Hello! Please introduce yourself and your role in TechTogether.

Hi everyone! My name is Cindy (she/hers) and I am the current Chapter Director for TechTogether New York (TTNY).

Why did you join the TechTogether organizing team? How can other students get involved with your chapter?

I joined the organizing team because I love working with people from different backgrounds and experiences and putting all of our talents together to complete one major project. If you are eligible please apply to be a general member or director. I would love to see your application and get to know you further to see how you can best help out with TechTogether New York! If you’re more of a hacker, please attend our in-person event happening in the fall!

What are you most excited about for your chapter’s hackathon? How do you hope this year’s hackathon will be different from last year?

I’m extremely excited to help organize the first in-person hackathon for TechTogether New York in years! I can’t wait to see everyone hacking in person and experiencing the magic that made me love hackathons so much. I hope this year we can have a lot more mentors or various backgrounds come to our event and help out all of our talented hackers.

What aspect of in-person hackathons are you most excited about?

I am so excited to see hackers hack through the night! One of my favorite parts is to see our hackers work day and night on their projects and end up with amazing results. Midnight snack anyone?

What is your favorite aspect of hackathons? What aspect of in-person hackathons are you most excited about?

My actual favorite part is getting to meet so many people and hearing their reasons for why they love hackathons. As an organizer, it fills my heart to hear how much they enjoy coming to the event we spent months planning. For in-person I can’t wait to see everyone happily hacking away. Also, did I mention: free food!

Can you tell me about your first hackathon experience? Do you have any advice for someone who’s interested in attending a hackathon but may be intimidated?

One of my first hackathons was TechTogether Boston as a high school senior. I had no idea what coding was, and I was younger than most of the college-level attendees. TechTogether had PreHacks, a program designed specifically for High School students to feel welcome and know that their skills were perfect to hack during the weekend. We even met another high school student who joined our team that weekend. If you feel like you might be too young or inexperienced, it’s okay! Imposter Syndrome can sometimes get the best of us.

Give the hackathon a chance, meet some friends, and come to our team formation events. You’ll definitely find someone who understands and wants to help make the best out of your first hackathon. While we didn’t win, we made lots of memories and it was a great experience to have. It’s one of the reasons TechTogether still holds a special place in my heart.

Any secret talents or hobbies?

I love pottery! I take classes every fall and spring and have a few cool pieces. I also have a degree in fashion design from high school and have designed some cool pieces. I may or may not be trying out metal smithing this fall 😳.

What do you wish I had asked and what would be your answer to that question? Any final thoughts?

What is your dream team? My dream team is made up of people who dream big! Regardless of their experience or background, they want to give it their all. I’m so excited. I keep saying it but I am, I promise!

Want to join Cindy’s team and organize TechTogether New York’s hackathon in October? Apply to volunteer here.

Get to Know Cindy Mata, TechTogether New York’s Newest Chapter Director was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hey Hackers! I’m excited to share that TechTogether has been acquired by Major League Hacking (MLH). Moving forward, our teams will be working together to develop programs that will empower hackers around the world. Don’t worry, the TechTogether you know and love will continue to exist and pursue our mission of increasing gender diversity in the hackathon community. Read on for the details!

What is Major League Hacking (MLH)? Major League Hacking, also known as MLH, runs the largest community of early-career technologists in the world. Among developers, MLH is widely known for the 200+ weekend-long student hackathons they power each year. In 2021 alone, more than 135,000 developers participated in MLH hackathons to gain the hands-on experience they need to launch their careers. In fact, I actually got my start in the MLH community at HackNYU in 2017!

Like TechTogether, MLH cares deeply about making hackathons inclusive and diverse. MLH also has deep experience supporting the growth of a community from the early days to more than 500,000 members. By joining forces with MLH, TechTogether will have access to resources and expertise that will help us empower hackers at an even greater scale and further our mission of increasing the gender diversity of the hackathon community.

What does this mean for our hackers? The TechTogether you know and love isn’t going anywhere — we’ll continue to operate TechTogether hackathons and more, but now as part of the MLH family. So, for those of you worried that our mascot is leaving us — don’t worry! Byte is here to stay! Our mission and gender-inclusivity policy will not be changed, and of course, we will continue to supply face masks at every in-person TechTogether hackathon.

So, what is changing? We will leverage MLH’s investment in TechTogether to expand the Chapter Program and launch new programs, which means more opportunities for you to attend hackathons and other cool career development programs like the MLH Fellowship. MLH will also play a big role in helping TechTogether transition its programs back to in-person for the 2021–2022 hackathon season.

Does this mean we can expect to attend in-person events next year? Yes, both MLH and TechTogether are committed to bringing back in-person events for our community as quickly as possible. To ensure that the events are safe, we’ll be utilizing best practices recommended by national, state, and local health authorities.

