Logistics of being a CfA Fellow

[KathleenLD]

Is there anywhere that current or past Fellows have talked about the actual nitty-gritty (or argle-bargle, if you don't mind my stealing some verbiage from Justice Antonin Scalia) logistics of the program? I'm interested in things like finding housing, being successful in the host city, relocating to SF for a year, transitioning out of the Fellowship (finding jobs!) and that sort of thing.

[kmcurry]

Have not cross-checked but these are the closest I know:

http://codeforamerica.org/2012/07/11/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-cfa-fellow-prashant-singh/

http://www.quora.com/Code-For-America/Im-interested-in-the-Code-for-America-fellowship-program-How-can-I-know-if-its-for-me

[mapmeld]

The fellowship is going to change from year to year, and a lot is based on fellows' own initiative, but this was my experience in 2012:

• January: Cities, Design, and Code Boot Camp in SF. Get up to speed with things fellows need to know.
• February: Interviewing people in the partner city. Your priority for this month is to learn about the city and make connections, not to write code.
• March-September: Development and testing in SF. Our partner city was the first priority, but we were free to work on other cities' projects or develop fun things on Labs Fridays. I went back to my partner city twice in this period (most of June, a week in September).
• October-November: Final app testing and rollout in SF and the partner city.
• Throughout: conferences, weekly events of some type in the CfA SF office, and a few conference presentations. There's a set conference/travel budget for each fellow, and fellows vary in how they make use of that.

Finding housing: I did not have prior housing experience, so I stayed at Airbnbs outside SF. Don't do this.

Transitioning after the fellowship: we met a lot of cool people in the partner city and in SF, but I didn't think about finding a job and networking until the fall. The fellowship is a great jumping-off point if you want to join local government, a "civic startup" or large government vendor, or making your own civic startup with what you learned in the city. It depends a lot on what your prior experience is, and what you're looking for.

[yesezra]

Great question! There isn't a ton of information available publicly about this, but I'll do my best to answer some of your questions:

• Housing: rents in San Francisco (and the bay area in general) are incredibly high at the moment, and it can be somewhat difficult to find a good place to live even in the best of circumstances. That said, the majority of this year's fellows moved here from elsewhere, and we were all able to make arrangements. CfA passed on a lot of resources and advice from past fellows – most of us found places to live through family, friends, or former fellows.
• Being successful in the host city: the entire month of January is a series of intensive trainings to get you ready for the rest of the year. Among other things, you'll learn about how government works, the ecosystem of civic tech, how to get along with your teammates, and how to communicate effectively with partners in your city. It's a crash course, and the job is definitely challenging, but you'll have plenty of context.
• Transition: CfA is incredibly well connected to governments, foundations, and technology companies of all sorts. You'll meet some amazing people, and have an opportunity to have some really unique work experiences. In many ways, it's on you to take advantage of these resources – but I'm pretty confident that by the end of the fellowship I'll have more than a few interesting job opportunities.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to follow up. :loudspeaker:

Hope that helps!

Ezra, 2013 fellow

[KathleenLD]

@ahhrrr @mapmeld @kmcurry Thanks so much-- each of those answers was crazy helpful.

Everything about this sounds amazing.

[prashtx]

Hah, I'm not quite sure my "A day in the life of a CfA Fellow" blog post qualifies as the nitty-gritty logistics of the program. But yes, once you relocate to SF, there will be lots of places to get more coffee, more bourbon, and less hair.

The argle-bargle is good to know, but I hope none of that will really prevent you from applying/accepting. The whole of CfA (not just the folks involved directly with the fellowship) provides advice/support/etc. for being successful in the partner city. Relocating and finding housing can be a big hassle, it seems, but there are docs internally with advice on neighborhoods, ideas for sharing houses, and all the other fun stuff.

It's a fixed-term thing, so it's definitely wise to think about what happens after the Fellowship. Some of us decided to launch startups, and we received some great support from the CfA network. There was definitely recruitment interest in tech, since CfA has a solid relationships with the tech industry in general.

I'm curious now how many fellows knew what they wanted to do post-fellowship and how many are actually doing that thing. I think the Fellowship year had an impact on many folks' notions of what they want to really do.

