#hackathonrutgers

I went to a hackathon, and I want to write about it.

I feel like there are people out there who might not know what is, so in case you don’t know what a hackathon is; it’s like comic-con for programmers. Only difference—people build things, barely get any sleep and code a lot.

And I’m not going to pretend like I built something remotely cool, because I didn’t. Nonetheless I showed up, breathed in the atmosphere, and coded for like eight hours. I found someone there who wanted to build somewhat of a Yelp for Alexa. I ended up coding to help build the “Yelp” for Alexa, but didn’t get even close. That’s not to say I didn’t learn something while I was there—I did. I learned a bit of MongoDB and that Hackathons are nothing but wonderful. Really, I know it sounds cheesy, but being there you do feel the hunger for innovation and disruption that drives the software engineering world. If you do decide to attend a hackathon, which I strongly would advise anyone to do so, I think I can spare some tips:

1.Plan for it:

One thing I didn’t do was planning. I didn’t mark it in my calendar, didn’t think of anything I may want to build over the course of two days. So learn from my mistake—plan for it!

2. Do not let your level of skill get in the way

Hackathons are for everybody, regardless of wether you can build an app in a day or not. Hackathons are really designed for people to code, but also learn. Take me for instance; I didn’t know Alexa’s “apps” are called skills, or that MongoDB is ridiculously easy to set up in netbeans(I may post a tutorial about this one of these days). So wether you understand a hello world program or not, GO!

3. Get A Squad

Grab people from your class; the bookworm, the cat lady, the dude obsessed with X-Men(that’ll be me). Tell them you’re going to build a video game, the next Tinder, the next Big Thing. The point is: Go with people, make an attempt at building something cool, and if you “fail at it,” the worst thing that can happen is that you’ll learn and grow as a programmer from the experience.

4. Bring Your Overnight Gear

Of course I’m exaggerating bit, but really—hackathons are usually two-day events, so why not sleep there, or not; you can spend that time coding.

5. Haven Fun

Above all have fun. People from all kinds of different backgrounds come together to code, share knowledge and have a good time. And also, you might make a new friend; I promise that you won’t find any Planktons there.