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The results are in for the 2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge!

August 15, 2017

More than 600 professors and 12,000 students from over 65 countries competed in the 2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC)...and the results are in!
This year we introduced a new AdWords Certification award and algorithm evaluating performance across more campaign types, delivering some of the most impressive work seen in the history of GOMC. Check out our AdWords Business, AdWords Certification, and Social Impact Winners below, and reference our GOMC Past Challenges page for a full list of the 2017 Team Results.
Congratulations to the winners and a big round of applause for all teams that participated! Thanks to all of the support from professors and the thousands of students who have helped businesses and nonprofits in their communities, we have had much to celebrate together. Over the past 10 years, more than 120,000 students and professors across almost 100 countries have participated in the Google Online Marketing Challenge, helping more than 15,000 businesses and nonprofits grow online.
Though we are taking a step back from the Google Online Marketing Challenge as we know it and exploring new opportunities to support practical skill development for students, we are continuing to provide free digital skills trainings and encourage academics to keep fostering a learning environment that connects the classroom with industry. For resources that will help you carry on project work like GOMC, a place for sharing feedback to help us continue to provide useful student development programs and a way to stay updated on our latest offerings, visit our FAQ page on the GOMC website.

2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge Winners

AdWords Business Awards Global Winners

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Michelle Mullins, George Shtern, Caroline Galiwango and Raquel Sheriff

Client: Arts Council of the Valley

Regional Winners

Region: Americas

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Jonathan Nicely, Ken Prevete, Jessica Drennon and Jesse Springer

Client: Cradles to Crayons

Region: Asia & Pacific

School: University of Delhi | India

Professor: Ginmunlal Khongsai

Team: Prakriti Sharma, Raghav Shadija and Ankita Grewal

Client: Tour My India Private Ltd.

Region: Europe

School: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań | Poland

Professor: Wojciech Czart

Team: Michał Paszyn, Marek Buliński, Kamil Poturalski, Aneta Disterheft, Damian Koniuszy and Kamila Malanowicz

Client: SOLVE Elektronika

Region: Middle East & Africa

School: Kenyatta University | Kenya

Professor: Paul Mwangi Gachanja

Team: Peter Wangugi, Jackson Ndung'u, Selpha Kung'u and Antony Gathathu

Client: Garden of Hope Foundation

AdWords Certification Awards Global Winners

School: University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt | Germany

Professor: Mario Fischer

Team: Tobias Fröhlich, Lorenz Himmel, Sabine Zinkl, Thomas Lerch, Philipp Horsch and Maksym Vovk

Client: Garten Fräulein

Regional Winners

Region: Americas

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Nicole Carothers, Emily Vaeth, Annalise Capalbo and Brendan Reece

Client: Virginia Discovery Museum

Region: Asia & Pacific

School: Indian Institute of Management Indore | India

Professor: Rajendra V. Nargundkar

Team: Kalaivani G, Swathika S, Chandran M, Akshaya S, Sadhana P and Mathan Kumar V

Client: Bhalaje photography

Region: Europe

School: University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt | Germany

Professor: Mario Fischer

Team: Matthias Schloßareck, Michelle Skodowski, Lena Thauer, Yen Nguyet Dang, David Mohr and Sebastian Kaufmann

Client: Fred von SOHO

Region: Middle East & Africa

School: The Federal University of Technology, Akure | Nigeria

Professor: Ajayi Olumuyiwa Olubode

Team: John Afolabi, Adebayo Olaoluwa Egbetade, Olubusayo Amowe, Israel Temilola Olaleye, Raphael Oluwaseyi Lawrence and Taiwo Joel Akinlosotu

Client: Stutern

AdWords Social Impact Awards

1st Place

School: The University of Texas at Austin | United States

Professor: Lisa Dobias

Team: Kaitlin Reid, Ben Torres, Zachary Kornblau, Kendall Troup, Kristin Kish and Angela Fayad

