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How we Mentor "Rock Star" Students
Lance AlbertsonDirector
lance@osuosl.org@ramereth
About me
● Director OSU Open Source Lab● Systems Admin Background● Virtualization (Ganeti+KVM),
CFengine, Puppet, GlusterFS
● Gentoo Developer● Trumpet Jazz performer
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
About the OSU Open Source Lab
● FOSS hosting for high-impact projects○ 160 projects
○ Drupal, Apache Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, Python Software Foundation
● Co-location, private cloud, managed hosting
● 4 FTEs / 18 undergrad students● Systems Engineering, Development, and
Media teamsHow we Mentor "Rock Star" Students
Lance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Students
10 Years of FOSS Hosting at the OSU Open Source LabLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Powered by Students● Systems Team○ Server installation, machine deployment,
configuration management, service deployment, ticket troubleshooting, etc
● Development Team○ Python/Django, Some PHP & Ruby, IU, backend,
middleware, infrastructure dev tools, design
● Media Team○ Public relations, blog posts, interviews, social
media, event planning How we Mentor "Rock Star" Students
Lance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Students
10 Years of FOSS Hosting at the OSU Open Source LabLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Students
10 Years of FOSS Hosting at the OSU Open Source LabLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Post-graduation Careers
● 60 OSL alumni student and staff● Types of careers:○ Systems Engineering
○ Software Development
○ Management
● Startups - CloudKick (Alex Polvi)● Companies they work at○ Mozilla, Rackspace, Google, Facebook, Intel,
other small startups
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Recruitment
● Mailing lists● OSU Beaver JobNet● Website / Social Media● Class lists● Word of mouth● Beaver BarCamp
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Traits we look for
● Problem solving skills○ More than just "Googling it"
● Basic understanding of Linux○ Can they install packages, setup services?
● Self Starter● Do they have passion about the position?● Can they adapt and learn quickly?● What's their personality like?
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Skills we don't require initially
● Configuration management
● Production environment skills
● Open source community experience
● Web frameworks
● Extensive version control experience
● Already being a "rock star"
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Interview Process
● Understand their Linux experience○ How long have they used it?○ What have they done with Linux?○ Do they like to tinker with Linux?
● Open book screening quiz○ Basic questions through advanced○ Gauge their experience level better
● In-person interview
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
In-Person Interview
● Non-technical questions (personality)● Problem solving○ Read through a bash script or code○ Walk through a typical server
problem
● Basic programming concepts● Hands-on coding
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
New Hires: Learning about Linux
● Read the Linux Training Guide○ Linux Fundamentals
○ Linux System Administration
○ Excellent crash course on Linux
○ GNU Free Documentation License
http://linux-training.be/downloads/https://github.com/linuxtraining/lt
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Linux Training Guide
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
First six months as a new hire
● Learn about configuration management● Understand how services interact with
each other
● Walk through common tasks○ Machine deployment, setting up new services,
tickets, user creation, client/project interaction
● Learn about how our infrastructure works● Full-root from the start, but mentored
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Creating a learning environment
● Full-timers and senior students help with mentoring
● Find a task, and walk them through it○ Try to teach a group of students when you can
○ Let them do the task themselves
○ It's OK to make mistakes, just don't do it repeatedly or delete data
● Show more advanced tasks later on● Giving them root is important
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Beyond the first six months
● Give a student a major project to work on and own
○ Let them do the research, design, testing and initial deployment
○ Full-timers assist when needed
● Gives them something to be excited about● Something other than just doing tickets● Learn new cool things for the rest of the
team!How we Mentor "Rock Star" Students
Lance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Expect high standards
● Create an environment where we push each other harder
● Competitive yet still collaborative● Senior students set standards and new
hires tend to follow them
○ New hires want to become like the seniors
● Always be professional but always have fun too
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Working over Summer term
● Can work full-time 40 hour week○ No class/schedule interruptions
○ More productive, less context switching
● Students learn 3-4 times more over a summer than they do in a typical term
● Encourage younger students to work over the summers
● Senior students eventually get internships
How we Mentor "Rock Star" StudentsLance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
How the OSL is unique● Give them root (early on)○ Not many Universities allow this
● Very hands on mentoring from staff○ We don't expect students to know everything
initially
● High-profile production sites● Students interact with clients worldwide
on a daily basis
● Access to high quality internshipsHow we Mentor "Rock Star" Students
Lance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Future Plans with the program● Moving to an academic unit (EECS)● Building a program that impacts more
students
○ Impact 50-100 students
○ Start out with bi-weekly workshops
● Developing more FOSS curriculum at OSU ○ Offering classes on python, ruby, drupal,
sysadmin, foss development, etc
● Collaboration with other UniversitiesHow we Mentor "Rock Star" Students
Lance Albertson | lance@osuosl.org | @ramereth
Questions?Lance Albertson
lance@osuosl.org@ramereth
http://osuosl.orghttp://lancealbertson.com
Follow OSUOSL@osuosl | fb.com/OSUOSL
G+ "Open Source Lab"This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.Copyright 2013
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