u2019re on their own; we still chat every day, just to keep in touch and make sure they\u2019re not getting stuck. But I can give much better guidance if I\u2019ve taken the time to learn how someone works. Then once I know that, I focus on adding value for them. These internships aren\u2019t about us getting someone to work on our projects \u2014 we want to see them succeed. If we need to reframe the work to accomplish that, we will. The goal is for them to learn and build skills \u2014 whether it\u2019s technical knowledge, confidence, whatever they need.<\/p>\n

Any favorite success stories to share?<\/b><\/p>\n

Katherine: <\/i>I\u2019m so new to this, but I will say \u2014 we have biweekly meetings for Firefox desktop where, among other things, we share the names and work of new contributors, and it is very satisfying to see an Outreachy applicant\u2019s name on that list. It\u2019s a good reminder, too, that it\u2019s not just those applicants and interns, or even us as mentors, who benefit from Outreachy. It\u2019s other developers and users, too.<\/p>\n

Joel: <\/i>We had one intern who finished her project in the first couple of weeks \u2014 we were shocked! So we said, \u201cWell, what else? What are you really interested in?\u201d And she just kept rolling. She came up with some really creative ideas and ended up adding all these interesting features to make things much more efficient. When we presented at the next All Hands, I think 4 of the 16 projects on the slide were hers.<\/p>\n

How does Mozilla support Outreachy \u2014 both you as mentors, and your interns?<\/b><\/p>\n

Joel: <\/i>I think there\u2019s real support there. I\u2019ve always heard managers and directors saying, \u201cIf you want to participate, find a project and do it.\u201d It\u2019s never a \u201cmaybe.\u201d It\u2019s always a \u201cyes.\u201d Leaders help mentors shift their workloads for the four or five months they\u2019ll need. They also try to make sure interns feel like they\u2019re really part of the team. Sometimes their individual teams will meet face-to-face for a week, too, and interns can join and get to know people in person. I think that commitment is so important. If we want a program to work, it can\u2019t just be this lightweight thing we do in our spare time. We need to take it seriously.<\/p>\n

Niklas: <\/i>Absolutely. I\u2019ve seen a lot of focus on mentorship projects here, including Outreachy. It\u2019s clearly a priority at Mozilla, which makes sense \u2014 the company has always worked with volunteers and other non-employees<\/a>. It\u2019s certainly something I\u2019ve experienced and appreciated firsthand, as a former intern who\u2019s now on the full-time team.<\/p>\n

Katherine: <\/i>I think leadership also understands how important Outreachy and programs like it are for diversity and inclusion, which is something Mozilla embraces<\/a>. We want to connect with more people from underrepresented groups, who haven\u2019t historically had as many opportunities to contribute as much to Firefox. When I was in university, I was in a program that promoted diversity in technology, and just the fact that it existed helped me find a sense of belonging in computer science. My hope is that Outreachy does the same thing.<\/p>\n

What have you learned from being mentors?<\/b><\/p>\n

Niklas:<\/i> You really do learn a lot about the code base that you otherwise might not. In my past experiences mentoring, I was sometimes spending a month learning before my interns even started, and then continuing to learn along with them. As Katherine mentioned \u2014 sometimes a candidate or intern will come to you with a question you can\u2019t answer. So you say, \u201cLet\u2019s look into it together.\u201d We both get to see how the other approaches gathering information and solving that problem. It\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n

Katherine: <\/i>Something I\u2019ve learned is to document my experiences. For me, writing notes is a way of gathering my thoughts and making decisions, and it\u2019s helpful to look back on. \u201cI suggested that solution to them. How did that go? Would I take that approach again?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel: <\/i>I\u2019ve certainly learned a lot in terms of my own technical abilities, or things like managing time. I\u2019ve learned to choose interns based less on the code they\u2019ve written and more on their communication skills. But I think most of all, mentoring has taught me that first impressions are often wrong. I\u2019ve seen it again and again: In the first couple of weeks of someone\u2019s internship, I\u2019m thinking I might have to rescope the project, and then something clicks \u2014 their confidence, or new skills \u2014 and it all comes together. Some of those interns we later hired, and now I\u2019m looking up to them and asking them for help solving problems. If you have 10 applicants, I think all 10 have the potential to be great. You\u2019ve just got to help people find their potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2017, Mozilla partnered with Outreachy, an organization that connects people from underrepresented groups with three-month paid internships in open source. We\u2019ve since hosted over 100 Outreachy interns \u2014 many … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[327149,451108],"tags":[4883,287737],"coauthors":[306191],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}