Google Tech Equity Collective Rising Innovators: Initial Thoughts
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If you have been following me, you would know that I have been accepted into the Google Tech Equity Collective’s Rising Innovators Program. I have learned about it through the Brilliant Black Minds newsletter.
I attended the kickoff and then my first breakout session yesterday. Here were my initial thoughts:
- It was the pilot (first) program
- There were 1300 people. That’s a lot
- The staff were supportive
- There was an on demand track option
- In my breakout, I felt that I had way more tech experience than they did
The Pilot Program
This was the first time that Google ran this program. I admitted that I was honor to have made the cut of being one of the first. As a Black person, being the first meant that I had the tech skillset to be what Google was looking for.
There Were 1300 People.
That’s a lot of people for the initial cohort. The GCP Jumpstart Associate Cloud Engineer Program did not have 130 people. Imagine 10 times the number of people. I think that Google expects massive dropoff in between March and July. However, for me it will be interesting to see how this goes wrangling 1300 people.
The Staff Was Supportive
I liked the Google staff from the offset. They were encouraging and supportive throughout the kickoff meeting. You knew it was genuine not just some ramp-sup because their bosses told them to do so.
There Was An On-Demand Track Option *Warning* Unpopular Opinion
I overstayed on the kickoff broadcast and learned about the on-demand track option. This track was for people who did not have an assigned track.
Opinion — When you aren’t ‘assigned’ a certain place, you have no value. I feel that these are the late registrants because the deadline was March 17, 2023 but the program was still accepting applications over the weekend.
I have had witnessed this experience in 2022 with another Black-related tech program. The original deadline was Thursday. I received a congratulatory email on Friday for Monday. I checked on Twitter and…
