GDG Sydney Meetup March 2026

GDG Cloud Sydney is back for a meetup this March! 

Join us for an evening of exciting technical talks, community connections, and knowledge sharing.

📍 New venue for this event — please double-check the location before coming.

Come Hire!
The meetup allocates 10 minutes to people seeking technical jobs or with open roles at their company. If you’re hiring or job hunting, this is your chance to connect with the community.

👉 This meetup is in-person only. There are no plans to stream the event.

Partners
This meetup is organised in partnership with The Institute of International Studies (TIIS). The platform was conceived not only as a place for students to develop career-ready skills and competencies but also as a space where they could nurture attributes that would enrich their life experiences as engaged and contributing citizens. They have academic programs that are meticulously designed to align with the ever-evolving needs of various industries. TISS graduates emerge equipped with the essential tools and knowledge needed to confidently enter the workforce.

Dented Code teaches coding skills that you need to become a full-stack developer and help you advance your career, pursue your dream job, or enjoy the freedom of life as a freelancer. – Learn more on their website.

We will also give out two 1-year subscriptions from JetBrains to any of JetBrains' IDEs and two programmable event tickets in a raffle. Winners can choose from tools like IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, PyCharm, WebStorm, Rider, and more.

Talks
Talk 1: How to use Gemini to search and bag your first or next tech job
In this era of AI and agents, to stay ahead of the competition in this difficult job market, you must leverage AI tools, even for your job search and interview preparation. While you should not use AI to cheat in the interview, you should use it to search for and find the right roles and to research the company, so you can better prepare yourself and increase your chances of getting the job offer.

In this talk, you will learn how to use Gemini and other tools that use Gemini in the background to get a fair advantage when you search for your first or next tech job. You will also learn more about the hiring process and interview stages, and get useful tips to help your application move into the top 20% of applicants.

In this demo-filled talk, you will pick up how to use Gemini deep research, guided learning, live share (for on-demand interview preparation), and Notebook LM to your advantage. Be smart: let AI (Gemini) do the hard work so you can get the desired outcome without outsourcing the thinking.

What you’ll learn:

Gemini Deep Research: How to use Gemini to sniff out the roles that actually fit your stack.

The Power of NotebookLM: Organizing your interview prep and research about the company.

Live Share: Using AI as a mock interviewer that actually gives helpful feedback.

Guided Learning: learning something step by step in bite-sized pieces

The Golden Rule: Let AI handle the heavy lifting and data crunching, but never outsource the actual thinking.

About the speaker — Geshan Manandhar
Geshan is a seasoned software engineer with over 17 years of software engineering experience. Currently, he serves as a technical lead at Safewill in Sydney, Australia. He is a language-agnostic software engineer who believes the value provided to the business is more important than the choice of language or framework. With a keen interest in REST architecture, microservices, agile software engineering, and serverless, he has spoken at tech conferences in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and Australia. He is actively involved with the developer community and is a Google Developer Expert (GDE) for the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). He is a Docker Captain, too. Blogging since 2007, he has a well-maintained tech blog, where he shares his views and ideas.

Talk 2: AI Engineering on Databricks: The Back to Front Databricks Intro
AI and data engineering were the hottest jobs of 2025 — full of excitement, confusion, and more than a few failed projects. One thing is clear: the genie is out of the bottle, and the demand for solid data and AI engineering isn’t slowing down. So how do you ride this wave and actually build a career in it? In this session, we'll try to navigate that.

About the speaker — Anoj Shrestha
Anoj is a seasoned data professional with over five years of consulting experience in big data engineering and architecture, specialising in the Databricks platform. He’s passionate about helping organisations unlock the value of their data — from choosing the right strategy to executing with clarity and staying focused on what matters.

Event Schedule

5:30pm - Event doors open

5:45pm - Introduction and hiring connect (5 mins for each group, every participant gets up to 1 min)

6:00pm - Talk 1: How to use Gemini to search and bag your first or next tech job — Geshan Manandhar

6:45pm - Talk 2: AI Engineering on Databricks: The Back to Front Databricks Intro — Anoj Shrestha

7:15pm - Raffle for 2 JetBrains IDE licenses and 2 programmable tickets

7:45pm - Event end

Agenda

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Hosted By

Shital Shrestha, Community Organiser

Rohit Maharjan, Community Organiser

Hi, I’m Rohit, a dedicated software engineer with 2 years of experience and a
keen interest in transitioning to a DevOps role. I have a strong background in
building digital solutions using PHP, JavaScript (React.js), and MySQL. My
passion for cloud technologies and continuous integration/deployment
(CI/CD) drives me to further develop my skills in DevOps. I am eager to
leverage my development experience and cloud knowledge to contribute to
a dynamic DevOps team.

Sajan Shrestha, Community organiser

Shasanka Acharya, Community Organiser

Ryan Snowden, Community Organiser

Katharine Russell, Software Engineer

Gary Lou, Community organiser

Kunal Ostwal,

Luke Moody, Founder

Russal Arya, Community organiser

Roshan Ghale, Community organiser

A passionate Software Engineer skilled in JavaScript, React, Node.js, as well as Salesforce Development. Currently I am working as a Software Engineer at Practifi.

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Partners

Dented Code (https://dentedcode.com)
At Dented Code, we have developed an innovative coding Bootcamp approach to empower candidates with cutting-edge technology and skills to thrive in the Australian multi-billion-dollar digital economy. In 2021, Dented Code began transferring its programming skills to students through BootCamp courses, in-school workshops, community upskilling initiatives, and online tutorials. Through Dented Code’s BootCamp, students get equipped with in-demand coding and web development skills.

JetBrains (https://www.jetbrains.com)
At JetBrains, code is our passion. Ever since we started, back in 2000, we have strived to make the strongest, most effective developer tools on earth. By automating routine checks and corrections, our tools speed up production, freeing developers to grow, discover and create.

Our Mission
We make professional software development a more productive and enjoyable experience.

The Institute of International Students (https://www.tiis.edu.au)

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Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-cloud-sydney-presents-gdg-sydney-meetup-march-2026/.