My experience as a Google WTM Scholar 2020
Hola readers!!
I am Vanshika Shukla currently pursuing Btech in Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute Of Information Technology, Nagpur.
This article is about my experience as a Google APAC WTM scholar for 2020.
What is the Women Techmakers Scholars Program?
Through the Women Techmakers Scholars Program — formerly the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Program — Google is furthering Dr. Anita Borg’s vision of creating gender equality in the tech industry by encouraging women to excel as active participants and leaders in the field.
The Scholars Program consists of the following elements :
Community: An online network with fellow scholars program participants designed to share resources, support the global community of women in tech, and collaborate on projects to make continued impact.
Retreat: An opportunity to connect with fellow scholars and Google mentors, while participating in professional and personal development training and workshops.
Scholarship: An academic scholarship, awarded based on academic performance, leadership, and impact on the community of women in tech.
You can use this link for more details: Women Techmakers.
Eligibility:
To be eligible to apply, applicants must:
1) Identify as female
2) Currently, be enrolled at an accredited university (as a full-time student) in an undergraduate program
3) Be in year 1 or year 2 of their undergraduate program studying computer science, computer engineering, or a closely related technical field
4) Demonstrate a good academic record
This year the scholarship was primarily open for students studying in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Taiwan, and India.
APPLICATION PROCESS:
In the first part of the application process, applicants are required to submit their latest academic scores, contact and institute information, updated CV, and the answer to two essay questions. This year the questions were the following:
1) What problems are caused by a lack of diversity and inclusion in computing? How can these problems be addressed?
2) What computing technology are you excited about, and how is it changing your region?
Writing good answers to essays is one of the most important parts of the application because this is the part that shows one’s passion and devotion to technology and inclusion and diversity of women in tech.
Some of the tips for writing a good essay are:
Be very genuine and true while writing essays, you should be able to demonstrate your passion for technology while writing essays, use simple words, and also keep in mind, not to exceed the word limit.
After two weeks of the application, I received an email for the next round, I was quite happy for making it to the second round😄 .
Google Online Challenge:
This was not easy as we were required to answer 30 MCQ questions in 30 minutes. The challenge mainly comprised of 5 sections involving questions of computer basics, questions related to C, C++, and Python (some output questions as well!), and data structures and algorithms.
Since all these questions have to be answered in 30 minutes, so try to answer the easier ones at first and if you have time in the end, then try solving the difficult ones, and try to answer every question as there is no negative marking for the same.
After 3 weeks, I received an email regarding the final round, a telephonic interview. Looking at the email, I was not able to believe that I made it to the final round, I was very happy😊.
Since I had no experience with the telephonic interview, I contacted some of the previous WTM scholars(Akshita Agarwalla and Amalu Susan Santosh), they helped me a lot.
As a part of the telephonic interview, we were asked to fill a google form for the slot(date& time) in which one was comfortable to appear for the interview. My interview was on 12th June and I was nervous.
My interviewer was Nikhila Ziad (Recruiting Specialist, Talent & Outreach Programs at the Google), she was very friendly and after talking to her for the first few minutes, I was comfortable 😅. She asked me various questions, including my essay answers, about my projects and outreach activities, my future goals, and one hypothetical question, where I was asked if I get 1 billion dollars how I would use that amount to increase the diversity of women in technology, and in the end, she asked me if I wanted to ask any question. The interview lasted for 45 minutes and it was a great one.
And finally, the day came when I received the email that I have been selected as 2020 WTM Scholar, I was so happy and joyful and there was no boundary of my happiness.
This year due to the pandemic the retreat was virtual but it was an amazing experience to meet some of the best speakers, employees at Google, and also some of the most amazing scholars. It was a two-day event that involved various events, including some fun activities and also inspiring sessions with the googlers. It was a great experience and everyone was so delightful to be a part of the entire WTM journey as a scholar and also to interact with some of the incredible and wonderful people🙂.
