IndexCoop DAO Internship Program

Community Talent
1

Update #1 - June 11th, 2021
Authors: @Pepperoni_Joe, @oneski22 [Discord: TrotNixonLine]
Feedback: @catjam, Discord- “jmt nft”, all of the comments on post 1.

DeFi is a global revolution and we are committed to offering opportunities for people from all walks of life. As such, the application and selection process will not discriminate on the basis of age, location, timezone, gender, religion, or other identities.

Diversity is a core principle of the Index Coop and it is something we support, both because it is the right thing to do, and because we recognize the power diversity has to drive effective problem solving, innovation and creativity.

We will look to engage with she256, Blockchain Acceleration Foundation, several leading university blockchain clubs, and other organizations that advocate for underrepresented groups in crypto to help ensure diversity in applicants.

Depending on the success of our first round of internship, we may then look to host further targeted internship opportunities for typically underrepresented groups, for example, “Women in DeFi”.

Working proficiency of English and reliable access to an internet connection will be required, however, we hope to remove that first requirement as we continue to expand the global footprint of the Index Coop.

The application will be open for one week from 21 June to 27 June. In their application, individuals will need to indicate which Index Coop Working Group they wish to intern for.

We will likely place individuals in the following Working Groups: Growth, Analytics, Product, Engineering (Web3), Engineering (Smart Contract), Business Development, and Community & Organization.

We are committed to offering an application process that is not too onerous, but which provides applicants an opportunity to demonstrate their creativity, problem-solving ability, and appetite to learn. This will enable us to place the most suitable candidates in each of our different Working Groups.

We are still finalizing the specifics of the selection process. To reduce the impact of unconscious bias, applicants will be judged based on written submission. This might look something along the lines of:

  • Two standard questions for all applications, regardless of the Working Group they have applied to be judged against Index Coop guiding principles. Examples:

    • “What do you think makes Index Coop different from other organizations”

    • “What inspires you to work with the Index Coop team?”

  • Two questions that are specific to the Working Group the applicant has applied for. Examples:

    • “Please view the dashboarding and analytics the Index Coop currently offers. Please identify any weaknesses in the methodology, and propose any additional metrics you think it would be valuable to show”.

    • “The Index Coop will be running its first community survey in July, what questions would you include on this survey which will make it particularly relevant for a DAO”.

The applications will be reviewed by multiple senior members of the Coop in a blind process.

The internship will begin on July 12th and run for 6 weeks and we would hope to take between 5-10 interns across the various Working Groups (funding and bandwidth dependent).

They will be paid 3000 USDC, in 500 USDC increments every Friday for the duration of the internship. After this time, we hope they will transition into our standard process of payment through contributor rewards.
What activities will the interns take part in?

We are still defining the specific curriculum for our interns, some activities they undertake could include:

  • 6-week project - owning a significant standalone project over the course of the internship (i.e. design and delivery of DAO engagement survey and research article).
  • Booking club - weekly book clubs with all interns to reflect on learning from a curated reading list.
  • Guest lecture - option for all interns to attend guest discussions/lectures by veteran cryptocurrency experts.
  • Buddy & Mentor scheme - interns matched with buddies and mentors from across the DeFi space.
  • Article - interns to write an article reflecting on their experience at the Index Coop.

We welcome community feedback on any other activities we could line up for our interns.

If you would like to donate to help fund the education of the future leaders of our industry, please use the address below. We would greatly appreciate your support to make this program a reality.

For full transparency the internship program funding will be held in this multisig address 0x7a3b233f31275a0116668725fa822339209E7dAa.

If you are reading this as another DAO and would like to get involved to help shape and grow this program please reach out and share your ideas, comments, and feedback.

ORIGINAL POST
Authors: @Pepperoni_Joe, @oneski22 [Discord: TrotNixonLine]

In order for crypto and DeFi to continue to grow and succeed we need to engage, recruit and train the next generation of talent.

As a DAO we have a uniquely low barrier to entry that allows for equitable and universal access to contribute to the future of finance. This is regardless of age, experience, location, gender, or other identity. We can use this inherent advantage to attract emerging talent.

Commencing in July, we are proposing a new approach to talent development which is a first of its kind - sponsored DAO internships.

During their internship, students will work directly with a working group lead to develop their understanding of their inner workings of the Index Coop. They will be eating, sleeping, and dreaming crypto, DeFi, and DAOs. By the end of their internship, we will have equipped our interns with the context and skill to hit the ground running and transition into a regular contributor role.

We have already received 5000 USDC in generous donations to sponsor a group of interns from our initial cohort. We are working with leaders in the space to create fair and open guidelines for the program as well as to define the application process.

