MY JOURNEY TOWARDS GETTING SELECTED

The words of Colin O'Brady are enough to dismiss the thoughts of not being good enough to make some certain achievements in life. These words gave me a push towards applying for Outreachy. What do I mean by that ???
Lets find out :)

How It Started....

 I come from a community where we are encouraged by Seniors to get into Programming and Open Source right from our first year at the university. It was in one of these talks and community events I first heard about Outreachy. At first, I wasn't really interested in it because I thought being a Telecommunication engineer needed no coding. This idea changed when I asked my mentor (Awasum Yannick at Skylabase) during internship if we are required to know how to codes and he responded "Everyone should know how to write codes".  It was then I decided to start learning how to code, so I became active in the programming communities that existed. In my third year at the university I thought of applying for Outreachy but I was too scared thinking I wasn't good enough. I had a lot of ''what Ifs'' in my head like; what if I can't make a contribution; what if I don't get selected; what if am not good enough etc....  It was then I came across Colin O'Brady's words which gave me the courage to try. 

Making My First Contribution....

My first attempt for Outreachy was during the Dec 2018- March 2019 round. I went ahead to fill my initial application and after some days it was approved. As excited as I was, I went into the project list and picked two projects in python. It wasn't really easy at that time because it was my first time contributing to open source but the mentors, who were friendly, made it worth the walk as they were ready to answer questions and helped in problems I faced. When my first pull request was merged, I was so excited. I made some few other contributions and then filled my application form and submitted. When the results came out and I wasn't selected, I wasn't so sad because I knew "failure was part of the process". 
   
During the May 2019 round, I decided to try again but this time with more determination. After my initial application got approved, I went through the projects and this  ''Setup discourse forum and migrate content and users from mailing list '' caught my attention. I went straight to research about the project and later I started making contributions for the project. At times when I faced difficulties, I posed questions to the community mailing list and I got quick replies. Mifos is such a friendly community. After making my contributions, I recorded them and started writing my proposal. I later on submitted it when I was done.

The D-Day....

The day of the result, I couldn't wait for the stated time to reach. I knew I had done my best but as it is, there was some little tension hovering around. When I received an email from the Outreachy organizers congratulating me for being accepted as an intern, I was super excited to have the opportunity to work with the Mifos community.

Take Home Message....

• Achievement is not for a selected few. If they can do it, then you can do it.
• Failure is part of the Process. Because you were not selected the first or second time doesn't mean you should quit.
• Pick a project or two and start making contribution to them early enough.
• Be an early bird. The early to approach a project and start making contributions, the better your chances.
• Start preparing your proposal early enough.

 

About Me....

I am called Nkep Kerlyn, a computer engineer from Buea specialized in Telecommunication. I am a data enthusiast and I am interested in data science. I am also a python programmer and an open source contributor. I love reading, watching movies and fashion.

x