Hackathons - A Junior Developer’s Growth Tool

Hackathons … A Junior Developer’s growth tool

“A hackathon is an event when programmers and other like minded individuals meet to do collaborative computer programming to solve a problem.” -Wikipedia. Hackathons provide a venue for self-expression and creativity through technology. Such events are carried for some short period of time like 24-48 hours. You can say that hackathon is a sort of competition where teams of developers, techie, graphic designers, digital enthusiasts, and software engineers gather to build a new product, software, and to solve the problems regarding various issues in a particular field.

Benefits of Hackathon.

Hackathon gives rise to Innovation.

When hackathon events are held, many people come from different fields, and hence because of such diversity of participants many new and different ideas are born to solve a particular problem. Every single participant adds their input to solving the problem in a very effective manner. Hackathons can thus solve almost all problems be it regarding any software solutions or everyday workflow issues or even the formation of new product(s).

Networking and Meeting New People

Hackathons are great, they are indeed a great opportunity to get to know and meet people who have the same curiosity as you. You get a chance to work with like-minded people and to learn something new. These people could be future coworkers or even employers, thus the possibilities are endless. At a hackathon event, you will usually meet people who have the same interests and skills as you. This creates the perfect environment for networking. All you need to do is network and exchange contact information with your fellow coders. Who knows, you may end up collaborating in the future.

Add value to your resume or CV.

Hackathon participation looks very good on your resume or CV. It signals to people that you have programming skills, experience working in intense environments, and know how to win. People know that participating in a hackathon instantly increases your knowledge and skill level.

Create new concepts and ideas.

Intense problem-solving environments like hackathons facilitate the creation of innovative ideas and concepts. You must work with people from various fields, with multiple interests and skills, all collaborating to solve the same problem. The fact that there are time constraints make the task more exciting and brings out the best in people.

You can read more about a more personal experience here.

Disclaimer

This was originally published on dev.to in October 2019. I am currently migrating my main source of publication to a personal self-hosted blog (developer growth).