Major League Hacking (MLH) is rethinking technical education for the modern world

Major League Hacking (MLH)

Over the course of my life, I’ve participated in more than 20 hackathons, so I might be a little biased on them, but on the other hand, I know a lot about how they can be useful. Let me start by explaining what a hackathon means to me. In general, it’s an event of short duration (usually one or two days) where people come together to creatively solve problems. Hackathons can be themed, where the projects are confined to a particular problem such as food sustainability or returning citizens. Reasons to Participate in Hackathons Now that we have covered the definition, we can start with the reasons why you’ll become a better developer by participating in hackathons. Extreme programming It’s very easy to forget about speed while working with Scrum processes, so let’s bring the former back. With short deadlines and ambitious ideas, hackathons teach you how to code fast and, more importantly, think fast. If you’re wondering why it’s that important, the reason is that you’ll know your limits much better and will be able to push them even further after the hackathon. You’ll not only be surprised by how much you have achieved but also understand your areas of growth. Learning how to estimate your efforts better Due to the limited time, proper estimation is essential for your success. If your estimation is incorrect, you won’t be able to achieve what you planned in time. The truth is, at a hackathon, you’ll notice that your estimations are far from perfect. Use this fact to your advantage and adjust your estimations so that it doesn’t happen at work. Creative thinking Hackathons teach you how to solve a known problem creatively. In the first stage, ideation, you have to come up with a unique and fresh idea. If you think that’s all, actually, this is just the beginning. Now it’s time for execution, and you have to be creative at every step of the way because you’ll never have enough time or well-defined processes. Something will always break most unexpectedly, and you’ll need to find a viable solution to be able to ship the product in time. Learning new technology Hackathons are perfect places to learn something new. If you use React.js at work, try Svelte. Writing back-end with Java? Learn Kotlin! Or completely switch your stack from front end to back end, and the other way around. Maybe you want to get into VR. This is your chance. Networking Hackathon is an excellent chance to talk to fellow developers and like-minded people. You can get a big picture of what they’re working on and which tools they’re currently using. Think of it as a conference where you also have to code. Iteration-based approach At hackathons, you should focus on building a minimum viable product, which means you should be able to drop parts that are not required and then iterate over it. That’d allow you to ship a product where you can show something to people even if you can’t finish this cool new feature in time. Learning how to split tasks in the best way If your team consists of four or five people, you have to make sure your team works as one organism and utilizes the abilities of each team member. Be ready to communicate with your team actively and split the product into several independent pieces. Without proper separation of concerns, four people would work as two with clearly divided tasks. Shifting focus to bring business value In our work, you can easily forget why you’re writing code and what value it brings to the end user. On the other hand, at hackathons, you’re solving real-world challenges — and thinking about them in the first place. It shifts your vision from just code to a big picture of what you’re trying to archive. Workshops It’s popular to have workshops that you can attend at the time of the event. They could be about new technology or about soft skills like improving your resume. They can be highly beneficial if you have just started your career or want to learn something new. Getting feedback Hackathons are one of the best places for validating your ideas. In your normal life, it’s hard to find someone who will be both honest and willing to spend time reviewing your ideas. Other options include using your personal network or paying for ads. At hackathons, you get all of that for free, and from people like you. Giving feedback I know a lot of people who find joy in helping and teaching others. By doing so, you can learn what others are doing and, if you have expertise in that area, help them. The best way to grow your network is to be helpful, so actively seek out these opportunities. Having fun Ultimately, this is what hackathons are all about. Don’t worry if you’re not going to be able to present a perfect product, just have fun. If your hackathon takes place in a different city or country, take advantage. Get to know the local culture and engage in unique experiences. How To Get Started If you decide to give hackathons a chance, there are several resources to check out. The first is Major League Hacking (MLH). It’s the official student hackathon league that runs over . Second, make sure to go over and . They’re one of the biggest independent hackathons in the world. 200 weekend-long invention competitions Junction Hackathon TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon Last but not least, check to find local hackathons in your city. Meetup Conclusion I hope I convinced you to take a look at hackathons. It would definitely not be easy to code for two days non-stop, but the results will pay off. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and your limits, find out how to estimate and split tasks, and understand how to apply your skills to solve real-world challenges. And don’t forget to have fun.