How soon can we start to see changes? I’ll be leading the integration of TechTogether into MLH over the coming months, ensuring continuity of our programs during the transition. To receive updates about TechTogether and MLH, you can subscribe to our newsletter here.

I’m excited to be joining the MLH’s leadership team to continue to lead TechTogether through this next phase of growth. To learn more about the acquisition, I will be hosting an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Twitch with Swift, the CEO & Co-Founder of MLH on May 5th. During the AMA, we will be available to answer any questions you might have about the acquisition, the future of TechTogether, or anything else you’re curious about.

I look forward to working with our community to write TechTogether’s future, together! I can’t wait to see you all again this hackathon season.

TechTogether Acquired by Major League Hacking! was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Have you ever signed up for something and then immediately regretted it? And I mean immediately! As in you already wanted to cancel before you’d even read the confirmation email? Cause I have and that something was my first hackathon.

If you’re a hackathon veteran my panic might seem a bit silly but for my fellow newbie hackers, I’m going to share a bit about who I am, why I even wanted to go to a hackathon, and why I’m so glad I did!

About me and why hackathons~

Let’s start at the beginning with a little bit of background about me. Soooo, hi! I’m Priscilla and I had exactly 0 programming skills prior to starting a full-stack boot camp in January. Before starting said boot camp I actually worked in education before deciding (during the pandemic) that education wasn’t for me and deciding to move into tech.

Tech and programming were always things that interested me, but unfortunately, I never felt like it was an actual career option for someone like me, a biracial woman who was a first-generation college student. So, instead of at least exploring all the cool stuff in STEM that I found fascinating I went into the fields the people around me suggested. I regret doing that now looking back on it but better late than never I guess~ The pandemic and all of the chaos surrounding it made me realize life is way too short to sit around thinking ‘what if’ so I found a boot camp and here I am!

That’s enough about me but why did I even want to attend a hackathon at all? Well for a few reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to learn about some awesome new stuff and TechTogether offered a crazy amount of workshops on lots of topics I’d never even heard of, FOR FREE! That kind of deal was something I couldn’t pass up. Secondly, everyone I’ve talked to in the tech industry has emphasized how important being an active participant in the community is not just for career opportunities but to also just make friends who can relate to and support you! With those things in mind and some urging from my classmates, I signed up for TechTogether Miami and TechTogether Chicago.

Attending TechTogether Miami~

After signing up that existential crisis I mention earlier kicked in at full force and I nearly noped out of the whole thing! Thankfully some of my classmates had attended some of TechTogether’s earlier hacks and were able to share some info that I’m going to share with you — you don’t need to hack. I repeat — you do not need to hack. I certainly didn’t!

That’s the amazing thing about TechTogether you can participate as much or as little as you like! I attended a workshop nearly every time one was available because they were so much fun and I had the spare time since I wasn’t hacking. And when it comes to workshops you’ll find something that interests you I promise, doesn’t matter if you’re an expert hacker, high-school student, or a career changer who can barely remember what CSS stands for sometimes. Also, if I had wanted to hack it would have been easy to find teammates through the many team-forming events that were offered. If you’re nervous about attending events then feel free to keep your camera and mic off while soaking in all the information! You can do whatever feels most comfortable for you and still connect with lovely, welcoming people while you do so!

So, just to tldr everything: Sign up for hackathons! Attend hackathons! You have absolutely nothing to lose and if a hackathon interests you at all then you belong there! One of the best parts of my experiences at TechTogether was meeting so many different people and you don’t need to bring anything extra to add to that, just bring yourself!

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

The One Thing You Should Bring to a Hackathon was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dalyla always wanted to participate in a hackathon, but either didn’t have the time, or was too nervous. It wasn’t until they received an email to attend TechTogether Miami, that they took a chance and registered!

Read below an in-depth article of Dalyla’s experience.

Why did I decide to do this?

Honestly, it started off when I noticed my roommates attending hackathons beginning fall of 2020 during Covid — that was the first time I ever heard of what a hackathon was. As I was observing their days during the hackathon, it looked so stressful but when I asked how it was, “It was very rewarding,” would be the reply back.

Since then, hackathons have always perked my interest but I never had the time to look into finding one or even attending one (I’m also usually too nervous to join these types of things) until I received an email to join TechTogether Miami from my university.

What made TechTogether Miami stand out to me was that it was a hackathon for beginners and that it was for women, trans-men, and non-binaries. As someone with the pronouns they/she, with an emphasis on they, I thought it was amazing that it included and was for all gender minorities and when I was able to go onto the Discord server- it was definitely a safe place. There was even a channel just for the LGBTQ+, it was a place of acceptance. I felt accepted.

