Busting Myths - GSoC and Outreachy Edition!

Myth 1: You need to be from a good college (IIT,NIT..etc)

Now this is something which is true to not just this post but literally anything you want to achieve in your life! Being from not a good college is not a disadvantage in terms of any dream that you want to pursue, and the same is true for Opensource too.

All you need to do is work hard, develop your skillset, network with like-minded people and uplift each other.

I would repeat the above line a million times to just emphasize on how important this is! Sure, the people in these colleges might have a headstart with things but that’s only because they built the community around them for it.They have seniors around them who have achieved similar goals and have encouraged them to do the same.

And you can do that too! How you ask?

• Start learning, gain knowledge. Don’t just buy courses and play it on 2x to build projects. Understand what goes into the course press pause, try to figure out the solution on your own. Or even better start reading documentation of the tools that you would like to use from their own page. Read blogs of other developers trying to build something, try to recreate but add a special element of your own. Could be in terms of design, or a new feature or even content! But make sure you learnt something not just added another certificate to your profile.
• Build a community. Start being around like-minded people and discuss ideas and collaborate on projects. Don’t be the person who only wishes for their own success. Remember true growth always comes from uplifting others and being a team player. So if you get accepted to any of these programs, it’s your time to start a culture in your college/institution to help others start their journey too! There are a lot of other programs too like DSC, Github Campus Expert, Microsoft Student Partner etc. that can help you to start a community with ease.
• Be consistent, Don’t procrastinate. What I often see with students is that they get really motivated during the GSoC period to get accepted but soon abandon the project on getting rejected or losing motivation.Remember all the extra hours that you put in during the time when no one’s contributing gives you the edge when applications open since you have a good deal of knowledge about the codebase.
• Last but not the Least, Ask just Ask. Incase you get stuck or you feel that this is really overwhelming, ask for help. Just ask, a lot of us students think that my question might be stupid or can never gather courage for the same. I was one of them, I used to undermine myself a lot. But in reality there are a lot of people willing to help you. You just need to ask.

Myth 2: You need to be an expert developer

Now this I one I hear a lot from other students. I used to think like this too but on actually contributing I realised that this is half the truth.

Sure, there are a lot of Opensource organizations that need you to have expertise in some specific skills. But, there are also many who are beginner-friendly and encourage you to contribute to them. Also a lot of organizations don’t seek for help only in terms of code, some want help in their documentation or quality assurance and testing.

So this is another one of the questions that I have been getting lately. So what are the skills I should learn then and what organizations should I contribute to?

• The answer to this is really there is no answer! It all depends on you. Whatever intrigues you really, start visiting the GSoC archive, checking out the organizations that you like and their tech stack. Start building your skillset from that.
• For selecting organizations, try to work with an organization with products that you have interesting ideas for and can build upon ( this will help you greatly in shaping up your proposal) and with an active community to address your queries.
• If you are not comfortable with coding don’t forget to check out documentation, QA and other possible projects that the organization might need (if you are applying to Outreachy, you can find them in the projects list). There is also a less heard of program called Google Season Of Docs which promotes documentation and technical writing. Check it out here!

Myth 3: You need a lot of contributions to get accepted

Don’t measure your contributions by quantity but rather by quality. Try to explore unchartered waters and by that I mean really try to find solutions to problems not by mere googling. Dig deeper!

Wait…what do you mean?

• Whenever you find an interesting problem, don’t just google to try to find the solution. Try to figure out what the function tries to do and why it might possibly be failing. Read the documentation of the libraries involved.
• When working with difficult problems, don’t hesitate to ask for help. The community members know that you are learning along the way and always appreciate your efforts.

Thanks!!