Pressure Makes Better Programmers Faster

In this story, I will speak about the importance of small outcomes Abstract I come across many YouTube videos that are about 24-hour challenges. I am specifically referring to YesTheory, a channel dedicated to its mantra “seek discomfort”. Inspired by their bold moves, I decided on a 3-month challenge during summer vacation in 2018 since I didn’t have too much on my plate. As a software developer, my aim was to do a hackathon under 3-months without a team, venue & funding. Although, I have attended a hackathon before, I hoped to gain experience through organizing my first event regardless of its outcome. Hackathons Back in the early days, Hackathons were competitions held at tech companies by employees for fun. The goal is to engineer a technology in the form of hardware or software or hardware + software under a given time period while also competing with colleagues. As this culture gained popularity, emphasis was put towards inviting outsiders to the culture in order to spread Computer Science. Big tech companies such as Facebook and eventually organizations such as Major League Hacking (MLH) and schools themselves started organizing Hackathons. NYCHacks Branding Pondering upon a great name for my event, NYCHacks was a name that stood out to me. Since NYC is all about bright lights and bright stars, my logo of choice was a red lightbulb over a green ship wheel, which represented innovation. The light red and green color scheme remained consistent throughout the overall branding of NYCHacks. Planning Typically, Hackathons are planned at least 6-months prior to the event’s date which meant that I had to get things done at 2X the rate. There are 7 parts to organizing a Hackathon: Team Funding (Sponsors) Venue Food/Prizes Marketing Surprise elements Attendees Team Since time was limited and I planned the event during summer vacation, I could not find a list of people to form a team from my connections. However, upon marketing my event, some have reached out to offer me help. I needed people in a few areas for the event: Judges Helping hands I was surprised to see the eagerness of people to help out at my event. I ended up with two judges, Taj English and Jhamar Youngblood. Taj is my friend from high school and the co-founder and CTO of an upcoming startup called . Jhamar is a co-founder of a startup called . I was fortunate to have also received help from the Red Cross Club of Stuyvesant High School and who reached out via Reddit. ListedB The Blast App Shania Venue With 0 funding in hand, I first texted my good friend, Taj and described to him about my crazy idea. His reply: “Lol…Companies really won’t pay an individual to host a hackathon unless it was for a school purpose other than that you probably won’t have much luck and the hackathon would have to be in the city if you really wanted people to come. Those venues aren’t cheap.” My Reply: “Still on with the challenge. Never give up 😅” His Reply: @charles_m02 Reach out to him” So, I texted Charles regarding my situation. Charles: “I’ll say 677 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY would be good, just not sure if 12 hours is a possibility, though it’s worth a shot. It’s a free space.” After contacting the venue, it turned out 12 hours is perfect since the venue is open 12-hours. My reply: “I got the venue at Microsoft Flagship Store booked Thank you again” Funding (Sponsors) With the venue booked for $0, now the goal was to raise some funds/sponsorship deals for food and prize costs. Luckily, I knew a neighbor who runs a company called , a street food vendor who offered to provide me with some funds. In addition, I have reached out to other companies, a few of which offered to sponsor. So with sponsorship from, JhalNYC, , , and some funds from my dad, I managed the food and prizes. JhalNYC JetBrains StickerMule Axure RP Marketing Since money was short, I planned free marketing strategies. First, I called at least 30 universities around NYC, most answered “NO!” and few that did, were not very effective. I figured since it’s summer vacation, most students won’t be in school and leveraged the power of the internet. My next strategy was to use Reddit to market the event with the hope to gain even more registrations. After posting on several relatively large subreddits, 61 registered and 22 attended the event. Surprise elements No one can predict the turn of events that can take place in the weather system, a crucial element which I left out. A storm was heading towards NY and I was unsure as to what I should do about the event. I contacted the Microsoft venue about a potential cancellation of the event. However, since they already made arrangements for the event, it would be a disappointment on their end, so I proceeded with the event. Luckily, on the morning of the event, the weather calmed down. Although, many did not show up, I was still surprised by the amount that choose to attend the event given the weather conditions. Connections I made While I was new to organizing events and lacked credibility/adequate connections to organize the event, reaching out to companies has helped me gain exposure and make connections with industry experts, some of whom are great connections. Vlog Recently, I searched Google for NYCHacks and saw a vlog about the event that someone choose to create on their own. All credits to the creator. Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lDN4UtPd3E Moral So the moral of this story is that sometimes small results can make for a big achievement. From the start of the idea for the event, my goal was to pursue with the event even if it meant a low attendance count in order to teach myself the rigorous process of organizing events. From 0 experience, 0 funding, 0 team, limited connections, limited marketing experience TO an event at the Microsoft store in fifth avenue, with 22 attendees, 2 judges, 6–8 helping hands, support from the Microsoft team and during poor weather conditions, I consider this outcome a great success. I have learned about some faults that I posses and that I should work towards improving on them in order to attain higher success. Secondly, having a Plan B is a must because there is always a potential for surprise elements and there is never enough precautions that can be taken. For example, I dismissed the potential of the weather turning poor and this resulted in a confusion for both me and the attendees. This doesn’t only apply to organizing events, it is an important skill to have for anything in life. A great quote from my high school physics teacher “You get paid to solve problems to questions where the answers aren’t obvious!” served as a metaphor/motivation that reminded me to solve the challenges of organizing the event. Most people, especially the millennial do not consider accomplishing goals or solve problems outside of their “ordinary routine”, limiting themselves from opportunities. My software engineering teacher said, those jobs with the phrase “do you want fries with that?” are going away and fast. He referred to the jobs that require very little thinking and consist mostly of one repetitive process. Today’s computers are very capable of taking a single routine and processing it with greater efficiency than humans ever could. So, the cashier jobs at McDonald’s are soon going to be replaced with robots since it is very cost efficient to maintain robots rather than paying salary to a human. However, job opportunities will be open to those that are able to solve complex problems, create innovative solutions and ultimately those that are open to learning new concepts and ideas. As I continue the journey of my engineering career, I will look back at this experience and continue to better. Thanks for checking out this read and remember always to stay ahead of the curve!

