This is PART 1 of our series on how to break into tech. Follow us to stay updated on the next article.
Starting with the basic question,
According to Google a Hackathon is: An event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.
In reality: A hackathon is where you transform your crazy ideas into real stuff!
It is essentially a social tech event where you meet awesome people, learn new skills, work with cool technologies, talk to exciting companies and build incredible products, all in 24 to 36 hours!
There are many other reasons to attend hackathons:
- To WIN.
- To learn a new technology.
- To network.
- To get started on side projects.
- To grab some free swag.
- To find an internship, job or talk to recruiters.
- To sponsor or recruit at the event, if a company is looking to do so.
What to do at a hackathon?
To have an amazing experience, it is important to know what to DO at a hackathon (i.e. Where do you start?):
- Have a purpose
- Find a team
- Come up with an idea
- Decide which vertical and sponsor API’s to use
- Decide a tech stack
- HACK
- Submit your project to devpost
- Demo your project
- Put it on your resume
We know, this sounds like a lot of things right now! Let's go over the process in more detail:
Step 1: Before the hackathon —
- Join the hackathon’s slack group. Here you can introduce yourself, find team members for your idea, join other teams and get the latest updates about the event.
- Check out Devpost. Here you will get information about challenges and prizes given out by sponsors at the hackathon and prepare you for hacking to win.
- Form a team. Reach out to your friends, interested students at the university, or other students through slack who would be interested in the same idea/domain/tech as you. Brainstorm ideas and create an action plan for the hackathon beforehand to keep yourself motivated, save time, and be productive during the event. If you are not able to form a team beforehand, don’t worry — generally, hackathons have team formation sessions that you can go to.
Step 2: At the hackathon —
- First, reach on time and register.
- Find a table, get comfortable, and meet people .
- Attend the opening ceremony — here you will learn about sponsors, mentor resources, and activities happening throughout the event. After the opening ceremony, the hackathon officially begins.
- Plan to meet the sponsors. You could ask them questions about their technology, hackathon challenge, more about the company and if they are recruiting. Also, Don’t forget to collect the swag at their table!
Step 3: Actually Hacking —
- Visit the Hardware lab — you can rent out hardware here if you are planning to do a hardware hack.
- Attend workshops. Here you learn about different technologies and could possibly network with company representatives.
- Pick/start a project:
- Choose a vertical or challenge with your team.
- Think about what you want to make i.e. website, mobile app, dashboard.
- Choose an easy-to-implement tech stack for your project. You can learn the basics of your tech stack by using developer pages, stack overflow and googling a lot.
- You are not required to start a project from scratch but “hack” something in the given time. You can do so by making use of open-source GitHub projects or bootstrap code.
- You could also make use of existing APIs, Libraries, Developer platform and kits provided by sponsors for different features of your project.
- We recommend using Cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure to host your application.
4. Check out the fun activities!
Step 4: Towards the end of the hackathon —
- Submit on Devpost: You have to create a submission page where you have to describe your project and attach links such as Github link. We recommend that even if you have not finished your project you should get started on devpost submission page early on as it takes time to fill it out and you don’t want to be scrambling minutes before the deadline.
- Landing page or slides — To better showcase your project to the judges and to the audience you could also come up with a slide deck and a pitch. This also helps if your demo is not working or you do not have a working demo.
- Work on a pitch — Come up with a 1–2 min captivating pitch for your project that includes, the tech you used, why you created what you did, how it works and what you could have done if you had more time. Keep this brief and interesting.
- Demo your working project - Finally, when judges and people come by, demo your hack!
Step 5: After the hackathon —
- Push your code to Github — Remember to do this especially if you worked in a team and all the code is in one person’s computer. You might need the code later to showcase on your resume or to keep hacking in the future.
- Add your hack to your resume — Do this to impress recruiters and to get your next internship. Companies love students who are passionate about coding outside of the classroom as it shows your passion and ability to work in teams at these events which is a huge hiring factor.
- Talk about your project at interviews — Remember to mention hackathon projects during recruiting phone screens and interviews.
- Go to more hackathons while still a student — These events are free and a great opportunity to make use of while still a student!
- Continue to hack on your projects — The end of the hackathon does not need to be the end of your hack. Many students keep working on their hack and convert them into business ideas and many times, startups!
General Tips —
- Use team communication tools such as Trello or Slack to work with your team during the event.
- Set up a GitHub early and push code to it multiple times.
- Hackathons are all about rapid development!
- Make use of the mentors during the event.
- Stick to one idea or tech stack instead of constantly switching around. Remember, you only have 24 hours.
COOL HACKATHONS TO CHECK OUT
- Hack Davis — University of California, Davis
- Tree Hacks — Stanford
- Athena Hacks — USC ( Women’s Hackathon)
- Hack The North — University of Waterloo
- Cal Hacks — UC Berkeley
- Violet Hacks/Spectra — All women Hackathon, SF (Summer)
- Hack MIT — MIT
- Hack Harvard — Harvard University
- Hack LA — UCLA
- TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon
Check out mlh website and devpost for upcoming Hackathons.
Note:
Most of the hackathons are during fall, which is recruiting season for most companies. This is important to note as a lot of companies that sponsor these hackathons will usually table on the first day to recruit college students for upcoming internships and full-time positions. If you are looking for a job make sure to go talk to these recruiters and bring a copy of your resume!
HACKATHON MYTHS DEMYSTIFIED
- You do not need to know how to code, you can learn a lot there!
- You do not need a team to enter a hackathon, most hackathons have team formation sessions.
- You do not need an idea to register, you can brainstorm and come up with one during the event
- You do not need to stay for the whole time at the event you can leave whenever!
- You don’t have to code the whole time, a lot of companies come to these events so you can meet recruiters, find internships, network with other students and also learn what others are working on.
- There are also a lot of workshops by companies during the event that are invaluable if you want to learn new skills.
- Most hackathons reimburse for travel and have free food ~ not a myth!
Read these links to help you better prepare:
Hope by the end of this you are a hackathon pro and make Where Women Belong proud by going to many many more hackathons.
