How we Mentor "Rock Stars"
summary
Student-run lab hires via an open quiz and interview process and trains people on real production stacks so newcomers get root access early, rewrite access to git and immediate bugs to fix; tooling includes Linux, Puppet CFengine Chef Python Django Flask Moodle git Nagios graphite and Amanda backups which once replaced a failing system; typical ramp is six months, summer hires work 40 hours and learn by doing in 4‑hour brain dump sessions plus hands‑on “catacombs”; goal is to scale to 50–100 students.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00OSL and student mentorship
- 3:58Student hire criteria
- 7:51Interview process
- 10:37Onboarding new hires
- 12:21First six months
- 15:52Mentoring beyond tech
- 17:58Innovation and ownership
- 20:06Unique program impact
- 21:13Introduction to Portland State University’s program
- 24:44Brain Dump apprenticeship
- 27:31Catacombs hands-on learning
- 30:18Mentor sessions
- 33:07From basics to advanced
- 36:14Trust and root access
- 38:00Student growth success
- 41:30Q&A
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