Life at GDG Jalandhar
Everyone in this world needs a community so that they can contribute towards a reliable society, better culture and kinder world; even then that is a cultural community working on cultural betterment, NGO working on people betterment without looking into profit, etc. In my life that community is Google Developers Group Jalandhar, a technical community which continuously working for technological improvement and technical awareness for people since 2011 under the leadership of many prominent and techie organizers who just want to make everyone technically aware and decent use of technology so that this world could better place for everyone.
Google Developers started this idea in 2005 as Google Code so that everyone can have the opportunity to meet local developers having the same interests in technology, attend talks on a wide range of technical topics, and learn new skills through hands-on workshops and GDG Jalandhar is one of them and I am proud member/coordinator of GDG Jalandhar from 5th September 2017.
My experience at GDG Jalandhar is remarkable as when I bounded with this astounding community I was a noob, apart from C++, Python, Java and some names of languages I know nothing about technologies like Microservices, Cloud, Machine Learning, IoT, DevOps, UI and all. I was 2nd year of my graduation life and at that time I don’t know how to host a website.
But it is said that life gives everyone a chance and I think that day (1st September 2017) I got my chance to prove myself, to find a precise path for me and to initiate my career goals. I still remember that “Govind Parantha Shop” where I met the organizer of GDG Jalandhar, after the meeting he told me to ping him on LinkedIn, at that time I didn’t know that my time has started and I am on that pathway where I have to compete with other, contend with others, I will have to prove myself every day that I deserve bigger because lots of people try to be a part of GDG Jalandhar.
Next day we had a technical talk (he told me some emerging technologies like Cloud, Machine Learning, AR/VR, IoT with a brief description) in which I didn’t perform well means not well, below mediocre and the reason is I wasn’t a tech guy, till that date I was the financial guy having a desire to pursue a career in some Fin-tech company with MBA degree and what I was doing in CS stream even I didn’t know at that time but as I told you life gives everyone a hit and yeah that was hit for me and what I did — perform bad, oh sorry worst, but it is also said “Life gives you another opportunity” and that I got to know on 5th September 2017 when I received a message from Vrijraj Singh about a meeting at 5 PM where I met some more capable learner of my university and got demotivated but yeah I have to prove myself and I started that very day. That day I don’t know whether I am on the correct path or not, that day I don’t know if I will be Cloud Guy tomorrow, that day I even don’t know if I will be so indulged in Cloud that I’ll connect everything with, that day I even don’t know every cloud associated stuff will interest me, thrills me and that day I don’t know if I will be a DevOps Engineer one day but I know one thing and that was I have to prove to myself that yeah I deserve to be a character of this community, so I started my cloud journey from Linux Academy under the guidance of organizers.
Life got changed in that one month, a participant of Devfest 2016 became a member of the organizing team of Devfest 2017, Devfest 2018 and will be also in Devfest 2019, a guy who was following how to invest in share market now exploring how to host a website, an android app on cloud, guy who wanted to become a sales guy now wanted to become a certified cloud developer etc and yeah, I proved myself that I deserve this community and after that I never stopped and never looked back.
Today I am exultant Core Member of GDG Jalandhar whose opinion, approach, instructions are taken into consideration with high priority by the team, I manage teams, I took numerous responsibility, planned great events, people trust with everything, I assist people, motivate people, concentrate on people, look for future potential, I have made some really beneficial connection with some skilled people throughout the world. When I started my journey I never thought of to be there at such a level, I never thought to be a tech guy. Apart from all these I am also a Google Cloud Speaker who took sessions in Google Cloud Study Jam 2018 and 2019 and also invited as a Kubernetes Speaker in a conference organized by GDG Cloud New Delhi by the organizer Mr Pranay Nanda who is also a professional cloud developer after having a half an hour discussion on Google Cloud and certifications. My project of Google Assistant also got selected India Build Actions Campaign by the Google Developers India as one the one best project of Google Assistant which was showcased at India’s largest Devfest of 2018 in Bengaluru by organized GDG Bengaluru where I met some absolutely excellent people from India, some Actions on Google developers, Googlers, startups founder, developers of MNCs which made me a hero and I made some valid links with other heroes. The best thing we focus on every developers no matter who he/she is, like when Google Developers started a campaign of Actions on Google we, the amazing GDG Jalandhar, people focussed on each participant who attended the event and helped each and everyone who wanted to create actions on Google Assistant by calling them in extra hour, by going to their location, by arranging several meetings so that they publish their Google Assistant actions and get benefits and we actually helped a lot, I mean a lot of students/developers publish their actions. We provide one-month passes of Qwiklabs where all cloud enthusiasts can practice and increase their cloud skills numerous times. We have organized some hit events after resolving some major issues. Due to our contributions and hit events, GDG Jalandhar also got featured in the newsletter of Google Developers that feeling was amazing because I also did a small contribution and if your community is growing means you are also growing.
Being a part of any GDG and especially GDG Jalandhar will stand you apart from the masses, you get exposure, people know you, people ask you about your journey, how to commence their journey, how to do this, passes of some excellent conferences and summit and yeah some awesome swags like t-shirts (currently I am having 30 t-shirts and some really some goodies).
Currently, I am working as a DevOps Engineer at Techolution with my preferred stack that is Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and GCP, a US-based Cloud automation company and with all senses, I can say I got this opportunity because of my hard work and GDG Jalandhar because with GDG Jalandhar I get to know about Cloud, get courses free because I am a member, get access to labs, bills got waive off, got some helpful mentors not only from India but also from different parts of the world so I learnt a lot and I still have many things to discover and day by day I am uncovering many things and progressing towards my goal of Certified Cloud Engineer.
My journey at GDG Jalandhar is very incredible, I learnt some administration, management, event handling and organizing skills, this journey will proceed because there is no age bar and no period to be a part of any GDG.
This year we are going to organize the most comprehensive DevFest of North Region with the collaboration of GDG Chandigarh i.e. DevFest Punjab and I am super thrilled because this will give us a distinct experience, increased ranking, encounter new heights, new links. This is challenging for us but we are equipped to face and solve the challenge and we will make this event hit, people will remember DevFest Punjab 19 because every year we try to do something unique in DevFest.
For other people, GDG Jalandhar is just a technical community or local GDG Chapter or Google Community for Punjab, but for me, it’s a family, it’s my home away from home, for me it’s my peak, it’s a place where I learnt a lot from everyone.
The GDG Jalandhar organizer told me when I first met him upon asking how to start, he just quoted beautiful lines: “I will show you the destination and you have to decide how to reach there and by which path”. And I still follow this quote and passing this quote to everyone who asks me for guidance.
