I’m so happy to write this article as a good memory first and as a How to become a GDE second, I was rewarded recently to be a GDE (Google Developer Expert) in Web Technologies and specialized in Run Time Performance and DevTools 🎉
I got a lot of messages after I tweeted the awarding 🔗 congratulating me and wishing me luck what I highly appreciate but some people were wondering what is that GDE program?! in this article I’m telling the story and steps that you could follow to be eventually a GDE if you wish to.
The Story
For a long time I was looking up for the people who are paying a lot of their own time to the open source and community support work, and often you see them recognized by the big tech companies, I was curious about that and how can I get that recognition if I’m good enough, that was back in the days and I forget about it by time, until it happened in the beginning of 2022.
As I’m constantly writing about new stuff 🔗 I learned or some deep research 🔗 that I made, I was mentioned and my articles were linked into discussions even internally in the company that I’m working at right now, that brings the attention to my activities on Youtube 🔗 for the past 5 years, and getting the attention of about 15k subscribers, some of my colleagues were a bit surprise that I’m not getting that much exposure as per what they said.
How I was nominated
Until it happened that I found some of my colleagues are GDEs and that remind me with that old notion about being a GDE, and she asked me why don’t I apply to it, she said that I’m pretty much doing what a GDE is supposed to do, and already have a good impact on a specific community! I said “well, I don’t mind, tell me how it works”. she referred me to the program (it is an invite only program) and I filled the form.
Step 1: Screening
The process looks pretty much like applying for a job but less intense, starting from the nomination you fill your CV, in this case your CV is your previous contributions to the community and the impact that you leave by numbers and you have to be detailed as much as you could and put links to be verified from the committee, this they call it screening step, and if you pass it you go to the interview process.
Step 2: Community Interview
in this process you have 2 interviews: the first one is the community interview and this is an interview with an experienced GDE who has been in the program for a while and can assess your impact and abilities to express your ideas and verify it and see you personally whether it fits with the culture or the GDE program or not.
Step 3: Product Interview
if you pass the community interview you get into the product interview which will be with a Google engineer working usually in the product you are going to join as an expert, for me for example it was one of the chromium team, and this interview is NOT a problem solving issue ot writing code at all, it is usually a dev to dev conversation, to verify your experience technically though chatting, he/she might also ask you about your experience in other areas other than your specialty which gives you some weight as well as an updated person with latest tools and trends.
Step 4: NDA and T&C
After you pass this interview 🤞 you get an email from the program manager telling you to sign some paper work like Terms & conditions (T&C) and a None-Disclose Agreement (NDA) because as a GDE you might be involved in some products or releases before being introduced in public, and that’s it 🎉, you get the welcome email and access to all the channels through the program and you are supposed to continue contributing to the community constantly and keep reporting what you are doing as a proof for being recognized from Google.
Conclusion
I’m so happy to became a GDE, and would like to emphasize that this program is something that rewards your contribution to the community, so you need to start building your “CV” now by contributing by the means you can by creating content, reviewing code, answering questions on Stackoverflow, write articles, make a podcast, write a book, or create a video course.
Everything counts to have a good impact on the community, and remind yourself always that you shouldn’t do it only to be able to get that exposure, just do it for the community and you will be eventually recognized. remember that it can be gained easily by showing what you can do to the community.
If I can do it you can do it too 😉
Tot ziens 👋