If you would like to donate to help fund the education of the future leaders of our industry, please use the address below. We would greatly appreciate your support to make this program a reality.

For full transparency the internship program funding will be held in this multisig address 0x7a3b233f31275a0116668725fa822339209E7dAa with @oneski22 and @Pepperoni_Joe as the signers until a more formal structure is created.

If you are reading this as another DAO and would like to get involved to help shape and grow this program please reach out and share your ideas, comments, and feedback.

Google is so 2000 - let’s make it every student’s dream to work in DeFi at a DAO!

In our minds, there are a few considerations:

There are still some open question in our mind which we would love the communities steer on

  • Geographies - Do we make this open to anyone across all regions? Time Zones might create difficulty having contributors from some geographical areas.
  • Gender - It would be awesome to at some point run a “Women in DeFi’’ internship program. Maybe we could launch this as a follow-up round after this initial trial?
  • Assignment - does it make sense to have one intern per WG lead. Do all WG leads have scope to provide enough work / opportunities to interns?
  • Selection process - Any ideas for what would work here, with a selection process that balances getting high-quality candidates, without a length or onerous application process. Something short, fun, and creative specific for each WG role (i.e. 500-word article, short video, coolest graphic, etc). We can coordinate with each WG lead to figure out a suitable approach for their area.
  • Timing - proposed start date of July 12th running for 6 weeks which would be a feasible time to turn around marketing, selection, and onboarding. What are your thoughts on the timing and length of the program?
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I have been looking for an opportunity like this, i would keep my eye on it.

Currently i spend my time practicing with vyper and solidity, understanding uniswap V2 contracts, and the staking contracts of BarnBridge (love their implementation of epochs).

Also i have a blog of blockchain in spanish (im from mexico), a friend and i built it from scratch using django, we are soon to launcht it, currently we have some articles published and we are working to build a defi dashboard using web3.py so our readers could manage their DeFi positions there. Our goal is to attract more people in America Latina to the space.

Link of the blog: https://www.coinsmos.com/

I would like to participate in this iniciatve IndexCoop is doing.

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This is just a wonderful idea. Love it.
Each internship has to be well planned and the intern needs a dedicated person to talk to for all circumstances. You may all now this. But this is what I have experienced when something like this didn’t worked out well.
But I always loved to work with people starting with what maybe will become their profession. :slight_smile:

Pro.

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I love this!! Interns are a great talent pipeline, especially for underrepresented groups. It is really amazing to see “Women in DeFi” called out specifically here. I would love to help with that, and she256 could be a great partner here as well.

On logistics… I’d guess many students already have summer employment locked down before July 12th. That shouldn’t deter us from launching this, but perhaps we consider structuring it as a part-time program and make sure it can be flexible with existing commitments (IC is great about that anyway).

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I was in RaidGuild Season0 DAO apprenticeship as a UX Designer.

Some of the things that worked well:

  • Every title had a definition (Ex: Rangers = UX Designers, Archers = Visual Designers)

  • We initially had two meeting times on Tuesday 1 in the am & 1 in the early pm. It then became just the afternoon time.

  • We were given a calendar of calls we could join in on for potential projects or happenings (this was highly encouraged but not mandatory)

  • The meetings, support team & assigned projects were all handled by two RaidGuild members.

  • We could pick from projects in a spreadsheet or present an idea for the DAO to work on

I do research and design in Web 3 with my goal to work in Defi. If there is any opportunity to get involved I am available.

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Wonderful to see the growth and facilitation of engagement for the next generation!
I recently left my small business manager role to pursue crypto/blockchain technology and I can say that it’s exciting yet daunting to enter into the space without knowing anyone or having any network. Intern programs would allow passionate and talented individuals a foot in the door, engagement with the working group who have the experience of working in DAOS, DeFi and Crypto.

I myself would sign up in an instant, I’m a marketing and management major graduate with 3 years of being immersed in the Crypto space. I’m passionate about financial literacy and education.

Regarding the considerations:

Geographies: This could largely depend on the level of interaction from the working groups, is the internship knowledge captured and stored digitally or are the Working Groups operating with high degree of personal real time interaction? Is it possible to capture some knowledge and guide occasionally? Are the interns outside of appropriate timezones willing to fit the time sessions in no matter when they are.

Gender: “Women in DeFi” would be great, would suit the second round best for inclusivity first, or perhaps that looks more like ensuring equal or significant numbers of women are in the first round.
Assignment: Will a program be developed for WG Leads to put the Interns through? Will the intern be learning directly personal experience from the WG Lead or will the WG Lead be facilitating a pre set course for the Intern? If a classroom program was set up prior then a WG lead could handle more interns however this may take away from more personal and experience lead interaction and knowledge transfer.