It Begins

I was nervous; it was my first ever hackathon and competition as I had decided to try and win one of the prizes that was offered. There was also the fact that I wasn’t too proficient in coding; I knew how to read code just fine but creating something out of it was all very new to me. I’m a cybersecurity major who was more used to analyzing traffic networks and learning about malware. Luckily, my roommates who were more experienced coders accepted my invitation to form a group together (and that TechTogether involved little to no coding).

February 11 rolls around, the opening ceremony kicks off at 4PM and so do the workshops that appear after it. I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to attend the workshops since I was more focused on working on our team’s project which went through several ideas relating to finance for a chance to win the Capital One Financial Hack prize.

It was exhilarating because my roommates jokingly placed me as “project manager” since I was the one who really wanted to do this and also because of the fact that I only had three days to come up with a solid idea and put together a demo that would really sell our project.

The Project

I may not have much in-depth coding experience (I’m currently fixing that), but I did have a little hobby: art. I had dabbled with graphic design and video editing in the past, and I pride myself in having the ability to come up with concept designs pretty quickly. And so that’s what I did in our project, Capital Quest.

So, we as a team, agreed to create a grid-like board game where the player gets to answer quiz questions about credit to move forward if they get it right among many other ideas (the other ideas were too complex to get done with the time limit we had). We had tried to use Figma for a quick mock up but then we ended up using ReactJ, CSS, and HTML which was a very new and fun experience for me!

It was also stressful because I spent three days straight writing the script for the demo as well as drawing the characters in the game to the best of my capability which was worth it because guess what?

My team won the prettiest hack award.

I paused. My first hackathon and I managed to win something.

Our team didn’t even manage to put together the game correctly as it wasn’t playable.

My roommates were right:attending hackathons was very rewarding(I think I cried a little).

It Ends…

I am so glad that TechTogether Miami was my first time hackathon experience (and no it’s not because I won something). This is because it really was beginner-friendly. I noticed they even had workshops to help the attendees on learning something if they wanted to, such as introduction to Unity, Website Designing, etc. They even had relaxing game nights to help attendees take a break from hacking away — those were super fun!!! A special thank you to the team for putting it all together.

So, I would like to say: don’t be afraid of taking a chance to join a hackathon! Even if you don’t know how to code, or don’t even want to build your own project, it’s okay to fail; it’s just fun to try! There are still more things that you can experience just by attending the workshops. I definitely recommend TechTogether to anyone who wants to try.

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

TechTogether Miami — Achievement Unlocked: First Hackathon was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Read below an in-depth article of Raissa’s experience.

Hackathons, much like conferences, have always held a certain mystique for me. In my mind, those surely were events in which enthusiasts and connoisseurs discussed very difficult, abstract topics using so much jargon they might as well be speaking a foreign language. Hackathons certainly weren’t places for newbies such as myself, I’d think, and I’d probably be laughed out of the event when other attendees discovered how little I knew. Older, more experienced, cooler attendees.

Maybe once I had enough certificates or proven experience I’d sign up for one. Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare to think of participating…until TechTogether.

A little about me.

I’m a career changing Latina in her early thirties who has been very interested in technology since childhood. I had lots of fun exploring what I could do with a computer — from schoolwork to games to bright neon html pages full of GIFs and MIDI music, but I never felt I could do it for a living.

I took my love of languages and went into teaching instead. I briefly considered changing majors to Computer Science but that idea was scrapped quickly. That department in the university felt dark and uninviting, and even though I had some friends and acquaintances there, I never saw any other women.

The idea might have been scrapped but something still lingered.

2020 hit and I found myself with more time to think. Before long I’d finally done what I’d been thinking about for over a decade:

I went into tech.

I wanted to kick Past Me for a while, because what I discovered was not a dusty old university building, but a wonderful community. There were mentors, there were other people beginning their journeys, there were questions being answered and help being offered. I felt welcome, and my hardships acknowledged.

One of the wonderful people I came across suggested I signed up for the virtual TechTogether hackathon that was coming up soon. I excused myself saying I was too new and didn’t have enough knowledge to participate in such a thing, but she waved my fears away.

“The project is optional,” she said. “It’s fine if you just attend the workshops, it’s still fun!”

I clicked the link to the registration page, and the description undid my worries. I signed up.

TechTogether just hits different.

I invited a few friends from my bootcamp cohort to attend TechTogether Miami with me, and they were skeptical at first, too.

“I don’t have to hack?” they asked. “I’ve never been to a hackathon. I’m curious, so if I can just look around a bit that’d be great.”

And it was great. TechTogether hackathons have this vibe that sets it apart from others.

The workshops, career fair, activities and hacks that you’d expect from such an event are still present, sure, but they focus on gender inequities in tech and bridging that gap. As such, you can expect your fellow attendee to be from a marginalized gender and for most present to be as new to hackathons as you might be.

