The big scary HACKATHON

RANDOM HACKS OF KINDNESS

RHoK otherwise known as Random Hacks of Kindness was the very first hackathon I attended. The mission statement is “to create a self-sustaining global community of innovators building practical open technology for a better world, and to ensure their work creates impact in society”.

Over the course of 48 hours, teams assemble around our changemakers (not for profits and companies for a cause)to work fast and furious, have fun, and create real social impact. It’s an opportunity to work in a collaborative environment to help create innovative technology solutions to social problems.

MY EXPERIENCE AS A 1st TIME HACKER

The gif to my left pretty much sums up how I was feeling emotionally throughout the entirety of the hack experience. One of my larger goals during my time as a coding bootcamp student was to attend a hackathon. It is in essence the manifestation of feeling imposter syndrom.

I mean come on with a name like HACKATHON you would think you are walking into a room full of Elliot Alderson’s (see Mr. Robot). I’m here to tell you that couldn’t be further from the truth.. at least at first. I’m not going to lie it is very intimidating at first but once you are open with yourself and skillset you can very quickly find people you would like to team up with.

So, the TLDR version of what I’m trying to tell you is that ‘I came out alive’. Seriously, more alive than I was had I not attended a hackathon! Just jump in that fire and DO IT. Go be awkward, nervous, unsure, and friendly at a hackathon and I promise you will walk away having not regretted the experience. Perhaps you’ll even meet some awesome people which could ultimately, maybe, someday help you find a job.

LESSONS LEARNED

• The tech community is STRONG and full of EMBRACING individuals
• Value added comes in many forms and one must test oneself to find and add value regardless of your current state of skill/knowledge.
• DON’T BE INTIMATED OF HACKATHONS! They are very welcoming and a tremendous experience to meet people as well as be exposed to technology you wouldn’t have been typically exposed to.
• Working as a team when you have a project manager, UX/UI designers, and software developers. It was great to work with all of these pieces in place since in school we must perform all of these roles when completing a project.
• The ‘fanciest’, ‘most complex’, and ‘largest tech stack’ solution isn’t always the right choice to solve a specific problem. I learned that although a deep application with serverless processes, machine learning, and anything else you can throw in isn’t necessarily the clear cut winner at a hackathon just because it was the largest display of tech skill in the competition. I learned that it truly depends on the solution being solved and business case in which it applies. In our hack that meant that ‘maintainability’ was HUGE because the tech solutions created were ultimately to be managed by not-for-profit organizations and companies for a social cause who ultimately didn’t have the means or knowhow for such a solution in the first place. I imagine this very much echoes the working world in tech. Know the solution and business case to tailer a solution that fixes the problem in a concise yet not over engineered way.