It's 11 PM on a Friday. You refresh your email for the hundredth time, and there it is: "Your initial application for Outreachy has been approved." You do a little victory dance. You screenshot the email. You tell everyone who'll listen. Then you open the Outreachy project list, and reality hits: Now what?
I'm writing this exactly five days into my contribution period, while the panic is still fresh enough to remember but far enough past to laugh about. If you're reading this the night you got approved, or if you're preparing for next year's round, here's the honest truth about those first critical days.
Day Zero: The Approval Email
When that email lands, you have roughly 26 days until the final application deadline (April 15, 4pm UTC for my cohort). That sounds like plenty of time. It isn't. Here's what nobody tells you: most applicants spend their first week just figuring out how to contribute. By the time they understand the process, they've lost precious days. So let's skip that learning curve. Here's what to do in the first 24 hours after approval.
First, breathe. You made it past the initial application. That's huge. The reviewers saw something in your essays that resonated. You belong here.
Second, resist the urge to immediately start coding. I know. Your instinct is to dive into the most complex issue and prove yourself. Don't. That path leads to frustration and abandoned pull requests. Instead, spend your first evening reading. Actually reading. The Outreachy Applicant Guide is long and slightly boring, but it answers 90% of the questions you'll panic about later. Set a timer for one hour and just read it straight through.
The single most important thing you'll learn: you need at least one accepted contribution to be eligible for selection. Not started. Not submitted. Accepted. That means reviewed, approved, and merged or documented.
Day One: Choosing Your Project
Saturday morning. Coffee in hand. Now you face the project list.
Here's my advice, learned from almost making the wrong choice: pick the project where the description makes you genuinely curious, not the one where you already know everything.
I almost skipped the Fedora AI project because I thought "I'm not an AI expert, I'll pick something safer." Then I realized: Outreachy exists specifically to help people learn new things. The mentors know you're not an expert. They're evaluating your ability to learn, not your existing knowledge. Read through 3-5 project descriptions. For each one, ask yourself: "Would I be excited to work on this for three months?" If the answer isn't an immediate yes, keep looking.
Once you've chosen, do this before touching any code:
Join the communication channels. Every project lists how to contact mentors. For Fedora, it was Matrix. For other projects, it might be Slack, Zulip, or IRC.
Here's the template I used to introduce myself:
"Hi everyone! I'm [Name], an Outreachy applicant interested in [Project Name]. I have experience with [relevant skill] and I'm excited to learn about [project area]. I'm in [timezone]. Looking forward to contributing!"
Short. Specific. Shows you've read the project description.
Why this matters: Mentors are watching who shows up early and communicates clearly. In my project's chat, I noticed the mentors responded warmly to early introductions and helped those people find good first tasks faster.
Days Two Through Four: The Setup Marathon
This is the part everyone underestimates. Setting up your environment isn't five minutes of git clone. It's accounts, authentication, configurations, and inevitable "why isn't this working" troubleshooting.
For Fedora, I needed a Fedora Account System (FAS) profile, Matrix account, and blog. Each took 15-30 minutes. Account propagation across systems took another 30 minutes. Suddenly, half a day is gone.
The trick: Treat setup as your first contribution to yourself. Create a document titled "How I Set Up My Environment" and write down every step. When you inevitably need to troubleshoot later, you'll thank yourself. Plus, this document itself can become a contribution if you polish it and submit it as documentation improvement.
During setup, you'll hit weird errors. I spent an hour dealing with a 401 authentication error because I didn't realize Fedora's systems needed time to sync. When you get stuck for more than two hours, ask for help in the community chat. Seriously. Mentors would rather answer setup questions than have you disappear in frustration.
Day Five: Your First Actual Contribution
By now you understand the project better. You've lurked in chat. You've read some existing code or documentation.
It's time to claim a task.
Start small. I cannot stress this enough. Your first contribution should be something you can complete in 2-4 hours, not 2-4 days.
Look for issues tagged good first issue, newcomer-friendly, or help wanted. If none exist, email your mentor: "Hi [Name], I'm ready to make my first contribution. Could you suggest a beginner-friendly task that would help me understand the codebase?"
When you find a task, claim it publicly. Comment on the issue: "I'd like to work on this. I'll have a draft PR by [realistic date]."
Here's what good claiming looks like: You give yourself a deadline. You're accountable. Mentors can see you're serious.
Then actually do the work. And here's the secret: your first contribution will probably need revisions. That's not failure. That's the process. Expect feedback. Welcome it. Respond to it quickly.
My first contribution was fixing a typo in documentation. Took 30 minutes. Got merged in 24 hours. It was tiny, but it taught me the entire workflow: fork, branch, commit, push, PR, review, merge. Now I understood the mechanics.
My second contribution was writing a missing setup guide. Took three days. Went through two rounds of feedback. Taught me how to communicate with reviewers and iterate on work.
The Recording Step Everyone Forgets
Here's where people lose eligibility: they make contributions but forget to record them on the Outreachy website.
After each contribution is accepted, go to your project page on Outreachy.org. Click "Record contributions and create a final application." Add the contribution with:
Date you started
Date it was accepted
URL to the PR, patch, or work
Brief description
Do this immediately after each contribution. Don't wait until the last week and try to remember everything you did.
What Actually Matters to Mentors
After four days of watching other applicants and talking to mentors, here's what I've learned they care about:
Communication over perfection. They'd rather see you ask questions and submit imperfect work than disappear for a week and submit something mysterious.
Consistency over volume. One person made 15 tiny contributions. Another made 2 substantial ones with good documentation. The second person got more mentor attention because their work showed depth.
Understanding over execution. If you submit code you can't explain, that's a red flag. If you submit simpler code with clear comments explaining your reasoning, that's impressive.
Initiative over waiting. When you're blocked, do you sit quietly or do you post in chat: "I'm stuck on X, here's what I've tried, what should I try next?" The second approach shows resourcefulness.
The Mindset Shift That Helped Me
I stopped thinking "I need to impress them with my skills" and started thinking "I need to show them I can learn and collaborate."
Outreachy isn't looking for experts. They're looking for people who can:
Communicate clearly when stuck
Accept and implement feedback gracefully
Work publicly in a community
Learn new things quickly
Contribute consistently
You already proved you face underrepresentation in tech by getting your initial application approved. Now prove you can thrive in an open source community despite that.
Your Week One Checklist
By day seven, you should have:
Read the applicant guide thoroughly
Chosen your project and joined communication channels
Introduced yourself to mentors
Completed environment setup
Made at least one contribution attempt (even if not merged yet)
Started your second contribution
Recorded everything on Outreachy.org
That's it. You don't need ten contributions in week one. You need to show up, communicate, and make steady progress.
Final Thought
It's now Wednesday, March 25th. I'm five days in. I have two contributions accepted, one in review, and a growing sense that I can actually do this.
The panic from Friday night has transformed into focused work. Not because I suddenly became an expert, but because I stopped trying to be perfect and started trying to be consistent.
If you're reading this the night you got approved, here's my advice: Close this tab. Read the applicant guide. Join your project's chat. Introduce yourself.
Then get some sleep. You've got 26 days ahead of you. Start tomorrow fresh.
You've got this.
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