How do you independently organize a hackathon?

Next up in my with inspirational mentors and community builders in the technology industry, we’ll hear from Ashwin Kumar Uppala. series of Q&As Ashwin is one of the honorees of the Twilio project, which celebrates mentors who are uplifting developers in 2022 through community, mentorship, or code. Handpicked by an esteemed , these honorees are recognized for playing a pivotal role in shaping developer careers in a variety of ways. Developer Searchlight panel of expert judges Ashwin is a Coach and Event Representative at Major League Hacking, supporting the future generation of hackers. His experience in the developer community has helped him understand what student hackers need to grow their careers and inspired him to “be the change” for those most in need of resources and guidance. Who Are You, Where Are You Based, and What Are You Working On Right Now? I am a final year engineering student from the Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad, India. I am currently working as an MLH Coach and setting up a self-sustaining open-source student-run community (called ) in my region to help passionate students get started with technology and open-source opportunities which weren’t available in my local community before. Hackerabad Congratulations on being selected as a Twilio Developer Searchlight honoree. What does being a mentor or community builder mean to you? I strongly believe in “learning in public”. Community builders are the ones who help create more leaders in the community. When I started with hackathons, I was the only one in my community to have competed in them. This is when I started Hackerabad: to set up a structure for creating more student leaders in my community. A mentor to me is a person who I aim to be like. It could range from a specific skill to a personality, hence why I have multiple mentors. Being a mentor myself, I make sure I am constantly taking feedback from the mentees as well – this allows me to maintain a broad perspective and two-way approach to mentorship. You are passionate about ushering in the next generation of hackers, specifically working with people of underrepresented groups - tell me more about how you foster an inclusive community. I have observed that an inclusive team tends to outperform any other type of team in creativity, collaboration and execution of challenging tasks. In order to encourage an inclusive community, I make sure that the team is diverse right from the top. On one of my current teams, there is both a male and female co-founder; this duo ensures the community has more than one lead for accountability. The team also includes people from different backgrounds, age groups, and gender identities. A diverse team makes an impact while brainstorming target audiences for an event/workshop; it provides once hesitant individuals with the confidence to approach our team leads. Also, giving a voice to folks from various backgrounds and experiences increases the overall satisfaction of our team members. I commit to the use of inclusive language and pronouns within communities and discourage using academic seniority terms during community conversations, so students feel welcomed, irrespective of their experience and backgrounds. What’s your best advice for aspiring or early-in-career developers? My advice: Learn-in-public: Ask questions in group channels over private DMs. Learn-by-doing: Build as you learn new technology. Share-what-you-learnt: Write blogs, record a video or just teach a friend. Come for the swag; stay for the community. Just for fun: what was your first computer or your most memorable piece of tech? Sony Xperia M was my first phone and also turned out to be my gateway to tech. When aiming to upgrade it from Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) to 4.4 (KitKat), I messed up my phone several times in the process. I had to experiment with new ways and leverage various resources from Google and tech blogs to make sure I didn’t lose my phone. In fact, I accidentally updated it to a custom ROM Android 5.0!! Having to fix my first phone helped me realize that curiosity and constant experimentation can yield amazing results. Thank you, Ashwin, for taking the time to share your story with us. Stay tuned to learn more about the honorees in our series of interviews. You can also read more about the honorees in this , which unpacks how they’re each shaping a better future for developers. Insider article

A Q&A With Ashwin Kumar Uppala, Coach at Major League Hacking, on "Learning in Public" for New Devs

