# FAQ

### **I am applying for a project through the form and don't understand the experience scale. Help?!** <a href="#experience-scale" id="experience-scale"></a>

Beginner = I have never done this before / I have never written a single line of code.\
User = I have gained some first experience in this field / I have written code on my own.\
Advanced = I have gained some experience / I have written complex scripts\
Expert = I know my way around very well / I write my own functions and packages.

### How does CorrelAid select team members? What are the criteria? How can I increase the chances of being selected?

You can review the criteria for team selection [here.](https://docs.correlaid.org/project-coordinators/team-selection#team-selection-criteria)

Here are some practical tips:&#x20;

* Your motivation matters and it is an important component in the score but also in the qualitative assessments committee members make when deciding between equally qualified applicants. **An application without any or a very meaningful "why" will probably be discarded, regardless of whether you have unsuccessfully applied in the past**. Hence, please write about what motivates you for the project. Also, if you have a personal connection to the topic or the work the NPO is doing, please write it in the motivation. If you do not have experience expressing your motivation in a small paragraph of sentences, you can write bullet points instead. Here are some questions that can help you come up with something:
  * Why do you want to participate in a Data4Good project in general? Why do you want to spend 2-4 additional hours per week in front of the computer?
  * What motivates you about the organization? Have a look at their website. Why do you think their work is important?&#x20;
  * Do you personally relate to the work of the partner organization? If so, how?
* If you are new to data science but have job experience from a different field, please include soft skills and project management experience. Skills are not restricted to technical skills!&#x20;
* If you are part of a marginalized group, don't undersell yourself! :) Take a look at the experience scale and role descriptions above and when in doubt, take the more advanced category/role.

### I have found the form to become a project mentor / reviewer. What does this entail? <a href="#project-mentor" id="project-mentor"></a>

As a project mentor / reviewer, you might join a team (temporarily) to consult them so that they can improve the quality of their work by following **best practices**, hereby ensuring the long-term impact and sustainability of the project. This might include but is not limited to:

* input and advice on appropriate analytical methods and models, e.g. which time series model would fit best the problem
* recommending tools like packages, linter, code styler, documentation helpers, ...
* give feedback on quality of documentation and how to improve it
* review code and give tips to improve code quality, e.g. how to better structure code into functions or following better programming patterns
* advice on how to set up the project, e.g. how code and/or data can be better structured&#x20;

**Time commitment:** depends on your availability and the project's needs. Typically a one-time review / support is enough which should be a couple of hours (3-4 hours incl. reviewing the project, a meeting with the team and a follow up). In certain circumstances and if you want, you might join a team as a mentor for a longer period of time.&#x20;

**Background and your role:** With our projects we want to do two things: support the partner NPO with their data challenges and provide learning opportunities for our volunteers. Learning about and implementing best practices is definitely a good learning that volunteers can take away from our projects. Plus, best practices will improve the quality of the output for our partner NPO. However, given the limited time resources in the context of volunteering, it's sometimes hard to do *everything* right. So whenever making recommendations, you should heavily prioritize what really will help the project in the long run: Maybe the inconsistent code styling really annoys your "clean code" heart but you know good documentation will have a higher impact on the overall quality and sustainability of the project.&#x20;

In addition, as a team mentor, it is important that you consider that not all team members are as experienced, knowledgeable and skilled as you. Please a) have empathy with your fellow volunteers who are working on the project, especially those with less experience/skills, b) appreciate what they have done so far and the effort they put in and  c) properly explain why things are important - it might not be obvious to less experienced folks. Have empathy - always remember that you also started out as a beginner once!&#x20;

Finally, if your recommendations are not accepted / implemented, talk to the project coordinator to see what can be done so that the long-term sustainability and quality of the project are ensured.&#x20;