My experience at the Google Women Techmakers Scholars Retreat 2018 (APAC) at Google Office, Singapore
It all started on 18th of September, 2018 when the results for the Women Techmakers Scholarship program by Google was out. Making it through 25000 applications, and out of the 1250 interview phone calls, finally, 73 of us were selected from 14 different countries and I was one of them. The retreat was to be held in Singapore during October 10th- 14th and hence the visa process began. The journey and all other expenses of stay were covered by Google.
On the 9th of October, I had a flight from Patna to Delhi at 7:00 PM and by 11:15 PM on that day, I left Delhi for Singapore. It was 5-hour long flight. I reached Singapore on the morning of 10th October around 7:30 AM Singapore time. Our stay was booked at Hotel Park Alexandra and I had the remarkable experience of being roommates with a girl from Pakistan. Since I had reached early, I went for Singapore sightseeing during the day to Sentosa Islands.
Day 0
The event started with a welcome dinner and we got some Google Goodies on that day itself. We finally met the Googlers involved with us during all the previous processes. Our table numbers were predecided and we were randomly paired with girls from different countries. We next had the Karaoke night and all the tables were called to sing a song that we commonly knew. The food was good but there were very, very limited options for vegetarians. However, the dessert was yum.
Day 1
This day was packed with events from morning to night. The day started at 8:45 AM when we left the hotel to Google Office, Singapore. We had breakfast at Google Cafe Shiok. The talks and speeches started at 10 AM with Welcome Keynote by Sunita Mohanty who came all the way from Google India Office. We then had a session on Bias Bursting by Emily from Google Office, Sydney, and Charlotte from Google Office, Singapore. We got to know how biases unconsciously find a way into our decisions and how important it is to get rid of such biases.
Next, we got to see the amazing Google Office and had lunch till 2:00 PM. We then had a fun activity “Journey to the unknown”. It consisted of solving more than 11 puzzles to reach up to the treasure box. My team was the first one to be able to complete it.
Tech Talks by several people from Google, flying all the way from different offices of Google all over the world, followed next. We got to know in detail about Google Search Engine and apps like Google Pay, and how Google is now targetting the next billion customers. That is why South-east Asia is very, very important to Google. Next, there was a panel of Google Women Engineers and they answered some important questions that we had and Google had prepared. They shared their life journey and how their career took path within Google.
Next, there was a Kickstart session by Engineers (Akashdeep Nain and others) from Google India and told us about the benefits of data structures and algorithm, and we discussed some questions and puzzles.
A South East Food Festival followed. A photo booth was kept and we got some really cool pictures. A calligraphy artist was also present, and we could get two of our items signed by the artist.
Day 2
The day again started at 8:45 AM by traveling to the office and taking breakfast. We had an opening Keynote by Priyanka Pundhir and she was inspirational. There was a former scholars panel and they told us about their amazing experiences post their retreat and what they had been doing.
There was a Codelab on Android Things by Google Engineers and we got to run some interesting codes on Rainbow Hat for Android Things and Raspberry Pi. We even got to keep the kit for our use.
Some interesting projects going on in Google Offices at their various centers were discussed with us. Stories of both success and failure were discussed in fields relating to AI, the future of search and Youtube.
Next, they discussed what all they look for in a CV when they come across millions of CV in a single year. A mock interview was also held for us and guidance was given on how to be interactive and clear in our thought process and how we should think out loud during our interviews. We should keep our codes clean and self-explanatory.
Future work on helping out the community was discussed with our country leads, for India they were Anjali Thakur and Suhail. Dinner followed at the National Gallery of Singapore.
Day 3
This was the last day of our retreat. One session that I found absolutely amazing on this day was #IAmRemakable Session. We had to write points on why we thought we were remarkable, one professional and one personal and then speak it out loud. We were made to realize that we should all realize our self-value and speak about our accomplishments. It not only gives us confidence but helps the world in realizing the ideals and strong person that we represent. Women are more likely to stay humble about their accomplishments but it is very very important in the workspace to talk about it.
Group photos were taken. Then we had the Scavenger Hunt. We were divided into teams and given subway and bus passes and we had to travel across Singapore and click pictures at important locations of Singapore and collect points. We went to China Town and Sentosa. It was a really fun experience. We had some closing notes and then farewell.
In all, the retreat was a celebration for the community of women that were present there. All the 73 scholars were remarkably talented with marvelous accomplishments at their young age. The most important takeaway from the retreat was the not experience at Google Office or the Google Goodies but the amazing community that we belonged to and got to be a part of, for a lifetime.