This is part of a broader series exploring how to land a tech internship. See Part I (Knowing thy basics), Part II (Building experience. Selling yourself)… , you are ready to apply for . You have your fundamentals down and your resume in tip top shape. Now, you might be asking, what strategy do you use when finding opportunities? Should you apply everywhere and anywhere? Where should you interview first? There’s really no right or wrong way to go about the process, but to get to that point, you have to find opportunities. We discuss several powerful channels you can use to find internship opportunities. Finally internships Your Network — As a Referral Referrals are the most powerful ways to find and land opportunities. If you are lucky to know someone at a place where you wish to work, then take advantage of that opportunity. This can even be a friend at your school that has previously interned at said company. Companies like to source referrals because indirectly, your referral is vouching for you. It is a high-quality filter for recruiters and another data point as to whether you would be a good fit for the company. Now, this does not mean that if you were not referred, you have a lower chance of passing an interview or being a great employee. Statistically, referral programs have proven worthwhile to companies which is why they pour out incentive bonuses to their employees for referrals. If you are lucky to have this opportunity, take it. School Career Fairs & Job Boards Typically, your school will have its own engineering career fair and job board. If you have a career fair, it typically will get crowded with all the big companies (Facebook, Google, etc) having huge lines. I’d always recommend going to a career fair in person rather than skipping to apply to these opportunities through job boards. It shows that you care and have put in effort to learn about the company. Especially, if you speak to a recruiter or an engineer in person rather than just apply through a school job board. It helps associating a name to a face and you are more likely to be remembered or noticed. In the case you go to the career fair, I would recommend making a list of companies you are interested in. If you have companies on the list that you know will get crowded, show up early to the fair and chat with them first. When speaking to a recruiter or an engineer from a company, keep in mind that they will probably talk to hundreds of other students who are going to ask very similar questions. Some engaging questions you could ask engineers are: tech 1/ What was your favorite project that you have worked on at Company X? 2/ What is your day to day like? People will remember how you made them feel, rather than what you talked about. Your friend’s school career fair & school job board This may seem a bit odd at first, but if your school doesn’t happen to have a career fair or job board, and you have a friend whose school does, then take advantage of that. There’s nothing that prevents you from going to that career fair or in the least, utilizing the school job board to find an opportunity. I have a friend who used another friend’s job board and found an internship by applying online through this channel. You have to get creative and hustle when you need to. School Departments School departments will often maintain their own sections of the school website if not their own separate website. Some departments will offer summer internships — but this is often less known than company internships. This is the strategy that worked for me my freshman year. I found an internship over the summer in our Plant Sciences department and worked as a bioinformatics intern. I got experience in processing/coding with genetic data, free housing, and got paid ( ). This, later, helped me land an internship at Facebook. I would recommend looking at your school job boards or department job boards for any summer opportunities. win, win, and win! Hackathons Recently, hackathons have gained a rise in popularity especially in the software/tech community. One of the great aspects of hackathons is that there are a lot of hackathons every year that will cover the cost of transportation and housing. By