/qiskit-advocate-application-guide

Qiskit Advocates Application Guide

What is the Qiskit advocate program?

The Qiskit advocate program is a global initiative to support the most active members of the Qiskit community. As an advocate, you will join the most passionate group of people in quantum computing. Since the program was launched two years ago, more than 200 people with diverse backgrounds from 30+ countries have joined. We work together to grow the Qiskit community through organizing events, making open source contributions to Qiskit code, creating educational content, and more.

Why you should apply:

1. Networking with experts and enthusiasts

As an advocate, you will be able to attend monthly meetup sessions to share projects and ideas and work together with fellow advocates on new projects and events.

2. Getting special access to Qiskit core members and projects

As an advocate, you will be able to ask questions to members of the Qiskit team and find a mentor through our mentorship program.

3. Being recognized by IBM

As an advocate, you will have the opportunity to have your work supported and highlighted by IBM.

4. Receiving invitations to events

As an active advocate, you will be invited to global (physical or virtual) events created for the quantum community such as Qiskit Camps and IBM Quantum Challenges.

Advocate highlights

  • Amir Ebrahimi: I’ve Worked in Game Development My Whole Career — Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
  • Amira Abbas: I Worked in Finance — Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
  • Farai Mazhandu: Join Qiskit Advocates to Expand Your Network and Grow
  • Jack Woehr: Benefits of the Qiskit Advocate: Qiskit Project Access
  • Junye Huang: Qiskit Advocate Applications Open Today — Here’s What You Can Expect from the Program
  • Kevin Roche: I’m a Maker and Costume Designer, Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
  • Mark Cunningham: How I got started in the world of Quantum Computing and my experiences so far as a Qiskit Advocate!
  • Omar Costa Hamido: I’m a Musician, and Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
  • Samanvay Sharma: Quantum Events Are Even Better As A Qiskit Advocate
  • Samuel Choi: 학부생은 IBM Qiskit Advocate를 꿈꾸는가? 2020: A Quantum Odyssey — and a year later
  • Vicente Pina Canelles: Why I became a Qiskit Advocate, and why you should, too

Who can apply?

We welcome anyone who is enthusiastic about quantum computing and eager to grow the Qiskit community.

How you can apply:

Here are the steps for applying to become an advocate:

  1. Make at least 3 contributions to Qiskit code and community (now - Jul 1, 2021) Community contributions can vary depending on individual interests including code, tutorials, textbook chapters, bug reporting, Slack support, blogs, videos, events, and more. See the Contributions section below for different types of contributions that you could make.
  2. Take the advocate test (Jun 1 - Jul 1, 2021) This should take 90 minutes depending on your knowledge of Qiskit.
  3. Submit application form (Jun 1 - Jul 1, 2021) by July 1, 2021 11:59 PM EDT.
  4. Application review (Jul 1 - Aug 1, 2021) conducted by the Qiskit advocate squad
  5. Onboarding (Aug 5, 2021)

Dates may be subject to change

Test

The Qiskit advocate test is similar to the Qiskit Developer Certification. Here's a sample test and a study guide for the developer certification. You can read more here about how to prepare for the test.

Here is an example of the Qiskit advocate test from last year. The format for this year may change. But it will be multiple choice questions testing your Qiskit knowledge.

Contributions

Here are some examples of contributions we consider valuable for the community. Tier 1 > Tier 2 > Tier 3 > Tier 4 in terms of significance.

Both quantity and quality of contributions will be examined by us. For example, if you have been very active on Slack and answered many questions/participated in many meaningful discussions, these contributions will be considered higher importance than just answering two or three questions. On the other hand, a PR fixing a critical bug or adding a new feature to Qiskit will be considered more important than a few PRs fixing typos of Qiskit textbook chapters.

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

  • Open source contributions that are relatively simple
  • Create quantum / Qiskit related content
  • Individual Qiskit projects that are relatively simple.
  • Active participation of IBM Quantum / Qiskit events.

Tier 4

Resources for making great contributions