How a PaperCutter restarted RMIT’s Google Developer Student Club

If you’re a dedicated reader of our blog, you might remember PaperCutter Milindi Kodikara.

Milindi’s an Associate Product Engineer these days. But she was once one of our IBL interns. Our first from RMIT, in fact.

Unluckily, Milindi started right at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2020, she wrote a post about what it was like working as an intern in a pandemic. It delivered its share of challenges. But Milindi’s experienced her fair share of obstacles.

Before she started her internship with us, job-seeking as an international student was a full-time job itself. In her blog, Milindi told us how she got her foot in the door.

On top of maintaining top grades, she volunteered everywhere she could at RMIT University: student councils, computer science societies. You name a tech club, Milindi was there.

Courtesy of this hard work, last year, while she was finishing her studies, Milindi was chosen by Google to re-establish RMIT’s Google Developer Student Club (GDSC).

During her internship at PaperCut, Milindi learned a lot about leadership which she says gave her a leg up for leading the GSDC:

“The way Jeremy Hooi and Mat Buttrey lead the teams I was a part of was amazing. Our social media posts were inspired by the way Kieron announces his blog articles (a lot of emojis haha) and when I selected my team I made sure to keep an open eye on who to pick just like how Laura White took a chance on me!”

After starting the club, Milindi reached out to Matthew Ranocchiari (Google Developer Relations Community Manager, Australia & New Zealand) for advice. Milindi assembled a team and the group set their goals with the main aim of preparing students for careers in tech.

To drive professional networking, the GSDC hosted multiple events per month. PaperCut was even happy to sponsor HackVision, a 24-hour hackathon that drew more than 100 participants the world over!