The One Thing You Should Bring to a Hackathon
What am I doing!?! I can’t attend a hackathon, I don’t even know how to hack!!” — Existential crisis, courtesy of my brain.
Have you ever signed up for something and then immediately regretted it? And I mean immediately! As in you already wanted to cancel before you’d even read the confirmation email? Cause I have and that something was my first hackathon.
If you’re a hackathon veteran my panic might seem a bit silly but for my fellow newbie hackers, I’m going to share a bit about who I am, why I even wanted to go to a hackathon, and why I’m so glad I did!
About me and why hackathons~
Let’s start at the beginning with a little bit of background about me. Soooo, hi! I’m Priscilla and I had exactly 0 programming skills prior to starting a full-stack boot camp in January. Before starting said boot camp I actually worked in education before deciding (during the pandemic) that education wasn’t for me and deciding to move into tech.
Tech and programming were always things that interested me, but unfortunately, I never felt like it was an actual career option for someone like me, a biracial woman who was a first-generation college student. So, instead of at least exploring all the cool stuff in STEM that I found fascinating I went into the fields the people around me suggested. I regret doing that now looking back on it but better late than never I guess~ The pandemic and all of the chaos surrounding it made me realize life is way too short to sit around thinking ‘what if’ so I found a boot camp and here I am!
That’s enough about me but why did I even want to attend a hackathon at all? Well for a few reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to learn about some awesome new stuff and TechTogether offered a crazy amount of workshops on lots of topics I’d never even heard of, FOR FREE! That kind of deal was something I couldn’t pass up. Secondly, everyone I’ve talked to in the tech industry has emphasized how important being an active participant in the community is not just for career opportunities but to also just make friends who can relate to and support you! With those things in mind and some urging from my classmates, I signed up for TechTogether Miami and TechTogether Chicago.
Attending TechTogether Miami~
After signing up that existential crisis I mention earlier kicked in at full force and I nearly noped out of the whole thing! Thankfully some of my classmates had attended some of TechTogether’s earlier hacks and were able to share some info that I’m going to share with you — you don’t need to hack. I repeat — you do not need to hack. I certainly didn’t!
That’s the amazing thing about TechTogether you can participate as much or as little as you like! I attended a workshop nearly every time one was available because they were so much fun and I had the spare time since I wasn’t hacking. And when it comes to workshops you’ll find something that interests you I promise, doesn’t matter if you’re an expert hacker, high-school student, or a career changer who can barely remember what CSS stands for sometimes. Also, if I had wanted to hack it would have been easy to find teammates through the many team-forming events that were offered. If you’re nervous about attending events then feel free to keep your camera and mic off while soaking in all the information! You can do whatever feels most comfortable for you and still connect with lovely, welcoming people while you do so!
So, just to tldr everything: Sign up for hackathons! Attend hackathons! You have absolutely nothing to lose and if a hackathon interests you at all then you belong there! One of the best parts of my experiences at TechTogether was meeting so many different people and you don’t need to bring anything extra to add to that, just bring yourself!
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