Hackathon01
What a great weekend I had. This last Saturday (2 Dec. 2017) I participated in my first Hackathon! I have to say it was an eye opening experience and one that I really want to do again. Let me give a breakdown of the day that I had.
- My First Hackathon
The event started at 9am so I arrived at ~8:30am just to make sure I wasn’t late and could get settled and all of that. We had a small group of people come in to start and there was a welcome talk by the fine people from FSU that were organizing the event as part of Major League Hacking . The event was being held at a local work share location called Domi Station, it’s a cool spot near the old rail station and you can have a space there to work for ~100$ a month. I had used the place before and did enjoy it as it got me out of the house, and I need to renew it again so I have a place to go back to. LOL.
After the event started I needed a team. There was no way I would feel comfortable enough to do a solo project, and I really wanted to use this as an opportunity to learn and grow my skills and understanding as a developer. For people who know me, I still suffer from imposter syndrome REALLY badly and I was hoping to use this to help get over some of that. It did help.
I ended up on this great team of 5 people. We were all first time hackers and one guy had never written code before but he was so enthusiastic and it was so much fun. We build a small website (we didn’t actually finish the site there but we all agreed it would be cool to see it completed and exchanged info after we ended the day) and we actually came in second place after being judged.
For my first ever event, I was blown away with how much I had learned just from actual doing. Also working with a great group of people who were eager to learn and build as well.
I’m already looking for another event to go to next year just to make sure I can keep learning and growing. I’ve got LOADS to catch up on with my main job after Re:invent last week but I’m still pushing forward with my mobile development.
Here is looking toward the last month of this year and an amazing year next year as we grow and learn together.