Are you scared to attend your first hackathon?
What should you expect if you are going alone?
Remember the scene where Morpheus said to Neo: “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill — the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill — you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” This is the exactly how you feel at your first hackathon.
The question here is not about which pill you would choose but about the method you should choose to make the most out of your first hackathon.
Your first hackathon will always be like your first date where you will be a little unsettled, don’t know what to do, what to say, and, yes, it can be scary for the first hour or so. But then when you start socializing and talking to people, it is pretty easy to find people you can jell well with like your promising date.
Find relevant Facebook groups and post your query about hackathons there. Don’t be afraid to message other people in the group who seem cool to you! In general, people are helpful in nature. You will get some cool people helping you with it.
Use the team formation exercise to your advantage and talk to friendly faces! If there’s a Facebook event or Slack group, message some people before it starts and post that you’re looking for a team!! Once you’re there, remember it’s about learning new things and making something cool. Don’t get demoralized if you’re stuck, or your team leaves, or if any other small “issues” come up; most hackathons are really friendly and collaborative environments.
When you are the venue, then try to find a group that you feel might be a good fit according to your personality. You may not be good with socializing, so you can put yourself into groups or you just wander until you find a group of people you feel mesh well together and a group where you feel like you’re able to contribute. You can always keep on looking for more (and better) groups according to your taste.
Find whatever you’re comfortable with. You might not be good at coding but you love interacting with people, and you have a flair for mixing and communicating with people. So try to talk to more and more people, and you will find someone.
Sometimes, you might even find your love…Don’t hesitate to challenge yourself. If you are not good at programming, try to meet people who are good coders, and they would be more than happy to share their knowledge. I have never heard of people refusing to share their knowledge in such hackathons. The more you talk to different people, the more it will help you grow. That’s how you’ll learn!
Whatever you can offer anyone during your first hackathon is appreciated!! If you have a good attitude (which I’m sure you have it if you’re going to a hackathon alone), you will have a great experience! Find people you like, and it will be great!! No matter what happens, you’ve done something great for your career! It is a nice way to get in touch with those who are relatively more experienced than you. In a hackathon, you will get to meet people who are industry expert and experienced. Their knowledge will surely add value to you. So, it’s also the best platform to connect and network with different types of people around you.
I would highly recommend sticking around for the demo event if you built nothing and/or your whole team leaves. Even if you just have a Github repo to show and a 3-slide PPT with the idea you initially had, you’ll be so grateful that you did it. There are people who are too scared to do the demo for the first hackathons and leave early. But believe me, it would really add to your knowledge and understanding if you stop there to watch the demo event. This way you will learn how and where you should challenge your thought process for upcoming hackathons. (Read this 9 best life hacks for a hackathon.)
Please share your first hackathon experience with me in the comment section.