Client: Thinkery

2nd Place

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Michelle Mullins, George Shtern, Caroline Galiwango and Raquel Sheriff

Client: Arts Council of the Valley

3rd Place

School: James Madison University | United States

Professor: Theresa B. Clarke

Team: Jonathan Nicely, Ken Prevete, Jessica Drennon and Jesse Springer

Client: Cradles to Crayons

Code Jam Finals: Watch live on Friday, August 11

August 10, 2017

Watch this year’s Code Jam Finals livestream Friday, August 11

From April through June, tens of thousands of Code Jammers battled through programming challenges involving pancakes, French cuisine, unicorns, medical nanobots, and the scheduling difficulties faced by new parents, to name just a few. Our contestants came from all over the globe, from Saudi Arabia to Svalbard, using programming languages ranging from C++ to Go to LOLCODE.

For the first time, we included some Distributed Code Jam problems in which our system could not be trusted! For example, in one problem, contestants knew that asking a machine in our system for a certain piece of data would make that machine start behaving as if it were broken, but they did not know which piece of data would cause this to happen, and they had to figure it out via experimentation and then work around the issue. But this didn't faze our contestants, who are becoming more comfortable with distributed programming each year.

When the dust settled after our last online rounds, we had 26 Code Jam finalists and 21 Distributed Code Jam finalists. On August 10 and 11, these expert coders will compete for five-figure cash prizes in our onsite World Finals at Google's Dublin, Ireland office.

In the Finals, competitors face five or six very tough problems that often require markedly different approaches and insights. Gennady.Korotkevich of Belarus has won the last three years' Code Jams, but he will have to work hard to overcome rivals like the Philippines' kevinsogo, who beat Gennady in this year's semifinal Code Jam Round 3. And that's to say nothing of the 24 other strong contestants, who are eager to unseat the two favorites!

Google's Distributed format is relatively new and rare on the competitive programming circuit, and it tests a somewhat different skillset. South Africa's bmerry, who has won every Distributed Code Jam contest so far, will be looking to ‘three-peat’ as champion. This year, for the first time, Bruce has the unenviable extra challenge of contending with Gennady in the Distributed final round. Four other contestants qualified for both tournaments, so for the first time it is possible that someone could take both titles in the same year.

You can experience the magic of the World Finals by watching the livestream of the Code Jam contest on Friday, August 11. Our veteran Code Jam author (and Google infrastructure engineer) John Dethridge will return as a commentator, and he will be joined by Dublin-based ads site reliability engineer Rita Lu. John and Rita will talk the audience through our competitors' backgrounds and general Code Jam strategy, and they will provide a live analysis of the results as they roll in. The standings can change in the blink of an eye, and it is not uncommon to see critical submissions in the last few moments of a round!The livestream will also feature interviews with Googlers from Code Jam — be on the lookout for an interview with this year's three Code Jam interns; they’ll share accounts of what the #GoogleInterns experience is like. We hope many of you will join the Finals excitement by tuning into the livestream, watching the scoreboard unfold at g.co/codejam, and asking live questions on social @CodeJam (we promise to answer as many as we can). We'll see you there!

My Path to Google: Anastasiya Bortnyk, Global Customer Experience team

July 28, 2017

Welcome to the fifth installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.
Today’s post is all about Anastasiya Bortnyk . Read on!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Originally I am from a small town in West Ukraine called Lutsk. Early on, I knew that I wanted to run my own business some day (following the example of my father who was an entrepreneur in the IT sector), so I studied International Business at the National University of Kyiv. In addition to my coursework, I was constantly involved in student projects. I also started working part-time in Sales and Marketing for IT companies in Kiev before graduating.

