LinkedIn Group for Alumni in Data Science: Become a Moderator

We aim to recruit 4-5 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 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 an active or a passive engagement. 

Active engagement examples: 

• 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

Passive engagement examples: 

• React to or comment on posts

Each member will need to generate an active post every 4-5 weeks, though they are welcome to do more.

Through our planning meetings, we'll make sure every member of the team is supported in their active posts to the group. We highly encourage members to engage alumni in Q&As, post-sharing, or other ideas to generate community engagement. In an ideal world, the moderator team will lift up the voices of the community at large through facilitation, encouragement, and guidance. 

We also have plenty of content from DSUS that you can share on our behalf, ranging from alumni profiles to campus events. We'll work with you in advance or during your week to make sure you have something to share with the community.

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

Though we aim to be flexible, as a moderator you are part of a team that is counting on your participation. If you are already uncertain whether you will be able to fully engage for the full six-month period, we encourage you to wait until another term. 

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 expect 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. The team or lead moderators may ultimately choose to veto an idea. 

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). 

Moderator posts will be pre-planned and included in a central planning tool used by the team. Any last-minute changes will need to be vetted by a lead mod. 

When considering ideas, we encourage moderators to consider the primary goal of celebrating/supporting our members and facilitating meaningful connection among our community.

*Any suggested exceptions may be discussed in the monthly team meeting. The lead mods are interested in the team coming to a decision, but ultimately may choose to veto content if there are concerns. 

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.