What is Outreachy?

Outreachy provides internships to work in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Outreachy internships are open to applicants around the world. Interns work remotely and are not required to relocate. Interns are paid a stipend of $5,500 USD for the three-month internship. Interns have a $500 USD travel stipend to attend conferences or events.

Interns work with experienced mentors from FOSS communities. Outreachy internship projects may include programming, user experience, documentation, illustration, graphical design, or data science. Interns often find employment after their internship with Outreachy sponsors or in jobs that use the skills they learned during their internship.

Outreachy expressly invites women (both cis and trans), trans men, and genderqueer people to apply. This internship is offered twice a year and you do not have to be a student to apply for it. However, you must be available for a full-time, 40 hours a week during the internship period.
(Summer break at DAIICT makes our students eligible for applying in May-August round.)

Check out https://www.outreachy.org/ to know more.

Application procedure

Application procedure for Outreachy is quite different than a typical job/internship application and a lot similar to that of Google Summer of Code! All aspirants need to take an eligibility check at the very beginning of the application period. This is extremely important. Aspirants need to fill out an initial application, which is then checked and approved by the organizers. The initial application has few essay-type questions regarding the challenges and obstacles faced by aspirants while developing their technical skills. It also collects details regarding their time commitments during the internship period. Project details are accessible only after getting the initial application approved. If the aspirant is/are a student or enrolled in any academic program, he/she/they is/are needed to provide details of his/her/their academic calendar, exam schedules and enrolled courses in order to get the eligibility checked. In a nutshell, the aspirants should be available for a full-time during the internship period. To know more about eligibility rules check out https://www.outreachy.org/apply/eligibility/.

Once your initial application gets approved, you can access details of the participating organizations and their projects. Project details typically describe the project task(s), prerequisites for applying to that project, system requirements, mentor’s contact details and mentoring style. The project list keeps getting updated as new projects are announced during the application period. Applicants are supposed to select 1–2 project(s) of their interest and introduce themselves to the organization’s public communication channel (IRC &/ mail groups). They should also introduce themselves to project mentors.

Each project will have a set of tasks for aspirants to complete to see if they like working on the project. These are typically beginner friendly tasks. If you face any difficulties while attempting them, you can always ask for help on the community’s IRC channel and mailing lists. Applicants can also help each other in troubleshooting such issues.

Once you complete such a task aka make a contribution, you are supposed to record it for your project application on the Outreachy website. Only applicants that make at least one contribution are eligible to be accepted as an intern. More the contributions, stronger your application. Applicants are also supposed to submit a final application for each project they’ve made contributions to before the application deadline. The final application involves your recorded contributions and answers to a few essay-type questions about

1. Your experience with open source communities and contributions
2. Your proposal for the project timeline (project mentor can help you with this)
3. Details about your work/projects which helped you gain the skill set required for the project you’re applying to
4. Your preferences in case you are applying for multiple projects
5. Details about your GSoC project application if you’re applying for GSoC as well

Generally, the results are announced after a month of the application deadline. Applicants continue to work with the mentors and contribute to projects during this time. After completing beginner tasks, applicants attempt more advanced tasks and learn more about projects during this period. You can get a really good idea about the project work and mentoring style by this time. To know more about the application process check out https://www.outreachy.org/apply/.

Internship Period and Stipend

If you’re selected as an intern, you are supposed to sign the intern contract and give confirmation about your availability for the internship. After that, you continue to work with your mentor for 90 days, full-time, 40 hours per week, from the beginning of the internship period. You are also supposed to blog about your internship work and progress. You and your mentor provide periodic feedback on your internship. You get your stipend in three instalments as your internship progresses. You can avail the travel stipend with your mentor’s validation for your travelling to conferences or events related to your internship within a year of the internship period.

Concluding remarks

Outreachy is a fantastic internship program. Interns get to work on real-world projects with well-experienced members of various open source communities. It is also an immensely potential learning opportunity. The application procedure itself is a great learning experience. You also don’t need to be an expert in order to apply. If you’re interested in the project and willing to put efforts in learning the required skills along the way, Outreachy internship is for you too!

I am selected for interning with the Linux kernel for May-August 2019 round. If you are interested in applying and have any questions or doubts, I would be happy to help. So feel free to reach out to me. My contact details are available here. If you are particularly interested in contributing to the Linux kernel, check out my post on getting selected for the Linux kernel.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. Hope to see participation from DAIICT in next rounds!