Google android developer expert

How to Become a Google Developer Expert (GDE) — A Practical Guide

Becoming a Google Developer Expert (GDE) is not a goal I ever set out to achieve, but rather it found me. The following guide is for developers starting from scratch who want to someday join this career-changing invite-only program 👇

A global program to recognize individuals who are experts and thought leaders in one or more Google technologies. These professionals actively contribute and support the developer and startup ecosystems around the world, helping them build and launch highly innovative apps.

A Step-by-Step Guide

You become a GDE with a nomination from a Googler or Google Partner who notices the awesome work you’re doing.

You don’t need to be an exceptionally talented hacker.

You do need to love sharing knowledge.

I was nominated mostly for creating the Fireship YouTube channel and building a educational community for developers working with Angular & Firebase.

Step 0 — The Mindset

It starts with the right mindset. Consider the goals below:

• I need to deliver my talk to a huge audience.
• I need this video to go viral.
• I need a huge Twitter following.
• I need to be Internet famous.

While these are reasonable goals that might help you become a GDE, they are NOT the right goals. Superficial numbers help, but that’s not how you go the distance.

Every GDE I’ve met enjoys the craft of creating technical content and sharing it with the community.

People often ask me how do you produce so many videos? The simple answer is that I enjoy the creative process, no matter the outcome. I have just as much fun making a video with 500 views as one with 500K.

Let’s refactor our goals…

• I want to change someone’s life with my talk.
• I want this video to be unbelievably helpful to developers like me.
• I want Twitter followers because they find my insight valuable.
• I want people to trust me as a real human being.

If these goals drive you, continue ahead to Step 1.

Step 1 — Mission

Set a clear mission. Something that you’re passionate about. The more specialized the better. I set out to be…

The best consultant, YouTuber, content creator, and advanced resource for developers building apps with Angular & Firebase.

Your chances of standing out are much greater if you specialize. Big product areas like Web and Android are much harder to stand out in versus smaller areas like Google Pay, Assistant, Tensorflow, etc.

Step 2 — Build a Portfolio

You need to have a certain amount of reach within the developer community. Choose two or three of the metrics below and try to maximize them with hard data where you think you can make the biggest impact.

• Article Reads
• Video Views
• Public Speaking Audience Size
• Podcast Downloads
• Book or Course Purchases
• Github Contributions
• StackOverflow Rep
• Social Media Engagement

Step 3 — Create Quality Content Consistently

The two most important keys to success in my opinion are quality & consistency.

The most efficient path is public speaking. If you manage to get a CFP accepted at a few good conferences you will likely get noticed by the right people. Start small with local meetups, and if your area doesn’t already have a meetup, start one!

But speaking only reaches a very small slice of the total audience. You can still become a GDE without ever landing a big speaker spot. Start a YouTube channel, blog, book, course, Twitch stream, or podcast — just do it well and strive to be the absolute best in your niche. It also helps to guest post content in places that already have traction, like why not contribute a post on fireship.io 😎.

It also helps to have a track record contributing to open source. Help maintain the open source projects on Github that are closely tied to your product area and/or write your own supporting projects. An impressive Stack Overflow profile is also a powerful asset.

Step 4 — Network

As you start building an impressive portfolio you need the right people to take notice. The best way to make that happen is to attend conferences and live events, or better yet, speak at them.

Reach out to other GDEs or leaders of Google Developer Groups. Tell people about your mission from Step 1 and the cool stuff you’re working on. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and express your interest in becoming a GDE.

Most of the tech community prefers Twitter for professional networking. Use it as a tool to share your content and connect with the right people. Not critical, but the more followers you have the better.

In my case, the Googler who nominated me was familiar with my YouTube channel and reached out one day…

“Yo! Do you have any interest in becoming a GDE?”

Umm, yes. I was highly skeptical I would even be qualified, but at that point the hard work was already done. Moral of the story — If you’re doing the right things the networking aspect should just fall into place.

Preparing for the GDE Interviews

Congrats 🎉 you’ve been nominated! But you’re not done yet… it may take a few more months for an internal review, at least two interviews, and possibly other hoops to jump through before it’s official. The first interview is with an experienced GDE and the second is with a Googler from your product area.

At this point, Impostor Syndrome will be hitting critical levels as you prep for what feels like a once-in-a-lifetime high-pressure job interview— you’re over thinking it! If you made it this far, just be yourself. They already like your moves, no need for whiteboard problems or brain teasers.

My first interview took place in person over lunch with a GDE based here in Phoenix, AZ. We chatted about tech and ate tacos— it was fun. My second interview was with a developer advocate from Firebase over video chat. Again, an easy and fun conversation.

What it’s like to be a GDE

Welcome to the club 🥂 The perks of the GDE program depend on what you value. You can be a completely passive participant or highly-involved.

The Badge

Use the GDE badge on your personal profile. As a content creator, it is extremely valuable because validates your qualifications. Put it on your resume to stand out and negotiate a higher salary.