Selection Process: One thing to avoid would be “judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree”. If WG Leads are “training” interns in their area of expertise then perhaps allowing them to come up with say 5 options for application selection grading that are open ended for the applicant to select 1-2 of the 5 as their application.
Ie: For marketing:
1- Write a short article on an underutilised aspect of blockchain.
2- Film a video about what you are most passionate about for blockchain’s future
3-Design a graphic for the presentation and market launch of a new IndexCoop Product.
4- Write an article showcasing the benefits of one of Index’s Products.
5-Demostrate your current knowledge of crypto in a format that best befits your skills.

Timing: 6 weeks is a good time period for the program, not too short, not too long.
Is less than 5 weeks enough time to create the framework for the Internship program?
I’ve done 1 internship with a marketing company and their set up was too rushed where the WG Leads didn’t have a structure to run the program on and were left to their own direction which lead to inefficient utilisation of the internship and WG Leads not having enough work/opportunities for interns or having a path for the program to follow, which resulted in WG Leads assigning interns to study knowledge that could have been found outside the program. Internship programs should be structured to share tacit knowledge from the leads rather than explicit knowledge that could be accessed online elsewhere. That is one major benefit of internship programs, the ability to transfer and share learned experiences, tacit knowledge that comes from socialisation and mentoring that facilities intuitive knowledge that can’t be as easily shared through easy online access formats.

I look forward to seeing where the program goes and will certainly be putting in my application.
Kyle

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@oneski22 and @Pepperoni_Joe Well done on this post! And super excited to see this conversation being pushed forward. My only feedback is the gender consideration. I really do believe we push for diversity when we look at hiring interns, historically there has been discrimination against people of colour and gender within corporations. I truly believe if we are revolutionizing finance and how organizations work in general we need to approach things differently. Besides woman I would also like to see interns from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, I would love to see a program launched where we are not only impacting the lives of an individual intern but also the family and communities they come from.

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Diversity of different kinds is important and to a great degree it arises naturally but it is not easy to direct without undesirable consequences. Being decidedly welcoming to either gender (or all) is fantastic and the approach that I most would like to see. Favoring a gender when selecting apprentices will probably not be relevant at all for reaching this goal:

I’m hoping that we will be able to celebrate having women in crypto that are respected as equals and that there is no suspicion of us hiring women as a marketing ploy.
Perhaps it is good to think of different inlets for new people to the coop as ways to encourage different demographics. We could appeal to platforms that have a gender or geographical bias that might diversify our candidates without us having to make moralistic judgements.

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I run a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that starts accredited blockchain development courses at universities and I’m happy to help place someone :slight_smile:

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:raised_hands:

this seems like solid direction to go in – there are probably some really creative/easy ways to allow flexibility, while still ensuring that interns have a great experience & learn

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Echoing others, this is a great idea. I think we should do this and go all out making this a model for DAOs and truly try to compete with traditional tech internships.

In my mind, that means:

  • Timing - Schedule the internship term to coincide with traditional tech summer/fall/spring internships (maybe that means we push this back to August/Sept start (and use the time before then to really build out the program) or start with a more abbreviated/part time version on the schedule you noted and build it out following that)
  • Compensation - obviously with our normal DAO model compensation can be variable, but it might be worthwhile to offer a fixed amount for the term of the internship to help make this more of a competitive option with traditional internships (especially for students trying to plan out rent/expenses)
  • Recruitment - though this should definitely be open to all, including people not in college, it seems worthwhile to make sure this is added to job board listings at schools with big blockchain clubs (some of these clubs control millions in DeFi tokens)

Re: selection, if we are seeking interns specific to WGs, I think it would be cool to make the “application” specific to that function (e.g., for a Growth WG internship slot, a 10 slide deck outlining a TikTok marketing strategy (or something to that effect)). I would leave it open to all geographies in the spirit of the DAO.

Looking forward to seeing what kind of innovative and diverse talent flows to the Coop through this program.

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Amazing initiative, this will be one of the first to gather support from all major DAOs, l would love to see this being pushed as a DAO community effort and not just an Index Coop effort.

Let’s make this the “DeFi Summer Internship Program”.
But Jesus, why would you put Summer in the name if we want to make this a year-round effort? Cause it’s always Summer in the Defi world :sunglasses:

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Absolutely love this idea.

A few thoughts:

Geographies: Seeing as how the proposed length of the program is only 6 weeks long, it may be possible to keep each cohort within a certain range of time zones. With every new cohort, a new range of time zones.

