Do you have to be a hacker to do a hackathon? Nope! Typically, a hackathon is an event where coders, designers, and other people get together in teams and get to build an innovative project to present! However, most hackathons actually don’t require participants to know how to code and are perfectly friendly for beginners. Let me give you 5 reasons why you should at least give one hackathon a try!
1. They are low-time commitment!
Usually hackathons are about 1–3 days so you can find one weekend to participate in one. You don’t have to spend weeks working on a project and you will be surprised at how much you can accomplish in 24 hours!
2. You get to meet interesting people
Not only do you get to meet people from different schools and companies, and backgrounds, but you also get to meet people with different skill sets and backgrounds. Besides programmers and designers, I’ve been able to meet owners of non-profits, managers at start-ups, business specialists, and other talented people at these events. You have tons of opportunities to meet new friends at these events and stay in the touch with your teammates afterwards.
3. You get to develop and explore a bunch of skills in a short amount of time
Your teammates will likely have knowledge in different areas and you will be able collaborate and learn from them. There are also usually workshops hosted by experienced workers in the industry throughout the event that you can attend if you want. Each team also usually gets an industry mentor so you can learn from them. In addition, big companies and sponsors usually provide free resources from 3D printers to virtual reality glasses to Amazon Alexa and other various software and hardware. Hackathons are a great opportunity to be able to explore new technologies that you otherwise may not have the chance to use.
4. Build a real project that you can put on your portfolio
Employers love to see that you have been proactive by getting involved with hackathon events. Even if you do not want to work in tech, they demonstrate skills such as teamwork, innovation, and business acumen. The jam-packed event really pushes you to try your best during the short time to come up with a usable and creative project that you otherwise probably would not have come up with and implemented.
5. They are fun!
Hackathons usually have tons of fun activities planned throughout the day and they giveaway a lot of free swag. They also provide free meals and snacks during the entire event. And in the chance that you do win, you may win a large cash prize and other cool prizes like XBoxes, MacBooks, iPads, etc.
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