Open Source Internship at Quansight

Quansight is invested in supporting the open-source PyData ecosystem. An internship at Quansight Labs is an opportunity to contribute to a PyData open source project, with dedicated mentorship from a project maintainer or contributor and interacting with the whole Quansight Labs team.

We aim to take on around 8 interns over the July-September period, who will each work on a challenging topic and, if successful, will have significant value to the open-source community.

Potential projects include working on NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn, Jupyter, conda-forge, data-apis.org, and more. They range from building a realistic performance benchmarking suite for a package to improving interoperability between two projects, new feature development, creating a design system for accessible data visualization, and implementing a new website design - see https://labs.quansight.org/ for more about the types of things we do in Labs.

During the internship, you’ll get to refine skills such as:

• Contributing to open source
• Pair programming
• Conducting effective code reviews
• Communication and collaboration
• Time management

Interns will be working under the guidance of experienced mentors, who will guide and help review each project. They will also be able to meet and network with other interns in the same cohort and the larger Quansight team.

Eligibility and internship details

Previous experience contributing to an open-source project is helpful but certainly optional. Good working knowledge of Python and Git is necessary*. Other relevant skills - e.g., continuous integration, testing, benchmarking and documentation tools, and other programming languages like C, C++, Fortran, CUDA or JavaScript - may be beneficial for a particular internship project but are not required to apply.

We are also actively working on the technical writing, design, and accessibility spaces and welcome applications from folks interested in these areas (*Note that for applicants interested in areas such as design, Python and Git are not required, but instead, we’d like to see familiarity with design tools such as Figma or Penpot).

• Start date: flexible, mid-June to mid-July
• Duration: 2.5 - 3 months
• Time commitment: flexible, you should be able to commit between 25-40 hrs/wk
• English language: we are a remote international company and we communicate in English. You do not need to be a proficient English speaker to apply, but should be able to communicate in written and oral English.
• Can be, but does not have to be, part of a formal curriculum. This program is open to current and non-students (including career changers, returners after a break in the workforce, boot camp alumni, self-taught developers/designers, etc.) with any educational background.
• This is a paid internship.

Application process

1. Submit your application by the 4th of March 2024
   
   
1. In addition to your CV, we ask that you send a one-page cover letter. This is an opportunity to detail specific projects, your motivations, and anything not covered in a traditional CV template. You can also talk about why you are interested in working on open-source software and your goals for the internship and beyond.
2. If you have a portfolio, GitHub profile, blog or other resources, we ask that you share a link to them as well.
2. Interview loop
   
   
1. First interview: in the first call, we want to focus on the essentials - we want to get to know you and what you are passionate about. For the main part of the interview, we’ll ask you some general questions and maybe some light technical questions, and we’ll also ask you to talk us through a project (this can be any type of project - maybe one you developed at school, during a boot camp, as a side project, at your last internship or professional position). This project deep dive is a chance for you to tell us what excites you in your work or studies.
2. Technical interview: Our technical interviews do not involve code challenges, meaning they don’t focus on live coding or whiteboarding. In this stage, you can do a walkthrough of the code you wrote or some code connected to a relevant issue on an open source project. We will do a portfolio or design critique for design interns and discuss topics like user experience, communicating design decisions, and documentation.
3. Results are communicated to candidates: we will aim to make a decision as soon as possible (within 2-3 weeks, but of course, this will depend on the number of applications we receive). To make this decision, we get everyone who interviewed you in a virtual room. We look at all the elements of your interview process and make a decision. By doing this, we ensure that we can make a fair decision and get a measured view of which project and mentor would be the best fit for you.
   
   We want to ensure that you’re in a space where you’ll get to work on the things you enjoy doing and are passionate about and get the support and guidance you need throughout your internship.