Timing: As @cedrick stated, I think that aligning the program with traditional tech summer/fall/spring internships is an important guideline to follow, especially for those students who are looking to apply.

As far as length goes, 6 weeks seems like it would work well. I would even be open to the idea to extending the length if resources permit.

Selection Process: I think having a short video/essay submission would help in choosing the right candidates. This will give you great insight into each of the candidates current understanding of the topics in the crypto/defi space and will allow each candidate an opportunity to properly communicate where they’re interest lie and how they feel they can best contribute.

Overall, I am very intrigued by this idea and believe it will inspire future DAO’s to follow suit. I will certainly be following this very closely and submitting my application once all the details are hammered out.

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When will you guys open the application process? I am very excited to apply!

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You have no idea how much I have been looking for intern opportunities, kind of tough to find intern in the space.
I am sure many are in the same position as me, and if I join this I am sure many of us will learn from each other and come out ready for new tougher challenges.

I tried the discord server, but the discord server name is not accessible atm, so how do one apply for the opportunity as of now?

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This new generation is impressive, so many bright and capable minds. This is becoming a fantastic world in which my children will grow up. Gender diversity, race equality, young talent, these things people are considering these days.

Have we considered the folks who are getting older though?

Consider Dan. He’s 40, and according to Wikipedia, barely a Millenial, but still in the club.

Dan used to play Age of Empires on 56k dial up in his teens and finished high school as an average student (quite the feat considering he had a learning disability growing up).

After high school, he went to college and graduated in graphic design. In his 20s now, and unemployed, he turned to work in construction and sales to get by, while managing to get in a few design gigs to not completely erode his skills.

In his 30s, he witnesses the rise of digital marketing, learning google and facebook ads and making cheap websites for small businesses to make a modest living. He was aware of crypto, but did not have enough to spare to buy into it.

So consider Dan, who is 40. What is his chance, if he does not know JavaScript, Solidity, and knows less than those half his age?

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I would love and be grateful to be considered and be mentored as an intern.

I believe the blockchain technology is a solution to diverse problems that requires diversified and inclusively creative solutions to problems.
Solutions that cut across industries, governments, biases, human development and interactions.

I fell In love with the blockchain industry when I had access to diverse opportunities and knowledge just by being a Blockchain Acceleration foundation member for 8months now, went into every rabbit holes and attended dozens of zoom meetings at midnights, read documents, join communities, interact and open to communities and also promote the blockchain industry.

I’ve seen how beautiful the industry is and can be, and also how difficult to fully participate in a Clare direction based of geographical location and time zones, I’m always awake at night because of time zone to keep up, and having to face the reality of pursuing a solution (blockchain + DAO) to a problem (Global + Nigerian government) that is yet to be accepted by majority, especially in my geographical location. Lagos Nigeria.

My firs love is Architecture.

God! I love architecture :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I have a diploma degree and a college degree In Architecture and have been working in the industry for years after and before my college degree, I further fell in love with architecture as building and developing the interaction between humans and his communities/environment and no other way is a best fit to archive @JMossArchitecture’s Vision if not through the DAO.

JMoss Architecture is a sole proprietorship company, that is locally and strategically positioned as a radical change to rethinking and redesigning community developments and architecture with a global mindset. hence I’m “poor” because all this effort to get into the industry while, I’ve been living below 1 dolla a day, make it much more difficult to stay focused on the DAO path.

I tried learning smart contacts still in the process and
Reach language,
Joined some DAO communities and contributed to some projects discussions.
But keeping up with the industry, the expenses attached to subscriptions for apps and internet data, and other membership like the ethereum alliance. Good thing for me is I’m determined to be lead by a mentor and also be able to contribute to the DAO communities🥰.

And One intern per WG lead would be quite effective for someone like me, because I am already in the blockchain community, I need to be assigned a mentor as an intern in the industry.
Especially focusing on the DAO.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to be in the industry :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Since we both agree that diversity is important, I’d love for us to find ways to explicitly grow diversity within the coop in ways that feel genuine to our commitment to great talent. As someone who works full time in crypto / is hiring a ton, I have not experienced diversity “arising naturally” – quite the opposite.

What are your ideas here? Would love to hear specifics.

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Dan should not sell himself short. No ageism at the Coop.

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I’m not surprised that gender diversity is minimal in the crypto space and I could have been more clear. In the back of my mind I meant that there are many kinds of diversity and they are all worth considering.
I haven’t found a really good place to look for a disproportionately female-heavy population that might be interested but maybe looking at statistics for hobbies or some gaming platforms could be a place to start. I’m guessing that there are women’s advocate organizations that would be happy to help if we reached out.