Internship Coordination Team: @oneski22 @catjam @JMTNFT
We wanted to provide an update around the Index Coop internship program which was first raised on this post
The slide deck provided here outlines in detail the proposed approach. A summary of the key points is provided below.
Summary
Over the course of 6 weeks we are proposing we take 5 interns across BD (3), Growth & Community (1) and Analytics (1). The program will provide education on all things DeFi and equip the interns with the skills and knowledge to be impactful Coop contributors.
We set an expectations that interns would be contribute at minimum 15 hours per week.
1. Benefit
- It will allow Index Coop to identify and recruit diverse global talent - setting interns up to be impactful contributors after 6 weeks.
- It will cement Index Coops reputation as a market leader in talent development.
- It will provide an opportunity to trial our approach, and prepare the Coop for subsequent rounds of internships more heavily targeted towards Dev/Engineering and/or other high value areas.
2. Cost
The internship pay ($500 per week) is fully funded as several VCs, TradFi Groups and Universities have provided support.
This means the only cost to the Coop is time. The Weekly time commitment for Index Coop contributors are:
- Working Group Lead - 1 hours
- Nominated WG People Manager* - 2-5 hours
- Intern Coordination Team - 20 hours
People Manager are nominated individuals for each WG involved in practically coordinating with the interns and central team throughout the program.
3.Curriculum
There are three main pillars to the internship curriculum.
Learning
- DeFi specific through Book clubs and guest lectures
- Business skills training (i.e. notion fundamentals)
- Index Coop masterclasses - recorded sessions with different community members providing specific training on their area of specialism (i.e. graphic design 101 session)
Challenge Cycles
- These challenges cycles are designed to encourage interns to challenge the “status quo at the Coop”, identifying things we should be doing better and encourage interns to come up with solutions.
- Interns will need to conduct their own research, and speak to members within the Coop to deliver effectively on challenges.
- The bar for these challenges will be continually raised as context is built.
For example:
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Week 1 Challenge - Present for 20 minutes on Index Coops competitive advantage.
-
Week 3 Challenge - Assess the success of Index Coops project management tools. Develop specific tools on Notion to aid with the planning for your area.
-
Week 6 Challenge - Identify one major area Index Coop can do better, and outline a proposed solution.
Contributions
Interns will be expected to actively contribute their respective Working Group as directed by the People Manager for their area.
4. Week in the life of…
Interns will transition from primarily from learning and context setting activity led by the Intern central team in Week 1, far more significant WG contribution focus by Week 6.
5. Application process
More details are in the slides here but in summary:
- We will be running a blind recruitment process, with selection decisions made based on the responses to 4 questions.
- Will will not discriminate based on age, gender or geography. To promote diversity we will partner with She256 and other groups supporting typically underrepresented groups in crypto. Furthermore, several University blockchain clubs and Engineering Departments have agreed to promote the program.
- A shortlist of candidates will be created by the Central Internship team and passed on to the WG Lead / People Manager for final selection.
- This final selection decisions will be made based the response to one WG specific question (i.e. please provide evidence, for example link to Gitbook, demonstrating your capability with SQL)
- Several established crypto project (i.e. Gitcoin) have reached out asking we funnel qualified interns over to their teams.
6. Next Steps
We welcome your feedback on this approach.
Please indicate whether you feel comfortable with us proceeding with the program as outlined above.
- Yes - but first run it through IIP
- Yes - and no need to run through IIP
- I need more information before I can support this program
- No - I do not support the internship program
0 voters
. Well done team. Showing my age here (I know, I know… my avatar looks younger) but I was lucky enough to intern for a well funded dotcom in summer 2000, and it was one of the best experiences in my life.