Hours commitment

[Reza Ferrydiansyah]

Hi all,

I've been wondering what the hours commitment for the GSOC is? I've
looked through the web and cannot seem to find one. The reason I'm
asking this is that to apply for GSOC, I have to have a CPT, and that
requires a letter from google which must also specify the hours
commitment (how much hours per week).

To further complicate matters, I also have an assistantship on campus
for 20 hours (at least for the first 1 1/2 months of summer). So I was
wondering whether I am able to apply for GSOC with a 20 hour
commitment?

Thanks

[Stuart Brorson]

Hi --

> I've been wondering what the hours commitment for the GSOC is? I've
> looked through the web and cannot seem to find one.

We tell our student applicants that we expect students to treat GSoC
as a full time job. That means 40 hours/week.

We have failed students who haven't met their end of the bargain to
work 40 hours. It's not fair to us as a project to get less than 40
hours/week since we must administer and mentor the students, which
takes time and effort. And it's certainly not fair to Google who are
giving students money in the expectation that they will work a full
day.

> To further complicate matters, I also have an assistantship on campus
> for 20 hours (at least for the first 1 1/2 months of summer). So I was
> wondering whether I am able to apply for GSOC with a 20 hour
> commitment?

We tell our applicants that if they have other jobs, then they should
work the other jobs, don't do GSoC, and enjoy their free-time after
work. Why would you kill yourself working two jobs when it's warm and
beautiful outside?

Cheers,

Stuart Brorson
GSoC Admin
The gEDA Project

[Leslie Hawthorn]

The answer to the time commitment involved is "it depends." Some projects, such as Stuart has mentioned, expect their students to devote full-time (40 hours per week) to their projects. Other projects may require fewer hours of time invested provided you meet all established deliverables. It is very important to be forthright about your time constraints when applying for GSoC and to candidly discuss what think you can accomplish given these constraints with your would-be mentors. Mention these factors in your application, as well.

It's also worth noting that working another full-time job while participating in GSoC does not usually lead to success in the program. Some folks have proven me wrong, but keep in mind that you want to devote sufficient time to the program for it to be a good experience for you *and* your mentors.

Cheers,

LH


--
Leslie Hawthorn
Program Manager - Open Source
Google Inc.

http://code.google.com/opensource/

I blog here:

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com - http://www.hawthornlandings.org

[Adam Taylor]

What is a CBT? Is that something all students require that I missed
or is that something specific to you?

Cheers,
Adam

[Matthew Wilkes]

Ask Google. And by that, I don't mean this mailing list.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=CPT+summer+of+code

Matt

[Leslie Hawthorn]

Hi Adam,

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 4:17 AM, Adam Taylor <adamjc...@gmail.com> wrote:

What is a CBT?  Is that something all students require that I missed
or is that something specific to you?

I assume you mean CPT? If so, no it is not required of all students. Here's the wikipedia page detailing CPT, which is also linked from our FAQ:
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curricular_Practical_Training

[Joël Fisler]

On 4 Mrz., 14:53, Reza Ferrydiansyah <rezafe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> To further complicate matters, I also have an assistantship on campus
> for 20 hours (at least for the first 1 1/2 months of summer). So I was
> wondering whether I am able to apply for GSOC with a 20 hour
> commitment?

I would say yes. In our case we dont let the students fill out time
sheets or something. What we do is plan the project, define a timeline
and then they should learn to stick to the project. If they are top-
programmers they may do it with 15h a weeks, if they struggle and are
new to Java they might take 40h a week or more, who knows. If they get
totally into it they might reach the first milestones two weeks before
our first deadline and take it easy. If they have trouble with
sticking to the timeline we might "force" them softly to work more.

So for is its important that students learn to plan, have a timeline,
have realistic goals. All the stuff you should learn anyway in a
University, just this time its "hands-on" with a tight schedule. At
University nobody tells you to study 40h a week. We dont control how
many hours they need to fulfil their timeline. I think all of our
mentors have been working long enough in our project and at the
University to know what we can expect from a student and what is
totally unrealistic. I have to explain that our project is funded by
the University of Zurich so all the mentors are employees of the
University of Zurich and we do GSoC during our business hours so for
us time spending mentoring is done during working hours like e.g.
coaching "normal" students. It also means that we (mentors) see each
other daily, our team has weekly team meetings where GSoC is also a
topic on the agenda most of the time ("how was last week", "what are
the students doing right now" etc.). We would (let me rephrase this:
we did) see it pretty quickly if one student would start doing other
stuff and work a lot less than the other 7 students we were mentoring.
I know that we are in a special position because most of you mentor in
your spare/free time, in the evenings, dont have regularly meetings
with other mentors (maybe other mentors live in another country...)
etc.

The last reason why I would not "force" someone to work 42.5h/week
(thats 100% in Switzerland) is the money. Although $4500 is a lot of
money in most places for students I would argue that here in
Switzerland this is what a good Java programmer can easily earn during
one (not in three!) month. So "forcing" someone to work a 100% for
$1500 here in Switzerland is something you can't really do. And
"forcing" should be banned of your vocabulary anyway when
participating at GSoC.