participating in a hackathon, you kill 3 birds with one stone: you get to work on an awesome project (you can put on your resume), you can meet other people (expand your network), and you can indirectly find job opportunities. If you are interested in going this route, here are sites where you can find hackathons: : Major League Hacking is one of the biggest hackathon organizations. You will find plenty of hackathon events here. Mlh.io : Also another great resource — allows simple filtering options for hackathons that are free, reimburse travel, have prizes, etc. Hackalist Cold Reach outs If you are having trouble finding opportunities that you are interested in or want through your network and school, then another great option is cold reach outs. They may seem intimidating, but oftentimes, people are more than willing to help if you ask in the right way. The best way to do cold reach outs is to find something that you have in common or offer something first. Don’t ask for the job indirectly, but rather, focus on learning more about the company and culture. You can’t expect someone to go out of their way and refer you, when you haven’t given them a reason to and they barely know you. Here are several ways to connect with someone who you don’t know: 1/ Find someone at the company who is an alumni of your school. When you reach out to them, introduce yourself and tell them that you are currently a student at their alumni school and are interested in learning more about their experience at company XYZ. 2/ Find someone at the company that you have mutual connections with. This is easy to see on LinkedIn. See if you can get your mutual connection to introduce you with the goal of learning more about the company. 2/ Find someone at the company who is in your role, and see if you have anything in common ( hobbies, groups, etc). You can introduce yourself and connect with them on a personal level that way. 3/ Find university recruiters at the company and e-mail them. This has a lower probability of success compared to a career fair or a school job board, but it’s worth a try. Reach out, introduce yourself, and tell them why you would be excited to be considered for an opportunity at company XYZ. On the plus side, this saves recruiters time since you just told them that you are interested by e-mailing them. Again, remember, your goal is to learn about the company and job, not to directly ask for a job. An opportunity will arise as a byproduct of doing this. Offer your skills for free Lastly, if you are having trouble finding job opportunities through any of the above channels, you may just need to gain more experience or expand your network. A great way to do both is to take the opportunity to work for free this summer. Although you may not be paid money-wise, you are being paid in a lot of other ways. You get experience that you can put on your resume, and you expand your network, and you get a reference which can later turn into a bigger opportunity. Some ideas: Someone in your network or family who is in need of a website A local business that’s in need of a website Your school departments — reach out to your school departments and see if they need help over the summer Best of luck internship hunting! Get your resume reviewed for free! #OFFER As a part of running this blog series, we are proud to announce that is offering free resume reviews! Our team consists of engineers and product managers from . In total, we have reviewed over resumes, and are offering to pass our knowledge to you. BeeHyve Facebook, Uber, and Microsoft 300+ #ASK To get your resume reviewed by me and the team: S We ask that you give our community a try. It will only help you prepare for your interviews! ign up for BeeHyve at www.beehyve.io . Add one awesome resource to a community of your choice. with your resume, your username, and the resource you shared on BeeHyve. Send an e-mail to friends@beehyve.io BeeHyve Disclaimer: Unfortunately, unlike Oprah or the genie in a bottle, we can not guarantee that you will get a job with our resume reviews or by just reading this blog. Author: Vera | LinkedIn Follow us on Facebook

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