In this article, I'm going to share my complete journey of the GDSC Lead selection process from Round 1 to becoming the Lead at your institution along with my interview experience.
It all started a year back when I came to know about the GDSC program on Linkedin. From the very next moment, I came to know about GDSC. I was very desperate to start the technical club in my college and create a vibrant tech community. After a very long wait. Finally, the GDSC has opened Lead applications for 2024 - 2025 in February.
Round 1: Online Application
The selection process starts with an online application round. Here the applicants were asked to answer a few essay-type questions to find out their interest in GDSC. I was asked these questions.
What is your motivation to run a Google Developer Student Club at your Institution?
What is your experience in leading a project or a team?
What is your experience with technology?
Along with these, I was asked to submit a 90-second YouTube video on " Why you believe you are right fit to be GDSC Lead at your educational institution". After successful submission, you will be invited to Round 2.
Round 2: Diagnostic Test
This is the latest round introduced by GDSC to shortlist applications. This round is conducted in two sessions. And We will have separate timings for each session.
Session 1 tests our basic Reasoning skills along with Computer Science core topics including Basic programming, DBMS, OS, and CN.
Session 2 contains Managerial questions that help GDSC to understand the leadership, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities of the Lead.
Note: Both the sessions were given 60 minutes each. I suggest you to take both the test in one go as I have done the same.
Post completion of your test, if you are selected you will receive the most awaited "Interview Call".
Round 3: "The Interview"
The real challenging round has finally come up and I have scheduled my interview on Apr 26, 2024, at 01:20 PM.
So, I had joined the meeting at 1:00 PM sharp, with a little wait exactly at 1:17 PM the interviewer also joined. He was kind throughout the interview. After confirming my details, the actual interview has started. As I am technically very sound, I was expecting questions related to my domain. But most of them were Managerial questions. But I was able to spontaneously answer all of them. I was asked around 30 questions and only three were technical and the rest were managerial questions. These are the questions that I was asked.
- What do you know about GDSC?
- Is your college part of GDSC already?
- How did you know about GDSC?
- What are the qualities you think need to be for a GDSC Lead?
- Do you have any experience of Leading events?
- How would manage your time being a Lead and focusing on academics at the same time?
- If you organizing an event in your chapter and you are not going to get any funding from Google, how would you organize that particular event?
- Have you interacted with any GDSC Leads?
- What are the events that you are going to plan if you become a GDSC Lead?
- Have you heard about any GDSC events and have you been part of them?
- Can you clearly list out all the steps that you would take to organize an event?
- How would pick your core team?
- You have to form a core team right? Then if you have to do it by yourself it will atleast take 2-3 weeks. If you give the task to your college management it would save your time and you can use it for some productive purpose. What do you think of it Sathvik?
- If you find two of your team members had a conflict, how would you deal with that situation when both say's that if one stays in team the other gonna leave? And whom would you remove in that situation?
- What are the projects that you have done? Have you done them as a group or alone?
- What are the problems that you have faced during building the project with a team?
- What programming language do you use the most? //In my case I said it was JavaScript
- You work mostly on Front-end right, Then tell me how would you reduce the load on the application that you develop?
- How would you believe that GDSC program will improve professional development of students in your club?
- If a student has complained that this club is wasting time and creating problems to student academics? How would you deal with that situation?
- Suppose the capacity of your college is 100, but 200 people have enrolled for the event. What would you do in this particular situation? (People from different chapters are going to attend the event).
- Along these, I was asked few questions on Programming and Data Structures.
At the end, the Interviewer asked me if I have any doubts. And I took it as an opportunity and asked him a few.
- What are the various projects or initiatives GDSC is currently working on?
- How would GDSC measure the success of an event that has been hosted in a GDSC chapter?
My interview went really well, And I am very confident that I would be the first-ever GDSC Lead at my institution.
Bonus Tips:
- Stay confident and have a smile on your face.
- Just be honest and answer according to the situation. As these are managerial questions, they don't look for a specific answer. They just want to know how would you deal with that situation.
- Make sure you attend the meeting at least 15 - 20 minutes prior to the scheduled time.
- When the interviewer asks 'Do you have any doubts'. Take it as an advantage to showcase your interest and passion for GDSC.
