Heard about this event from a friend and decided to go for it. Here’s what happened.
It was a great event and I learned so much about myself and the world around me. When my friends asked me what I did over the weekend, I told them that I went to a codeathon. They gave me strange looks and asked, “What is that? Why would you do that?”
I had to explain to them that codeathon is a rare opportunity for Web Developers such as myself who are at an intermediate or senior level to prove our worth in the competitive job market of today.
In addition to acquiring new skills, we get to meet potential employers and receive feedback on our resume, portfolio, and technical interview skills. The best part about these events is that we can network with other developers like ourselves and make friends who will hopefully be future colleagues.
Before I start, I’d like to remind you that there is no reason for you to apply to this codeathon. If you’re not interested in any of the technologies we are using or our project theme, if you’re not looking to work with other people on a team, if you don’t want to win one of our prize levels (1st place: $200; 2nd place: $100; 3rd place: $50), if you don’t want a chance to show off your skills, or if you just don’t have time, please don’t apply!
How To Apply
You can apply by visiting our website at bit.ly/htcodeathon. The deadline for applying is March 18th at 11:59pm, and we’ll be sending out emails confirming all of our final applications on March 22nd.
If you have any questions about the application process, email us at htcodeathon@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours!
Codeathons are a great way to get involved in the community and meet other developers. There is nothing quite like collaborating on an app with others in real time, and codeathons are one of the best ways to do so!
There are a few things you should know before applying to any codeathon. First, they’re not all geared towards your level of expertise. Some codeathons are meant for novices and people who just started learning to code, which can make it tough for seasoned developers to attend. If you’ve been coding for a while, you’ll want to look for codeathons tailored for intermediate or senior developers.
So why does this matter? It matters because you’re spending your time and energy attending a codeathon, so you might as well get the most out of it! If you’re an intermediate developer attending a novice-level codeathon, you could find yourself feeling frustrated or bored because you’re not getting anything new out of it. You’ve learned all the basic stuff already, so there is no value in spending your weekend that way.
That said, if it’s not easy to tell whether a codeathon is right for your level, there are some things to look out for
If you’re an experienced web developer and you’ve been looking for an opportunity to learn a new language, this is the perfect time to dive in. The theme of this codeathon is “open source” — we will be using open source tools like WordPress, Drupal, Django and Ruby on Rails, but no prior knowledge of those tools is required. We will also work with Visual Studio .NET, Eclipse (for PHP), and NetBeans (for Java/Java EE). The full list of technologies we’ll be using includes:
WordPress
Drupal
Django
Ruby on Rails
Visual Studio .NET
Eclipse for PHP Development
NetBeans for Java Development
Regardless of your skill level or experience, you will learn a lot by attending this codeathon. If you are new to web development and want to break into the field, this codeathon will give you hands-on experience building real applications. If you are an experienced web developer who wants to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and industry trends, this codeathon will expose you to several open source tools that are widely used in the industry. If you are a seasoned professional who wants to share your knowledge with other developers, we would love to have you attend as a
Mostly, I like codeathons for the team environment and the opportunity to learn new technologies.
Team environment: Before Hack The Code, I participated in a few other codeathons but not many. I had done my share of team projects at school, but the experience was always stressful and there’s not much time to get to know your teammates. Hack The Code felt very different from that. My team was awesome, and our personalities balanced each other out. We all cared about building something cool and user-friendly, and we collaborated well together. In contrast to other stressful situations I’ve been in where I feel like my teammates are judging me, my Hack The Code teammates were supportive, patient with me when I was stuck on something and were willing to spend time helping me figure it out. And it was fun! I’d love to work with them again (hint hint).
Learning new technologies: At my job, we use PHP/Laravel for our backend. I had never worked with Node before this project (and only a little bit of Python), so it was great learning experience to work with those languages on this project. Plus, we used some neat technologies like Twilio and Mapbox that I hadn’t worked with before.
We’ve been running internal Hackathons for years at Hired. Our most recent development sprint was a Hackathon focused on the future of our stack and we wanted an outside perspective. We wanted to hire a new developer for our team who could jump in and contribute right away, so we decided to put together a small Codeathon as part of our interview process.
The Codeathon was a great success! There were several outstanding submissions. We ended up hiring one of the applicants we met through this process, and he’s been great!
We learned that we really enjoyed working with the applicants to solve technical challenges. We also learned that it was a fun way to see how people work in an environment where they are motivated to solve problems under time pressure without the added stress of a formal interview setting.
Because of the success of the first one, we decided to run another Codeathon in March. This time around, we wanted to open it up beyond just developers who were looking for jobs at Hired, so we decided to make it public and offer some prizes for the best submissions.
You want to be recognized
You want to be challenged with a complex task
You want to show off your skills and learn new ones.