Why You Should Lose at Hackathons?
By Sreekaran Srinath
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This edition of MichiSpotlight is written by Sreekaran Srinath.
That’s a forking controversial title if you’ve ever seen one, but hear me out. I promise this isn’t clickbait.
If you don’t know what a hackathon is or have never attended one, head here
To start with - What even IS a hackathon?
Simply put, hackathons are 24, 36, or 48 hour-long (sometimes longer, but very rarely) technology festivals. They’re somewhere you can meet like-minded people, learn new things, and create cool technology. They can sound pretty intimidating - but you don’t have to be some genius or a coding pro to take part.
Despite the name, hackathons are not places where people gather to hack in the conventional sense of the word. Make-a-thons would be a more appropriate name, and these are basically competitions where participants ('hackers') hack together a minimum viable solution to a problem they see or face.
Now, I don’t mean to say you should go into a hackathon wanting to lose, just that there’s a lot more to hackathons than just winning.
There’s free food and swag.
Wait, what? That wasn’t supposed to be in the script! Editor, cut that out, please :)
Jokes apart, though, over the course of my journey participating, mentoring, judging, and organizing hackathons, I’ve come to see that aiming for the prize is fun and all, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
You see, hackathons, by their very nature, attract very like-minded people, and serve as a breeding ground for innovation. And guess who wants a slice of that pie?
Employers.
Hackathons can double up as recruitment drives (sometimes more overtly than others). Still, the fact remains that at every hackathon that’s being sponsored by companies that deal with tech, there are going to be representatives of said companies scouting for top talent.
All you need to do to take advantage of these is head over to voice chats/sponsor booths and build rapport with the recruiter/engineer.
Depending on what the hackathon you’re attending looks like, sometimes it might just be a better idea to forgo some features in your hack to make sure you cover all of these opportunities!
And along with this, there are tons more to do at every hackathon you attend, which you should (arguably) prioritize over just winning.
Demo.
This is one of the best things you could do at a hackathon. Personally, demoing in live streams at hackathons turned out to be the trigger that eventually led me to create content and speaking live in front of hundreds of people.
Not only does demoing help you figure out how to sell something you’ve worked on (which is a super underrated but important skill for a developer), it gives you the confidence to put yourself out there more often (this can work wonders in your personal life as well!). Also, it helps you polish your public speaking skills.
Focus on building something with a language/framework you’ve never used before.
This is probably the most stressful yet fun part of every hackathon - picking up something you’ve never used (or even heard of!) before, and in the short span of a day or two, turning it into something that resembles an actual product ;).
Who knows? You might find that one niche that you really love and you’re good at as well!
Learn to collaborate with teammates.
The whole point of having teammates at a hackathon is to divide work amongst them such that people get to work on stuff they’re good at, much like developer and open-source teams.
Think of them as training sessions to learn to collaborate better with other people, and you’ll work wonders! ;)
Make some new friends.
Last (but certainly not least), what’s a competition without people? If you’re at an in-person event, take trips between tables to chill with other hackers/mentors (even organizers, assuming they’re not busy putting out fires 24/7 :P).
If you’re at an online event, it’s as simple as participating in some hangouts or mini-events!
To conclude, winning cool prizes and swag can be motivating and fun, so I recommend analyzing the prize categories, prizes, and other opportunities at a hackathon before creating your strategy. A healthy balance is always a good idea; at the end of the day, make sure you’ve had fun and maybe (just maybe ;)) learned something!
Opportunities this week
Amazon ML Challenge - Pre Placement Opportunities (for winners)
For 2022 or 2023 grads (Cash prizes and PPI offers)
https://www.hackerearth.com/challenges/competitive/amazon-ml-challenge/
Cadence Design Systems - Intern
https://cadence.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/External_Careers/job/BANGALORE/Intern-WFO_R34593
AirAsia - Software Engineer Intern
2021/2020/2019 grads
https://airasia.eightfold.ai/careers/job?pid=7876937&domain=airasia.com
Carta Health - SDE Internship
2021/2022 grads
https://www.carta.healthcare/job/?gh_jid=4061839004&gh_src=74cec2de4us
PayU - Product Analyst Intern - 6 Months
2022/2023 grads
https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveen-athresh-090b0a/detail/recent-activity/shares/
Netmeds - SDE Internships and Full Time
2022/2023 and 2021
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerin-c-39676a54/detail/recent-activity/shares/
Zeta (Founder - Media. net) - Pre Placement Opportunities
Open to all
https://zeta-hacks.hackerearth.com/
Get Internship Ready with MichiSpotlight
Don’t forget to give these editions a read:
1) Preparing for internships, skilling up:
Equip yourself: Become a better developer
Expand your creativity: I guess I’ve been working so hard. I forgot what it’s like to be hardly working.
Build projects: Getting started with project-based learning
Contribute to opensource: git init to open-source
Decide what to put in your resume: What to put in my resume?
Make your resume more impactful: How to build a snazzy resume
2) While applying to Internships:
Application process: So you think you can be an intern?
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile: Here’s a song by LinkedIn park
If you’re not able to secure good internships: 5 Alternatives to Tech Internships
3) After getting accepted: 5 ways to make the most out of internships
4) When things are getting difficult:
Leverage procrastination: Procrastination might be good for you
Dealing with burnout: Shaant Cool Ommm
Manage your productivity: I’m too good at multitasking
That’s all, folks!
Thank you so much for reading till the end. I hope you found this piece insightful. Let me know in the comments if I missed out on something. See you in the next edition.
Also, if you’re too lazy to read, do check out my YouTube channel, I’ve started work on my first video, and it would be out soon!
MichiSpotlight also has a discord community now. If you need any help regarding anything tech-related, feel free to shoot your questions on the server. You can also network with various other developers from around the world via this platform. Do leverage it :)
What a terrible, terrible post. Before getting to the actual content itself, the structure of this "article" is by itself horrendous. Not only do you say that this isn't clickbait, but you don't answer the question either. Why should I lose at a hackathon?
"To conclude, winning cool prizes and swag can be motivating and fun, so I recommend analyzing the prize categories, prizes, and other opportunities at a hackathon before creating your strategy. A healthy balance is always a good idea; at the end of the day, make sure you’ve had fun and maybe (just maybe ;)) learned something!"
There is no answer. This article is all over the place. There is no structure.
To address the content - I honestly believe that this is utter bullshit. Not only have you completely failed to convince me to lose a hackathon, you've also made me realize that there are people like you who exist in the world who actually think losing is okay. I've participated in my fair share of hackathons back in my university days and won/lost a good number of them. I can guarantee that winning helped me 100% of the time more than losing. Not only did I get money, I got much more recognition from my professors, had higher chances of joining companies and always significantly stood out compared to the students who were in my classes.
What did losing do? Sure, I learnt about new ideas from the winners - but compared to the times I won, the advantages of winning greatly outweighed the "advantages" of losing.
Who curates this crap? Are you trying to justify a recent loss and are you thinking that it's fine to lose? Of course, participation is key - and as long as you learnt something, you progressed as you rightly said. I'm actually in major disbelief that someone actually wrote something like this. My jaws are on the floor. Literal. Cringe.