[KathleenLD]

@prashtx maybe not nitty-gritty, but still useful. I assume you captured a light day, but it doesn't sound too far from the pace/rhythm of my days as a project manager currently, so that's helpful. If I get accepted I promise I'll be asking about the bourbon/haircut situation.

I think you're right about argle-bargle (I'm going to try to keep saying that at least daily) not keeping me from applying. Even figuring out what to do w/ my cats seems like a surmountable challenge (hint: bring them to SF with me in March. Don't judge.). I think now I just need to put together a killer application and then wait.

Anyway, thank you all for being so eager to help me out. I really appreciate it, and your responses were tremendously useful :)

[migurski]

Argle-bargle, or foofaraw?

@KathleenLD I hope you decide to apply. Everything you describe is getting easier over time as our network grows and past fellows provide advice and networking to current fellows. The first year, a contingent of fellows all rented a house in Oakland together. Many fellows from over the years have transitioned into actual government, companies like Github or AirBnB, and their own startups based on connections made in the program.

[KathleenLD]

@migurski argle-bargle. Definitely.

Other logistical questions:

• How are teams assigned and when do fellows find out what their partner city will be?
• Have the 2014 cities been selected yet, or is that still in progress?
• Can you talk at all about the selection process, or is that super secret?

[louh]

I think I'll take a stab at answering one of these posts. (I am a current 2013 fellow.)

The caveats are (a) I don't know the answer to all of these and (b) we like to learn from our current process and iterate, so while I can answer from my own experience, none of this should be a guarantee that it will happen the same way next year. Any of our critiques of this year will get considered in forming the process for next year :)

• Teams are assigned based on a combination of your personal interest and the needs of the cities. We got to put into rank order our top three, and most people got one of them, but they don't guarantee this. We found out our partner city, and our teammates, in December.
• There's a short list of 2014 cities. I've seen it. As far as I know, the selection isn't finished yet. But man oh man I hope some of those don't fall through, because (spoiler!)
• THIS IS SUPER SECRET!

I'm just kidding. I assume you mean the fellows selection process, or were you still talking about the city selection process?

If the former, I don't know the entirety of the process, but I do know they're looking for a combination of talent, a burning desire to make a difference, and good interpersonal skills. This last one is a very tame sounding way of saying "be an absolute fucking rock star at dealing with some very difficult people." I don't even know how they can tell that, but they must have seen something in me I didn't necessarily see in myself.

I hope that helps. Good luck!

[danaoshiro]

RE: WHERE THE FELLOWS GO AFTER THE FELLOWSHIP @KathleenLD in response to your question about finding jobs after the fellowship we've written a post on where some of our alumni have ended up after the fellowship. As well, I'm in the process of collecting LinkedIn links to the 2012 and 2011 pages this weekend. I hope this helps and thanks for the great questions.

[KathleenLD]

Oh wow-- you guys rock. These are all amazingly helpful answers.

[danaoshiro]

@KathleenLD honestly this is info we're going to try to keep up-to-date as much as possible. It's definitely useful to get this feedback and I'm sure there are others that want it. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

[junosuarez]

I just found this repo, and wanted to reiterate thanks for having these answers here as a resource. And in particular, thanks to @KathleenLD for introducing me to the phrase "argle bargle."

To clarify, is the majority of the term actually spent in SF, with occasional visits to the partner cities?

[mwichary]

Correct. Your team spends the entire February “on location,” and also a week in November as your fellowship nears its end… and for the rest, you get a budget to travel there occasionally as needed – but it’s typically 3–5 visits in between Feb and Nov, and not all of the team members at all times.

[KathleenLD]

Thanks again for everyone's input here. I can't tell you how much it's helped!

Anyone have a sense of how important the Primary listed skill is vs the additional skills? I'm trying to decide which I want to list as primary (Project Management or Community Management) or if I just shouldn't sweat it too much.

[yesezra]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. The people reviewing your application will see everything you've listed.

[KathleenLD]

Thanks.

anxiety

[nathanleiby]

Thanks @KathleenLD for starting this convo and to everyone else for their helpful replies!