7 Tips To Crack The GSA Application!

From the headline a lot of you may guess that we are going to do illegal things to trick Google to choose you as a Google student Ambassador. I just chose this headline to spark your curiosity and capture your attention. What I am going to explain in this article is how to sell yourself to Google and convince Googlers to choose you as a GSA, even though your technology experience isn’t that broad. Also, this article will open your mind on how the guy who’s applied for the GSA program by using his Yahoo Email got accepted and how the guy who has a play store account got rejected.

To be honest with you I don’t know the actual formula of how Google is screening students, but from my experience as a GSA in 2012 and talking with some Googlers, accepted GSAs and even rejected GSAs, I would like to share all of this experience with you today. In general as you know the purpose of the GSA program is to increase Google brand awareness in your university and let the students know about and know how to use Google apps, but the thing that a lot of students miss is that Google is looking for future Googlers who are going to lead their company later on, so Google will evaluate you as a future Googler not as a someone who will do an interim job and go away.

In general Google is looking for 4 things in a candidate when hiring :

1) Cognitive ability: how you think and your ability to learn.

2) Leadership: when to lead and when to follow.

3) Googliness: your knowledge about the Google company and Google products.

4) Experience: the least important one of the four. You can learn that during the job

Google also doesn't care about your GPA, Google says that students in school are trained to give specific answers. The idea is that if you hire people who have done the same things again and again they are going to identify problems and apply the same solutions they have seen before, but If you hire someone who doesn't have experience in that area but is bright and curious, they are more likely to come up with a solution that the world hasn't seen before.

If you go through the GSA application, you will find that the same four things apply to all the questions. Some questions will invite you to provide insights about your cognitive ability, how you think, your leadership qualities, Googliness and experience.

The following 7 tips might help you to get the most out of the application:

1) Don’t be hasty.
Take your time to fill out the application .You’ll probably want to apply earlier to increase your chances, but if you really deserve to be a GSA, Google will pick you, even if you applied one second before the deadline.

2) Categorize Questions.
Before answering any questions think about which type of question it is and tailor your answer to the purpose of the question. Is the question to measure my leadership abilities or how smart I am? Some questions are a mixture between the four criteria, like the following question, “What’s your favorite Google product and how would you improve it?” This question measures how your knowledge is with Google products and how creative you are. Pay Attention! Your answer especially to this question will be taken in consideration by Google. Do your best to come up with better creative ideas.

3) Show your strength and hide your weaknesses.
Don't make the video in English, except if your English pronunciation is good. If you make the video in Arabic, that doesn't indicate that your English is bad, but if you make the video in English and your English is not good this is a serious problem.

4) Take it seriously.

Express that you are very serious and really care about being a GSA. For example having a well-written recommendation letter from a well-known person and signed proof of enrollment (instead of submitting your faculty ID) can indicate how serious you are.

5) Avoid grammar and spelling mistakes. 

This is a fatal mistake. Don’t rely on spell or grammar checking applications, review every letter in the application by yourself. Also, have someone who may not be familiar with everything you have done read it to see if everything makes sense to them.

6) Use strong action verbs and self-descriptive words.

This URL contains most of the action verbs and descriptive words you can use to get the Googlers attention. Remember not to be arrogant and don’t use too many “I” and “my” pronouns.

7) Be unique and search for something that makes your application stand out.

Googlers who will evaluate your application will see thousands of applications and looking at the same sorts of things will bore them. If you can sell yourself to Google, you will able to sell Google products.