LinuxFestNW 2013: How We Mentor “Rock Star” Students

How we Mentor "Rock Star" Students

Lance AlbertsonDirector

[email protected]@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 | [email protected] | @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 | [email protected] | @ramereth

Students

10 Years of FOSS Hosting at the OSU Open Source LabLance Albertson | [email protected] | @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


Students


Students


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


Recruitment

● Mailing lists● OSU Beaver JobNet● Website / Social Media● Class lists● Word of mouth● Beaver BarCamp


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?


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"


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


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


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


Linux Training Guide


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


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


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


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


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 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


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


Questions?Lance Albertson

[email protected]@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

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

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LinuxFestNW 2013: How We Mentor “Rock Star” Students