Road to GDSC : Lead Application Procedure

Over the last few months, I’ve been bombarded with candidates seeking guidance and recommendations regarding the GDSC Lead applications. So here’s an all-in-one manual where I have covered all the basic details based on my personal experience as a Lead for the cohort 2023–24! This blog will be helpful to anyone planning to apply for the program in the upcoming iterations until the current process is valid.

To start, let’s have a look at the timeline first:

Now, since you’ve already aimed at leading the club at your university and have gone through the timeline, I’m assuming that you have done your homework to know what Google Developer Student Clubs are all about.

I would still like to do my part, and give a brief about it in just 3 points:

• To be a leader is to Empower and Impact students to grow through technology
• Bridge the gap between theory and practice
• Help you become more Employable

Let us jump to the STEP 1 of our journey — APPLICATION FORM

The application form comprises 3 questions to understand your motivation to apply, know more about your leadership experiences, hear more about your favorite technology and experience working with it, and lastly a video to hear from you.

The pint-sized moves that’ll have a macro impact on your application evaluation:

☑ Start with your motivation to apply for the position

☑ Then talk about your past experience (only relevant experience)

☑ Express your passion for technology and community

☑ Outline your vision as a Lead

Make sure you don’t overlook these areas:

👎 Do not leave any field empty

👎 Recheck before submitting for Grammatical mistakes

👎 Do not provide vague answers

👎 Do not ignore the community aspect

👎 Do not neglect your personal story

Let’s take a look at a few examples!

Why is it important to submit a good video?

As a leader, you will host sessions and connect with your community members: it is important to have good communication skills. This video will reflect the first interaction your community and Google will have with you. Hence, keep it captivating. It shows your efforts and passion as you present.

A few tips and tricks from my personal experience are:

• Prepare your script beforehand.
• Keep the content short & crisp.
• Revise the script beforehand to mirror confidence in your delivery.
• Do not leave this (or any of the essays) for the last minute since the server tends to go down abruptly on the last day.

The application process could be a tedious one and is undoubtedly the lengthiest step of all. It’s only human to overlook a few factors while navigating through the array of questions. However, a few last-minute audits always come in handy!

☑ Make sure you have included the link for your Resume in the Portfolio

☑ Make sure all the social media and project links are working

☑ Make sure you have provided the correct chapter name & city

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☑ Make sure all the required fields are submitted

Let’s take a step closer to becoming a GDSC Lead. It’s time to step up to the 2nd part — Diagnostic Test (Technical + Personality Assessment). This 60-minute test will assess your problem-solving skills, leadership qualities, and technical aptitude. The technical assessment is based on DSA (Data Structures & Algorithms).

You might ask, “Is DSA important to learn?” If yes, then why?”. Well, the importance of DSA extends to critique your Efficiency, Problem-solving, Optimization, and Scalability. Since the rundown of DSA can seem never-ending, here’s a basic outline that you can focus on to prepare for this round instead of going in a roundabout:

A few questions that you can try to solve to prepare for this are:

1. https://leetcode.com/problems/employees-earning-more-than-their-managers/
2. https://leetcode.com/problems/customers-who-never-order/

Next is the Personality Assessment test to judge your leadership, empathy, teamwork, and situation-handling capabilities.

If you have tried the MBTI personality test or any similar personality tests, you will find it very similar. In case you haven’t taken any of these, trying out the test beforehand can be useful: MBTI personality test

Welcome to the 3rd and final step — Interview Preparation.

This round is to test your — Communication skills, Confidence and Attentiveness, Technical Skills, and Situation-based thinking. Presenting yourself in the interview process can be something you want to be wary of. In case you’re given any scenario/experience-based questions, start by discussing your experience leading a team — it could be with or beyond communities. Then, share experiences that are recent and relevant, and add structure to your answers by adding pointers and a chronology to the sequence of events that happened.

As a Leader, it’s important to know the different roles and responsibilities that you’ll play in your community, to introspect your true motivation and recognize your potential.

Here are a few questions I was asked in the 2023 Lead interviews:

• Please give a brief introduction of yourself.
• Give me an example of a time when you successfully organized an event. What are the challenges that you faced and how did you overcome those?
• If an internship or conflict comes up, what would you do to ensure the community is supported?
• You are hosting in an hour. But the guest speaker is sick and informs you that they may not be able to join. What do you do?
• Tell me about a project that involved coding, walk me through what you were building, why, what products you used and why?

It’s very important to know what points to include/exclude while structuring your answers in a way that is relatable and intuitive to the listener. For example, while giving your introduction, you can start with the following:

1. Your name
2. Where are you from?
3. Your college, course & year
4. Mention relevant experience in a certain chronology (oldest → latest OR latest → oldest)
5. Focus on your accomplishments and contributions, using the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Highlight specific examples that showcase your skills and impact.
6. End with your motivation to apply for the position.

Throughout the interview, maintain good posture and eye contact to project confidence and attentiveness through your body language. Always listen actively and patiently to fully understand the questions, and ask clarifying questions when needed. Taking a minute or two to formulate a good structure in your mind doesn’t depict your sloppiness; instead, it displays your thoughtfulness. A crucial point that most people overlook is to quantify your achievements, for it brings actual data to refer to and makes your responses more credible.

Lastly, a few tips before you answer any questions:

• Be honest and genuine: Don’t exaggerate your skills or experience.
• Summarize your answers in about 30 seconds.
• Show your proactiveness and desire to learn more.
• Talk about teamwork.
• Be sure to ask any final questions about the position or anything else.
• There are no right or wrong answers: Go with your best bet with full confidence.

Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

What’s next?

Now that you know what is expected from you during the interview, you can do mock interviews with friends, revise sessions covered till now, and build an answer for why you want to apply until it is time for action! 🎬

All the best for your journey, folks!

(Ah, and remember to contact any current GDSC Lead of either your existing GDSC chapter or any other chapter before applying, you might get a nomination code :) from them)