Community Spotlight: Mentors of nwHacks 2023
Meet some of the amazing mentors who joined us at nwHacks!
At nwPlus, we are committed to fostering a network that encourages innovation, inclusivity, and learning among those interested in tech. We believe that hackathons are for everyone, no matter what you study, where you’re from, or your previous experiences. nwHacks is our largest hackathon where hundreds of hackers, mentors, and sponsors gather together for an unforgettable weekend.
In this article, we’ll be highlighting some of the inspiring stories mentors have shared with us at nwHacks for our Community Spotlight series, sharing some of their hackathon experiences, why they got into tech, and some career advice!
We hope these stories inspire you like they inspired us, and encourage you to try something new in the tech industry as well! Without further ado, meet the mentors of nwHacks 2023!
Special thanks to Aurora for conducting some of these spotlights!
Note: The responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Philman Yeung (he/him)
Tell me about yourself!
— Hey, I’m Philman! I recently graduated from the business program at UBC. I’m now living and working in Seattle and drove back up to mentor at nwHacks 2023! I’m currently a product manager by day and spend time by the water or drawing/reading at a cafe during the weekend. It took me a while to figure out what to do. I’ve switched my degree from computer science and even tried different co-ops as a UX/UI designer or software sales. I just always knew I liked working with tech and people!
How did you get into tech?
— My first taste of tech was attending nwHacks in 2020. I was on a team with talented developers as a UX/UI designer — and I was super excited and nervous! My main takeaways were the sense of mentorship and collaboration, and I’ve kept going back to hackathons, taking courses and finding internships. For a lot of people, you start liking one thing and snowball into a whole bunch of other related things. Or others just continue focussing on that one knowledge area (eg: data science, blockchain)! I think I’m in product management because it’s a great mix of business, design and tech. You get to get your hands dirty in a bit of everything! I hope nwHacks this year also opens doors for students looking to get more into tech!
What are some resources you’d recommend to people trying to get into PM?
— There are three types of resources: Community, Knowledge, Experience.
Community: Product management may be challenging to get into at the start, but it’s easy when you have support from others! A few communities I joined are product buds and UBC Product Management Club. The people I met there helped each other through interviews, and tough times. I’ve even gone on a road trip with some of the people I met in these product communities.
Knowledge: What does a product manager have to know? For reading, I’d suggest you find a copy of this “Cracking the PM Interview” which gives you a sampler of what you might need to know. I also found product books helpful. The Design of Everyday Things and Hit Refresh were my faves.
Experience: PM is highly experiential. To get the job, you’ll need experience. These don’t have to be “product manager” on your resume, but anything somewhat related: software development, project management, data science, design, marketing or any combination of the things mentioned. Also check out New Venture Design, and Creative Destruction Lab at UBC if you’re a UBC student, which are classes where you can gain hands-on PM skills!
What’s your favorite thing about hackathons?
— 100% the vibes (okay, free food and swag have a bit to do with it, but mostly the vibes). I think it’s so motivating to see what other teams are accomplishing, and how eager mentors are to help! Can I mention how crazy awesome it is for the organizers to hype things up and all the late-night shenanigans? Whether it’s online or offline, I feel like you can always walk away from a hackathon feeling accomplished.
What’s one thing you can’t forget about your first hackathon?
— It would have to be seeing your team in the final moments before handing everything in. Everyone is scrambling to document what they’ve done, and writing “just one more!” line of code or prototyping. There’s a lot of exhilaration, and you can’t match it with a lot of other events in university. It’s cliche, but it’s the hi-fives and the friends you make along the way. I walked into the room with some strangers and ended up being great friends after 24 hours.
Jarell Alvarez (he/him)
Introduce yourself!
— I’m Jarell Alvarez and I have been designing for about six years. I’ve worked in many different companies as a solo designer, from working as an enterprise designer to a growth designer. I’m currently building a multimedia company that focuses on photography and videography and also just launched my podcast yesterday. I also do career coaching and mentoring on the side and am a senior advisor for Vancouver Design Check-in and rebranding from Subtle Asian Vancouver to Roots Collective.
How did you get into UX/UI design?
— I didn’t have a clear direction in life; I just wanted to be happy. One day, my aunt told me my cousin does web design and makes $50,000 and I became interested in how the field combines creativity and logic. I originally applied for BCIT’s Digital Design Development but didn’t get into the program. The following year I got into a program at Douglas College but took my time and just relaxed. During my second semester, I read Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug and it blew my mind. It motivated me because I really like getting to know people and wanted to figure out how I can empathize with them. Everything he said sounded like something I could do and he was also selling this ideal lifestyle. So from that point on, I decided that no matter what, I was gonna get into UX. Even when I was a growth designer, designing ads and website templates, I would reframe it in a way where storytelling is key, to UX.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into design?
— Network. You can’t build anything on your own right? You can design on your own. But that’s not realistic. The only way to have realistic experiences is to work with others and put yourself out there. And networking is not about this transactional kind of ideology, networking is whatever you make of it. For me, it’s just meeting new friends, talking about passions beyond the job description, and finding out how I can help others.
Adin Kwok (he/him)
Tell me about yourself!
