Russia’s first four women GDEs share their journey to becoming GDEs and encourage others to join them

Meet Alena Batitskaia, Polina Gurtovaya, Anna Jarkova, and Julia Miocene, the first four women Google Developer Experts in Russia! Alena and Polina became developers after holding early-career roles in other areas: Polina as a developer of laser gyroscopes and Alena as an IT professional at a large telecommunications company. Polina learned to code and now works as a frontend developer, and Alena became a programmer at 25 years old and now works as a freelance developer. Julia learned CSS and JavaScript as a teenager and is a full-time product designer. All three women became GDEs in Web Technologies in 2021.

Anna studied computer science at university and began as an Android developer and cross-platform Xamarin developer, before becoming an iOS developer, as well. She began learning Kotlin when it became the priority language for Android development. Currently, she is a full-time lead developer and became a GDE in Kotlin in 2021.

Journey into tech

Born in a small town in the middle of Russia, Alena studied Russian philology at university and planned to become a Russian language and literature teacher, but it wasn’t her passion. When she was 20, she got a job at a call center, and the next year, she became the first woman in technical support.

Web GDE Alena Batitskaia

After that, Alena held the roles of engineer and lead engineer, again as the only woman. She was a project manager for several years and saw how programmers worked. She decided to try it, and fell in love with programming after she wrote her first code. “I always liked to watch how programmers create entire worlds with complex logic from nothing, and as soon as I had the opportunity to think about what I really wanted to do, I retrained as a developer,” she says. “I changed careers when I was 25.”

For the past eight years, Alena has been a freelance frontend developer and teacher. “I like to make lightweight, accessible websites with beautiful CSS and JS animations,” she says. “I think that programming is the best work in the world!”

Polina, also a frontend engineer, began her career developing laser measurement devices. “About five years ago, I decided to change my career to work in the world of perfect mathematical models,” she says. “I applied for my first job as a frontend developer and quickly realized that there are no unicorns and perfect models in this area, but I was surrounded by very talented people, and all my tasks were really fun.”

Web GDE Polina Gurtovaya

Polina worked at a large company briefly and collaborated on large teams, but she prefers working for smaller organizations. She still loves frontend development and says she always has something new to learn. “So many cool technologies and ideas come into play, and sometimes unexpected standards emerge,” she says.

While Alena and Polina came to programming after starting their careers in different areas, Julia began designing websites at age twelve as a hobby. She loves new technologies, especially JavaScript and CSS. As a full-time product designer, she uses her frontend development expertise every day, working on products including her company’s translator web application, keyboard mobile app, and communication tools for helping people who can’t hear or see.

Web GDE Julia Miocene

Anna, too, has been immersed in programming her entire career, delving into advanced work with Kotlin and work with Kotlin Multiplatform in 2020. She documented her learning process on GitHub and Medium. Currently, she works in Android and iOS development and uses Kotlin Multiplatform in both work and side projects. “My work as a mobile developer is full of inspiration and creativity,” she says, adding that she enjoys educating others through her full-time job, side projects, blog, YouTube posts, and teaching work. “I think it’s really important to share your knowledge, because it helps people.”

Becoming a GDE

All four of these women became GDEs in 2021. Polina got involved in Google Developer Groups and met a Googler at a GDG conference who suggested Polina apply to the GDE program. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn more about technologies I’m interested in, meet other experts, and have an additional channel of useful information,’ says Polina. “I really like that I meet new, talented people.”

Polina says the interview process was really interesting. “I had a couple of talks where I learned new things about Google technologies,” she says. “Interviewers even shared useful articles and links with me.”

Alena’s motto is “Don’t miss a single opportunity,” so when she was approached by Google to apply to the GDE program, she didn’t hesitate. “I love the fact that I can inspire other female developers to be more active: to speak, to write articles, to organize events. I also like to participate in different development programs, such as the Women Developer Academy.”

Both Julia and Anna were invited to apply to be GDEs after graduating from the Women Developer Academy and Road to GDE last year. Julia had already been creating content, giving talks, publishing, and posting videos on YouTube, so she was prepared to apply and interview for the GDE role. “I wanted to be able to talk with other Googlers and teams, share my expertise, and learn new things,” Julia says. “I’ve been a GDE since October 2021. I really like meeting with Googlers and learning about new products and how they work. That’s the most exciting part of this program.”

Anna submitted her GDE application in July 2021. “All the questions I was asked in both interviews were connected with all the things I’d given talks on in previous months, so it was easy for me,” Anna says. Anna received notice of her selection as a GDE soon after her interview and was delighted. She looks forward to passing along her knowledge of Kotlin and having the chance to mentor another prospective GDE.

Kotlin GDE Anna Jarkova

Advice to potential women GDEs

All four women encourage other women to apply to be GDEs.

“Don’t be afraid of anything,” says Alena. “Take up any opportunity, and do what you really enjoy.”

“I really like being a GDE, and I look forward to seeing more talented developers join us to share their ideas and to make the web platform even better,” Polina says.

“This is a great program,” says Julia. “Women should not be afraid to apply.”

“My advice is not to be afraid to apply to be a GDE,” says Anna. “I advise everyone to find a mentor who will help you summarize all your content in the right way for the reviewer. I also advise women, if they have no luck at their first attempt to become a GDE, keep trying. You can share your knowledge, even if you’re not a GDE, but if you want to be a GDE, to provide your knowledge in a more extended way, keep trying!”

To learn more about the program and application process, visit the Google Developer Experts website.