Omdena Advice Board for Beginners

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Find a Mentor

They help other collaborators move forward.

Join a Task Group

Join a task group that you know you can contribute effectively to and be able to efficiently work in.

Look at the Task Channel’s details

This can be found in the topic of the channel. It usually contains a description of what the channel is about.

Set reachable goals

Look at the objective of the task group and decide tasks that you wish to work on with people or alone. Ensure these tasks are within your desired role (e.g. ML Engineer)

Find a Lead ML Engineer within your desired task group

There will be 1 or 2 technology leaders per task group who take the initiative to pick libraries and tools. If you are ever lost, ask for directions.

Take notes during Meetings

Ensure you jot important statements, questions, answers and ideas down during meetings. This is helpful when you are working on tasks.

Read all the documents given to you by Omdena

When you are accepted into an Omdena Project, you will be sent an email which will contain 2 or 3 documents. ENSURE YOU TAKE TIME TO READ THEM. They contain a LOT of useful information which will improve your project experience.

Have a separate folder for Omdena Projects

Save all your code and any other code you like in that folder. You can also fork the repository and explore it.

Do small projects relating to the Omdena Project

Before embarking on the Omdena Project ensure you do one or two projects relating to the technology or methods to be used in the Omdena Project. This will help to sharpen your skills and prepare you for the project.

For example if your Omdena Project involves Natural Language Processing (NLP), ensure you do one or two small projects involving NLP. You can find small scale projects on Kaggle: Your Home for Data Science. Or take a short course on NLP on Kaggle.

Ask for HELP when you are stuck on a task

If you ever get stuck on a task, please do not be afraid to ask for help. I asked for help when I got stuck on a task and everyone was so helpful and encouraging.

If you are inactive, reach out to task leaders and find something to do

Try to be a Task Leader ONLY if you have the TIME