— I’m currently a software engineer at Meta. I work on digital commerce technologies which is where we take in payments and give you what you purchased.
How did you get into tech?
— I’ve always been interested in tech, I was the “tech guy” in my family. My gateway into the tech scene was when I was around 11 years old and my mom got an iPod. I remember learning about the concept of jailbreaking and breaking into her iPod to download whatever apps I wanted to without her knowing. When I got an Android phone in high school, I learned Android hacking and started building custom software. I became interested in learning how to write better programs which led me to study computer science at university.
What’s your favorite thing about hackathons?
— One of my most notable hackathon experiences was Lumohacks which was centered around mental health. My teammates and I weren’t as technical as we are now, but we found a niche area that hadn’t been addressed by anyone in tech which was very exciting. I really love that hackathons enable you to approach basically any problem that hasn’t been approached before, and build some sort of solution towards it.
What drew you to become a mentor at nwHacks?
— The success of my previous hackathon experiences was based on the mentorship that I got, so now that I’m a more well-versed engineer, I like to take the opportunity to help other people approached those same ideas, the same problems, areas that people haven’t really found a solution for, and just hack something together really quickly.
What’s your advice for first-time hackers?
— No idea is too big. In a hackathon, you have a lot of time pressure and the most important part about that is getting some really good guidance and ideating. You should break your idea down into small bite-sized components that you can approach so that it goes from one really big problem into a bunch of really small problems.
Sherry He (she/her)
Tell me about yourself!
— I’m a product designer at Fortinet currently. I’ve been in the design industry for over six years. I originally graduated from SFU’s Business Program and slowly changed my career from business to design and product design.
How did you get into design?
— After graduating from SFU’s Beedie School of Business, I started a business-related job. I figured that it wasn’t something I wasn’t interested in. I remembered liking the design course that I took while I was at SFU so I started going to BCIT at night to take their design courses while working during the day. After a while, I figured that design was the path I wanted to pursue full-time and quit my day job.
How does product design fit into hackathons?
— All the participants (or most) are teams that are trying to build something that is essentially a product. Product design is not just about the user interface, it’s also about starting from the ideation stage and taking the right steps to validate your idea. A product designer helps create mockups and tests to validate the idea and see if people will like it. After validation, product designers also help decide what the major feature of the product will be. My role as a mentor overlaps with product management. I’ll also guide hackers in deciding their primary aim, identifying and considering constraints, as well as how design and the back-end structure will work together.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to do product design?
— Start with sharpening your design skills. During sessions with my mentees, I noticed that one of the biggest barriers is user interface design because they haven’t been to design school. A sense of design, like a sense of fashion, needs time to develop. For those who have little to no experience in design, I recommend reading some books first and better understand the field of design — I have some designer friends who have a strong preference for certain disciplines within design.
Any last words?
— If anyone is looking to get into the design industry or transferring into it, feel free to reach out to me! Whether you want a casual chat to better understand the field or want advice on negotiating pay or trying to find a job, I’m happy to chat because I’ve been there too.
Shannon Wells (she/her)
Tell me about yourself!
— I’ve been at Livepeer for a year and a half, but I’ve been working full-time in the web3 space for about three years. I had a really long and winding journey to get into this part of tech. I studied Political Science for my Masters here at UBC and went on to work for the federal government which is where I first became aware of cryptocurrency and blockchain as I was regulating crypto. Then I worked with CEOs at the World Economic Forum to look at how blockchain technologies disrupted their industries and continued on to work in impact investing at MaRS Discovery District where startups were using crypto for good and in more interesting ways.
How did you get into product management?
— While working at MaRS Discovery District, I learned about proof of stake and proof of work blockchains which got me really interested because of my background in political science. I realized that there’s a very human element to how web3 is built and improved and started getting interested in blockchain governance and concepts around decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). I participated in ETHGlobal’s hackathons to learn more about the technologies built on top of blockchains and while I’m not a developer, I was really keen to learn about the technology and what developers need to build things. After more research, I realized that product management was the space for me as I love product strategy and helping developers find the problem they are solving.
What are some common myths about web3?
— For one, web3 is not about speculation, it’s about utility. The majority of internet technologies are highly centralized; there are only a few companies in the world that are able to provide services like file sharing, cloud storage, video transcoding and processing. Companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon, are some of the only companies that can provide these types of computation at the scale that they do. With blockchain, Livepeer and other web3 infrastructure projects decentralize the computation power needed to do all these things through people acting as node operators in a network. We then reward them with cryptocurrency for providing their computing capacities and decentralizing the internet infrastructure.
What are some starter resources you’d recommend to someone who is interested in web3?
— Developer DAO is definitely one I’d recommend, mostly for developers but also non-devs. There are also really cool communities, like Women Build Web3 and H.E.R. DAO; there are a lot of projects that are about onboarding women and non binary people. There are also more groups that appeal to different demographics and help people get onboarded. That’s the one thing I will say, I think there’s a real effort to make sure what we’re doing is more inclusive and diverse and that we’re making the technology industry a healthier and more vibrant place.
A big thank you to all of the mentors for sharing their inspiring stories in our Community Spotlights series! Don’t forget to check out our other Community Spotlights!
Stay tuned to hear more from our nwPlus community! 👋
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