What’s your role at Google? I am an Associate Account Strategist within the Google Global Customer Experience team. Day-to-day, I help Google customers resolve any technical issues they face while advertising with our online advertising platform AdWords and help them optimize their return on investment. However, the work is not only about interaction with clients directly. We have lots of different projects to dive into. For example, I am also in charge of Customer Education and am leading Online Mobile Academy, which aims to help our clients adapt to the quickly developing mobile landscape.
I really enjoy the freedom we have here at Google. We can each spread ideas, initiate new projects or get involved in existing ones we’re interested in. This is very beneficial in terms of professional and personal development. I really value the amount of learning opportunities I get on a daily basis.

What inspires you to come in every day? Google’s culture and diversity inspires me most of all. It’s a pleasure to work with people who are all so interesting and different. There is also a huge variety of different opportunities here which, for me, is crucial because I work best when I can constantly switch up my routine. Being able to shape the job how you see fit really makes it a lot more interesting and rewarding.

Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process? Where I come from, my peers and I always thought Google was unreachable, only for genius engineers. I dreamed about working here, but never thought about it too seriously. In my case, it was actually Google who bumped into me. I received a letter to apply for the Google Adcamp program, which was designed specifically for students interested in business and marketing. Thankfully, I was selected to attend and take part in this program. It opened my eyes to what Google was looking for; I saw the roles were reachable, and I definitely wanted to work here!

How did the recruitment process go for you? I was contacted very shortly after the AdCamp program, and the process was smooth, yet challenging. I had rounds of interviews, each of which was different in nature. The questions weren’t easy, but they were very interesting.
I was not able to come for interviews onsite, so I did them over Google Hangouts. However, at that time I was living in the student dormitory, so I was also worried about that. I asked my roommates to give me privacy, and I even set up a cool background, but right at the end of one of the interviews, my internet failed, so I had to do half of the interview without video. It was a disaster back then, but in hindsight, it’s pretty funny :).

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process? I wish I knew back then that Google is not only about programming and coding. There are so many opportunities for business or humanities graduates here as well. If I had known that before, it would have changed my perception much earlier.

Can you tell us more about the resources you used to prep? I was lucky to attend AdCamp because it gave me a lot of insight into Google and how to get hired here. We had sessions telling us about the recruitment process, and we even had a mock interview. However, before interviewing, I also researched all Google blogs, read articles about interviews, and of course stories of people who had already interviewed at Google.

To finish, do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers? Find and reach out to Googlers if you know any. For me, the most valuable thing was a chance to speak to people working here before starting the process. Not only can they then refer you, but they can also share best practices, give you tips, and tell you more about the job you’ll be applying for. It’s also not a disaster if you initially get rejected. I know people who didn’t make it the first time, but persisted, remained positive, and ended up getting the job later on. Want to follow in Anastasiya’s footsteps? Check out our Students site.

Google Travel Grant Application: 2017 Grace Hopper Conference — Apply Now!

July 6, 2017

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to increase the number of women in engineering, we are excited to offer travel grants to the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference taking place in Orlando, FL from October 4-6. Once again, this year’s conference will offer incredible opportunities for mentoring, networking and career development.
University students and industry professionals in the US and Canada who are excelling in computer science and passionate about supporting women in tech can apply for a travel grant to attend the 2017 Grace Hopper conference.
The Grace Hopper Travel Sponsorship includes:

Conference registration

Round trip flight to Orlando, FL (from within the US or Canada)

Reimbursement for ground transportation to and from the airport and the hotel

Arranged hotel accommodations from October 3-7

$75 USD reimbursement for miscellaneous travel costs

A fun event specifically for travel grant recipients on one of the evenings of the conference!

Please apply here by Monday, July 17. The Grace Hopper Travel Sponsorship winners will be announced by mid-August.For questions, please email ghctravelgrant@google.com.

Student Blog

The results are in for the 2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge!

Code Jam Finals: Watch live on Friday, August 11

My Path to Google: Anastasiya Bortnyk, Global Customer Experience team

Google Travel Grant Application: 2017 Grace Hopper Conference — Apply Now!

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