Being a DSC Lead
Google Developer Student Clubs are community groups for college students as well as graduates who are interested in Google Development Technologies and aspires to be developers. The main aim of these clubs is to connect people from various backgrounds, help them learn about a range of technologies and build the community. Currently, the clubs are operating in 68+ countries with 860+ groups worldwide.
You can read more about what it is here.
I became a core member of the Developer Student Club in my college, M.K.S.S.S’s Cummins College of Engineering for Women, in the second year of my undergraduate degree. There was an internal interview round held by the then-DSC Lead, Samruddhi Malge, and I felt lucky enough to be chosen to be part of the team. There were 8 of us in total who were chosen. However, only 3 of us became part of the core team. Together, we had conducted workshops and sessions in college revolving around different domains such as Machine learning, Google Cloud and Git. It was a club built solely to encourage students to try out new domains and technologies while also helping them gain experience in the said domain. After our Lead graduated, I researched about becoming the next Lead for our campus and decided to apply for the same. It seemed a little out of my comfort zone but I decided to not miss out on the opportunity. My then-Lead encouraged me to apply and also provided me with a referral for the selection process.
The application forms opened in April and I applied via this link. After my application was selected for the interview round, all I needed to do was book an appointment slot for the same.
The interview was held at night, virtually, via Google Meet, and wasn’t very long.
Contrary to what I thought, the interview focused very less on my degree and more on what I had done or achieved till date. This included projects, extracurricular activities and my involvement in the other clubs of my college. The conversation revolved around my work’s technical aspects and around who I was as an individual. The interviewer was interested in my work as a core member as well and that, I believe, was also a key part of me getting selected. It concluded with him asking me what I thought would make me a good fit for the position of being a Lead and how I could help the community. Although I did not think of it much at that time, I now realize how things would have been a lot different had I not been as involved with the club as I am.
Being a DSC Lead, one of the first things I, along with my core team, did was to open the club for new members so we could work better to build a good community for the students. We started holding regular sessions on topics that were not focused on, such as Resume Building and using Git as a student. Then, we held our first college event called “30 days of Google Cloud”. For 30 days, we would work on different topics of Google Cloud and then complete labs based on them. Every student who completed it was given Google goodies to mark their successful completion of the same.
Other than this, there were also collaborations with other DSC Leads and their colleges to hold bigger events, with the biggest one being DSC WoW. It was a weeklong event consisting of 4 days of workshops/sessions and a 48 hours hackathon named CodeOffDuty. This event was also featured in the Google I/O 2021 developer conference.
As my term of being a DSC Lead comes closer to the end, I know that I will miss the fun as well as the work that came with it. I met so many new people and this entire journey has been an unforgettable experience. I learned a lot during this time and I like to think that maybe I grew up along the way too. Being a Lead isn’t easy, for sure, but it is worth it in the end. Managing college and a club may seem hard but that’s where your team members come in. When one is part of a club, it’s a team effort. I may lead it but I also have to do the same amount of work like the rest of the members. That is the only way a community will build itself.
If you wish to join a student body like this, you can find your closest DSC here and if your college doesn’t have its own club, consider this post to be your sign to apply to be a Lead and start one on your campus.
You can find more info on how to be a Developer Student Club lead here.
I shall end this post with a quote :
“Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.”
~Dale Carnegie
If you have any questions, you can connect with me on Linkedin.
–Aaditree Jaisswal