Travel & Public Speaking

Want to travel the world and give conference talks? When speaking about your product area, Google may reimburse your travel costs. I don’t give live talks often, but this is an amazing perk for public speakers. Not to mention, being GDE will likely increase your CFP acceptance rate.

Access

You sign a non-disclosure agreement when becoming a GDE that may provide access to private alpha programs for your product specialty. This is fun if you’re a big fan of something (like Firebase) because it gives you some influence over the direction of the product. You will make friends with Googlers and be invited to conference calls to chat about cool new features before they become public.

Events and Networking

Google hosts an all-expenses-paid GDE summit every year, which is a great networking opportunity to meet fellow experts. Last year there there were summits in Mountain View and Toronto, but it was in Poland the year prior. You might also get a ticket to Google I/O (not guaranteed).

Validation

Perhaps the most profound benefit that nobody talks about is career validation. Programmers suffer from Impostor Syndrome, and while there is no cure, being knighted by Google helps. At the very least, you should feel less pressure to prove your aptitude as a developer.

Summary

It sounds cliché, but if I can do it you can too. I have no special talents or advantages. I did not start with any contacts at Google. I simply love the craft of software development and work hard to share what I’ve learned with the world.

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Becoming a Google Dev Expert (GDE) in Android

TLDR: Are you the passionate about community work and giving back? If yes, you can become too.

It’ date 02–20–2020. A weird yet cool game of numbers, right? One of its kind. But today’s date isn’t the only cool thing I bumped into, but a lot of other things of good news, responsibilities, and entitlement. Today, I got the email, welcoming me to the Google Developer Experts (GDE) family. And to be honest, this was the last thing I ever expected. Not today at least.

I started my day with the recognition on one of the biggest tech news site of Pakistan, TechJuice about me becoming the first Android GDE in Pakistan. The article not only shares my story of being in computer science but also my journey of becoming an Android developer, particularly the work I’ve been putting out for the world out there and the precious community of Android developers, through my my writing books, articles, open source work, and my public speaking. You can read the full article on the their website.

Meet Wajahat Karim, Pakistan’s first Android Google Developer Expert (GDE)

Wajahat Karim an open-source contributor, android developer, and writer has now become a Google Deve.

techjuice.pk

But Why Me?

You must be wondering why Google has honored me with the GDE title, right? I mean, it could have been anyone but me. It could have been you too. But in my case, let me go through a quick background journey of mine. If you have read the above article in the link, you must have got the gist of most, already.

In my sophomore year at NUST SEECS, Islamabad, I was introduced to Android development through an invite-only workshop. These were early days of Android, and the version I got my hands on dirty was the Eclair (2.1). At first, the android development looked intimidated and was kind of a nightmare because you had to download so many different tools such as Eclipse, SDK, and ADT plugin separately and then integrate all parts together. It was not easy for me with no knowledge of Java and someone who was just started with C++ with its black screen console.

The workshop was totally out of my understanding and I couldn’t learn anything at all except that “Android is an operating system for upcoming touch-enabled smartphones”. Later, a software competition organized by the university was announced, that they will give bonus points to students who submit their projects.

That was it. That became my motivation. That was the time to do something dazzling. So, I searched about development but couldn’t find anything which could onboard me in this field with red carpet and falling flowers. One of my teachers and advisor, Shamyl Bin Mansoor got a copy of “Hello Android” book online. I borrowed that book and learned the basics of Android. And somehow finished my app and submitted it.

Surprisingly, I won that competition. I got enough prize money to get myself an imported real Android phone.

This was the moment, which led me through Eclair (2.1) to Android Q (10) version with quality improvements year by year.

This was the moment which made me a worldwide published author of not one but two 300+ page books on Android.

This was the moment which brought bread and food on my and my family’s table for over 11 years.

This was the moment which helped me getting recognition locally and internationally and gave me an identity — Wajahat is an android developer.

This was the moment which brought me on the journey of becoming a Google Developer Expert (GDE) in Android.

Although I am working on Android for about 11 years now. But for last 3 years, I have become very active in community work. Through this period, I have created several open source libraries being used by 70,000 developers around the globe, published lots of articles and tutorials about android development, co-authored 2 worldwide published books, managed AndroidPub (one of the top 100 Medium publications with more than 50,000 followers), delivered more than 15 talks on local events with audience ranging from 30 to 700 persons. And this was all about only thing. Android. Android. and Android.

This community work got me the attention of Google (originally from Singapore by Sami Kizilbash & Manikantan). And that’s how I got nominated and went through the process (on this later). And finally, today completed the process and became an GDE officially.

Enough about me now. Let’s discuss about you now and how you can be a GDE.

I have given an interview in Urdu/Hindi to a local YouTube channel Ibrahim’s Channel where I have shared the whole process to become a Google Developer Expert (GDE) in Urdu/Hindi. If you understand any of these language, you can watch it here.

So, what is Google Developer Expert anyway?

