About a year ago, September 2017 to be exact, I was looking for an opportunity to use my C++ programming skills. One of my family members introduced me to an internship program called Outreachy, which he noticed when someone he follows on Twitter mentioned it. I was interested in a Linux kernel project, but I thought that I should not apply for it because I only used Linux for some small programming projects.
When I was working for a team that answers questions about their software development kit in 2016, I was asked for help with troubleshooting an issue in my application. I could not solve the bug, and I was told later that my application didn't work on Linux because the operating system is case sensitive. I created the application on Windows, and all internal teams were happy with it. When a team that wanted to share it with an external team tried to launch it on a portal running on Linux, they encountered the bug. I wanted to learn the differences between the operating systems, so I purchased a beginner book on Linux to study.
This year, I studied it and was fascinated to learn more about Linux. Right after I finished, coincidentally, a new round of Outreachy internships was announced, but I didn't see any Linux projects listed on their web page. At least, I submitted my initial application for eligibility at the end of September. The application was approved the next day.
I noticed that the number of projects was increasing, so I went back to the website to see other projects. When I completed the initial application in September, there were about 30 of them. Early the next month, that became more than 40, and I noticed that Linux kernel projects were added.
I narrowed down the project list to the ones that had C++ programming for their required or preferred skills, looked for technologies that I was interested in, and read about their mentors. I used VirtualBox Linux VM's, so the Hyper-V projects caught my attention. Because I was a programmer writer, I like to work with or learn from people who can write. As soon as I read about the mentorship style of one of the Hyper-V project's mentors, I really wanted to apply for that project: he prefers reports from his mentee and frequent email interactions.
Fortunately, I was accepted to that project. I am busy learning tools and reading and researching to write code for my tasks.