Ivana Irene’s Roadmap to a successful GHC scholarship

Ivana Irene (a.k.a Irene) is a student at the University of Indonesia and a GHC 2018 scholar. She was interviewed by Bhairavi Shah.

Staying tuned about different scholarships and deadlines:

Irene subscribed to all women-in-tech newsletters and stayed on top of her mailbox. She knew about GHC and started preparing for it the previous year itself.

Why GHC?

Irene chose GHC because she’d get a chance to go to the US (to where she’d never been before), meet women in tech who were like her.

Her GHC Experience:

It was a very big fair, and she felt that going there once was not enough. She got more than what she expected. She even got a chance to interview with Facebook and Microsoft and got selected for a 6-month internship in both.

The Application:

As almost all the scholarships’ applications do, GHC has a written application where you would have to answer a few essay questions.

Leadership and volunteering experience is essential. Irene was the leader of different organizations in her university, and this gave her an edge over the others. She also curates materials for her junior members.

It is important to have done a lot of projects, as it is better to learn by doing. She has done a lot of projects and uses pure CSS to code aesthetics.

Making a portfolio/resume that stands off:

Irene’s portfolio was very unique, a resume that immediately stands apart from the crowd and something that conveys all information about her in a very artistic sense.

Her portfolio: https://ivanairene.netlify.com/

Academics do matter, but they aren’t the only things that matter, What matters more is the quality and the quantity of projects that you do, how well you can make your resume stand above the others, and how good you’re with whatever you know. She highly recommends participating actively in organizations.

Recommender:

Her recommender was her professor in web design and programming, and it was a subject that she loved. She contacted him via a formal email and reminded him about the LoR close to the deadline.

Her final note:

GHC is very big; a lot of people apply for it. Don’t feel disheartened. Build up your resume. This is the greatest chance of getting internships and even permanent jobs. Prepare well for the interviews.

Bhairavi did a great job and was firing on all cylinders while interviewing. She asked every possible question that could be asked. I am very grateful to you for doing this to guide us.