A global program to recognize individuals who are experts and thought leaders in one or more Google technologies. These professionals actively contribute and support the developer and startup ecosystems around the world, helping them build and launch highly innovative apps.

So, you see that its not a job to join. Its not a goal to accomplish. Rather, this is all about helping people, doing community work, and giving back. This is a recognition by Google itself as a gesture to appreciate your work and efforts for community building and bringing real impact to the real persons’ lives. Technology comes later in this part, but first and most important part in above quote is that you are a person who loves to help, support and contribute in the community building. Period.

How can you become a Google Developer Expert (GDE)?

As I said earlier, you can’t apply somewhere for becoming a GDE. There’s no **Submit Your Resume **button for this on their website. Its a recognition. Its a badge of honor on your profile picture online. You have to earn this recognition.

This process boils down to two steps eventually:

Become an expert in any one Google technologies like Android, Web, Firebase, Flutter, Assistant, Google Play etc. You don’t need to “the expert”, but you have to get enough knowledge and experience on the said technology so that you can advise, mentor, and help people with their problems.

Help as many people as you can. It could be through writing online content, or making YouTube videos, or contributing to open source projects, or answering on StackOverflow, or producing podcasts, or giving talks and workshops in universities, events, and meetups, or even organizing events in your city.

You have to do these things so much enough that someone from Google company or some other GDE notices your work and nominates you as a potential GDE.

Getting nominated is the most difficult part of this whole process.

Once you have got an invitation to apply for GDE, you have to submit a form. In this form, you will have to mention all the things you have done for community like your talks, videos, articles, open source projects etc. You have to calculate the impact you have put on the people. Like how many people has read your articles, how many people watched your videos, how many people has attended your events.

After submitting the form, Google will review it. If rejected, you can apply after 6 months again and again. And if accepted, you will be invited to interviews.

There will be two interviews:

Community Interview — This will be done by some other GDE in your field. In this interview, you will asked all about the work you have done for community building and giving back. And how and what have you done for it. And how much impact you have brought upon. And why you are passionate about community and how being GDE can help you with that.

Product Interview — This will be done by the team behind your field (for me the Android team from Google). In this interview, your knowledge will be tested. Whether you really know inside-out of the field and whether you are actually an expert in it or not.

It must be noted that these interviews vary from person to person. So, you should be prepared well. After successfully completing both interviews, you are a Google Developer Expert (GDE) and you will get that similar email as the one in this article’s cover.

What will happen after I become a GDE?

Nothing really. It will be the same as before. Except that you are a GDE now and you hold a responsibility.

With great power comes great responsibility.

You won’t get any salary or compensation for GDE role from Google. The GDE title is renewed every year. So, you will be given the badge for one year. And then you have to continue the community work as you were doing before. Only this time, you keep logging it in their GDE panel. This way, Google will see how much active you are and how much work you are doing and they will renew your GDEship (I don’t know if that’s word or not) each year based on that activity.

Not to forget here that being GDE gets you some perks:

You will get access to mailing lists in your technology. From here, you can directly talk to people behind the technology (Android in my case), learn about new upcoming features before anyone else do, and submit feedback and be a part of the decision-making behind the technology.

You can connect with other GDEs and Googlers from other teams and discuss ideas to bring more impact on the community.

Google can sponsor your travel (flights/bus/train) and hotels for the conferences or events you want to speak in your region. For example, I am the GDE in Pakistan, so I can go to South East Asia region but I will have to pay for visa myself.

You may get a ticket to Google IO event and possibly sponsorship too. This is based on your activity and community work.

You may be invited to their yearly GDE Summit with all expenses covered.

You will get a badge for your profile pictures mentioning you as a GDE.

Special Thanks & Mentions

I would like to extend my graditude to:

Firstly, ALLAH ALMIGHTY for all the blessings.

Sami Kizilbash, Manikantan for nominating me.

Eric Bhatti, Kamran Qadri, and GDG Kolachi team for giving me the opportunities to speak and share my experiences in their events.

The great Developer Student Club DSC leads of Pakistan for inviting me in their events and universities.

Saad Hamid for constant support, belief and guidance throughout all these months.

Ahsan Ayaz, Wahib Haq, Hassan Abid, Saurabh Arora, Saket Narayan, and Juhani Lehtimaki for the support and guidance through the GDE process itself.

The Google & Google Developers entity for providing me this opportunity and believing in me.

Finally, My family, my sisters, my cousin brothers and my wife for moral, emotional support and constantly believing in me and my efforts.

Wrapping Up

In a nutshell, if you are passionate about community building and giving back, Google Developer Expert (GDE) program is for you. If you are looking for title or glory or fame or just recognition, this is not something you should opt-in for. You can read the more details and practical guide about how to become a Google Developer Expert by Jeff Delaney on this article here.

At the end, please Subscribe to my newsletter DroidUp to learn learn about the latest things, tips, and skills in Android development manually handcrafted and curated by Wajahat Karim.

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