Hackathons Are So Much More Than Hacking
TechTogether hackathons will leave you feeling connected, energized, and more technically skilled!
Read below Deana Jackson’s (TechTogether Seattle participant) experience about her first-ever hackathon. If you’re interested in participating in our next hackathon, register for TechTogether Atlanta here.
My name is Deana and I work as a curriculum developer for a language learning company. I have been working full-time and going to school since January 2019. In June 2021, I completed an associate program in computer information systems.
I really enjoyed it and decided to go for a master’s in computer science. This fall I started taking post-baccalaureate classes at Portland State University in preparation for that.
I followed the CS department on Instagram and early in the term, they posted about TechTogether Seattle. Coming out of the isolation of the pandemic, I was eager to meet new people with similar interests and goals. I signed up quickly without thinking about it too much. I only had a vague idea about what a hackathon was.
At that time, I didn’t believe I could create any kind of significant website or program in a weekend. I didn’t know anyone else going to the hackathon. How could I possibly be part of a team? I just signed up because I figured it would be good for me. I had no idea what to expect.
About a week before the event, I saw the schedule of events, and my eyes widened. So many workshops and events! Even team formation events! I didn’t realize there would be anything like that. I could participate in the hackathon without feeling any pressure to produce a functioning, meaningful program. Nice! I also learned the whole hackathon would take place over Discord.
When they opened the Discord, I got on right away. I was half curious to see what was going on and half nervously trying to get an idea of what the weekend would be like. I felt like I stepped into a realm. It was a bustling hub I could check into whenever and there were channels for everything. I could see what events and challenges sponsors were hosting. I could introduce myself and learn more about others interested in forming a team. I could chat with others about hobbies outside of coding (Yep, the first thing I did was share a photo of my dog on the pet channel). I was amazed at how much genuine interaction was taking place.
Several participants reached out to me privately to comment on similar interests or to form potential teams. I started taking the initiative to reach out to others who introduced themselves. Everyone was so friendly. It was incredible to meet so many people with a similar background to mine. Some were further along in their journey and others were in earlier stages. Some were in other countries, and some were even in the same program as me at my university!
After attending one team formation and talking to about half a dozen people on Discord, on Friday night I found myself as part of a really nice team! Hooray! Also, what did I just commit to?!
We came together because of a mix of similar backgrounds and because we were interested in the same challenge. We met for about three hours total on Friday night, coming and going to attend the workshops we wanted. We had a plan for our hack and divided up tasks. We would meet the next day to go over what we produced.
I got up early and started coding a little welcome screen. My skills were a bit rustier than I thought. What a great opportunity to refresh them! When the meeting time rolled around, no one else had worked on their portions of the project. I was a little disappointed at first, but I didn’t mind too much; now I could go to all the live workshops I wanted to and participate in the other fun events such as the Microsoft Passport Challenge and movie night.
On Sunday, a few other team members shared what they had made. We all celebrated each other’s work even though we didn’t submit anything. It was a rare and awesome opportunity to talk about designing solutions with code with other people in real-time!
At the closing ceremony, I was stoked to see all of the amazing submissions. The event was a huge celebration of all of us taking the weekend to improve as individuals and to improve the industry we are part of or want to join. All weekend I was riding a wave of euphoria, and this was a beautiful conclusion. I immediately signed up for TechTogether Atlanta and even made a connection with another participant who wants to team up there. That’s a lot for someone who could barely define what a hackathon was at the start of the weekend!
I walked away from this hackathon with more than I could have imagined, friends, connections, a ReadMe for my GitHub Profile, technical interview tips, and general stoke about connecting with others and continuing on my path.
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