LinkedIn Group for Alumni in Data Science: Join the Moderator Team

Eligibility requirements:

• UC Berkeley alum with a major, minor, or master's degree in data science OR with a career in data science
• Must have a LinkedIn profile
• Must be a member of the UC Berkeley Alumni in Data Science LinkedIn Group OR have submitted a membership request by the time applications are due
• All career stages welcome, including those searching for roles! 
• No previous experience with moderation necessary, just an enthusiasm for learning and engaging with the alumni community on behalf of the team

We aim to recruit 3-5 moderators per cohort.

These moderators will join two lead moderators, Brandilyn Buckley, DSUS Communications Director, and Snehal Dhawan, Data Scientist, People Analytics at PayPal and UC Berkeley alumna. The lead moderators will guide the team through planning, provide optional content, and support the moderator team.

Moderators are expected to engage with the LinkedIn group once per week. Per a pre-determined schedule, you may be responsible for a passive or an active engagement. 

Passive engagement examples (typically 3 times per month): 

• React to or comment on posts

Active engagement examples (typically 1x per month): 

• Post information the group (ex: job posting, article of interest, event or opportunity)
• Post an engagement prompt to the group (i.e. poll or an open question/prompt with a call for replies)
• Recruit a community member to share a post with the group (pre-vetted)
• Post a Q&A conducted with a member of the community

Each member will need to generate an active post every 4-5 weeks, though they are welcome to do more. Moderator engagement will be pre-planned and included in a central planning tool used by the team. 

During most weeks, you will passively engage with the group, which means a quick log in to comment on or like live posts. 

For your active engagements (about 1x per month), we'll use our planning meetings to come up with and claim active engagement ideas. If your active engagement needs additional planning (ex: finding an alum to participate in a Q&A), you'll get additional support and be supplied with a backup content option to ensure the process is fun instead of stressful. 

While we encourage engagements that get our mods out into the alumni community (Q&As, content sharing, celebrating significant accomplishments of alumni), we will also have options that require less investment for times during which you need to focus on other things. 

We know life is busy and things come up! You may have a vacation planned or work might get unexpectedly busy.

Because of this, the following absences are automatically permitted during a moderator term: 

• 2 absences allowed for monthly zoom meetings (advanced notice required. Day-of notice is ok.)
• 4 pre-planned absences are permitted from engagement duties
• If an emergency arises that impacts duties unexpectedly, contact the lead mods ASAP

We love ideas! Our monthly moderator team meeting will include space for brainstorming--we know we haven't thought of everything. DSUS thrives on innovation and creativity, so we err on the side of trying something and seeing if it works! 

In turn, we ask our moderators to be open to feedback on ideas. If an idea is considered too off-topic or inappropriate for the group, we will ask moderators to rework their idea into something more aligned with the group's goals. 

To ensure the group remains a welcoming space for all members and retains its focus on career networking for Berkeley alumni in data science, there are limits on what may be posted from any community member, including moderators. 

Generally, posts may include (but are not limited to): 

• UC Berkeley data science articles, events, opportunities and other items of interest
• Job postings or other ds career-related opportunities
• Sharing stories or major accomplishments of other alumni (more than job changes/promotions)
• Polls, calls for replies to a specific question or prompt, other engagement-focused content
• Q&As with alumni

Posts should not include:*

• Politically-charged content
• Opinion pieces with an inflammatory angle
• Content that puts down a particular role or industry
• Discouraging content without a corresponding uplifting message (ex: news stories about layoffs, negative job reports, etc. without corresponding content to uplift our members)
• Content that markets a paid third-party service (this includes members promoting their own paid services to the group). 

*Any suggested exceptions may be discussed in the monthly team meeting.

We will aim to put together a team that:

• Includes a variety of perspectives, experiences, and touch points to our community. This includes having a team with mixed post-grad career experiences (including those who are job-seeking) and graduation years. 
• Is engaged and enthusiastic. Ideal moderators will be excited to connect with and reach out to other alumni, look out for shareable content, and experiment with ways to ignite community engagement. 
• Will get something meaningful out of this experience.

If applicants are considered equally strong candidates but a decision must be made between applicants to achieve the goals above, we will give priority to the applicant who applied first. 

If you meet eligibility requirements, but are not selected, we encourage you to apply to a future cohort.