There are a few volunteer cisgender male speakers and mentors, they are available for questions and are eager to help. Even the sponsor representatives and company recruiters are welcoming and pleasant! However, it is the overwhelming women representation that made me open up.

The range of topics covered in the various workshops is astonishing, and it is great to meet hosts from different sectors of the industry. These are people of marginalized genders in positions of leadership, recruitment, research, education. Seeing more women in tech makes me less anxious about having changed careers.

Curious about designing in Figma even though you are studying Java? Ever wanted to learn about blockchain now that you see web3 taking over Twitter? Do you want some tips on how to use Git or Github? Would you like to learn about how games are made? You should attend the workshops! There is no such a thing as a stupid question, and your level of proficiency in a topic is not important. There is even a prize for the person who attends the most workshops!

The organizers realize hackathons can be overwhelming, so there are groups to share pet pictures, talk about TV shows, or share favorite songs. If you’re uncomfortable asking questions using your voice, you can also type them on the chat during the presentations. In case you miss a workshop, the recording and slides will be uploaded so you can take a look later.

If you do decide to hack, there will be a couple of themes your team can choose from, such as Retro Miami, Financial Literacy or Culture Appreciation. If you don’t have a team, there’s also a channel and activities for team formation — and if you come in a tad late or don’t find a team, the organizers can help set you up with one.

Even if you’re not participating, the projects made over the weekend are the icing on the cake. That old idea of mine about hackathons being somewhat otherworldly places where only the Next Big Thing has a chance of getting a prize? Not here. At TechTogether, these feel like real projects made by real people of different skill sets and proficiency levels.

You can see an inflation calculator that’ll open your eyes, check out a website dedicated to identifying the constellations above Miami, or navigate a little game that chooses the Miami neighborhood most suited to your tastes. During the closing ceremony, all participants and teams are acknowledged, and all winners are celebrated!

My friends and I walked away from our first TechTogether hackathon a little disappointed that it was over. We wanted to attend more hackathons — we even signed up for the upcoming TechTogether Chicago hackathon the same day the Miami one ended. We want to form a team and make our own project next time, too. We are more excited about learning and about the tech industry. What a change from the people we’d been two days prior!

If there is one thing that it made stick in my mind, it’s the following:

I can be here, and I can do this.

That is what makes TechTogether different.

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

I Was Wrong About Hackathons was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Take it from Natasha who utilized hackathons to enhance her resume that ultimately led her to landing tech interviews! Read below an in-depth article of Natasha’s experience.

Hey everyone, my name is Natasha Koller and I’m a Software Engineering student from Florida. I haven’t always been a tech student; I actually used to work in international education and taught English abroad for many years. I’m pretty new to the world of web dev and have been trying to find ways to set myself apart and give me my best chance at finding a job upon graduation from my bootcamp.

I was in Slack one day when someone shared a link to a hackathon. Now, I can’t be the only naive newbie coder out there that hears the word “hackathon” and thinks “competition for people trying to hack into something.” Well, that is actually not even close to what hackathons are about. I reached out to the initial poster and she told me a bit about it and once she said the words “free swag” and “free entry ticket” I was in. After all, if it’s free, it’s for me.

My first hackathon was TechTogether Atlanta. I teamed up with three other women from my school; three of us had never participated in a hackathon. Once the emails started coming in I got more excited. It turns out there were workshops about very relevant topics as well as games. The part that interested me the most as a competitive person was the prizes.

TechTogether hackathons are low/no-code, which means it’s great for all levels and backgrounds in the tech space. The best part is that they are a great opportunity to learn new skills and collaborate. Being in a self-paced bootcamp, I don’t get the chance to use git to collaborate. Joining TechTogether allowed me a chance to learn how to use git for version control and really work with a team to make a winning product.

I also became more familiar with Figma, a UI/UX tool useful for front-end developers. These very useful skills I would not otherwise have gained are now showcased proudly on my resume. I also have been fortunate enough to create TWO winning apps, Atlanta for All for TechTogether Atlanta and Cortadito for TechTogether Miami.

Attending has allowed me to add two more projects on my portfolio and resume that employers have actually asked me about in interviews. Come to think of it, I went from not getting any interviews to getting several since attending these hackathons.

Hackathons are a vital experience for new developers trying to break into tech. For anyone that is hesitant about their skills or where they might fit in, there is always some way that you can contribute. Remember, it’s not about winning or losing- but about what you can gain from the experience.

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

How Hackathons Brightened Up My Resume and Helped Land Me Interviews was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Read below an in-depth article of Samiksha’s experience.

I’m Samiksha, a freshman in high school based in North Georgia. I recently participated at TechTogether Miami– my second hackathon ever. I learned about online events such as these through a girl’s coding club that I was a part of and was naturally curious to see what it could offer. Participating was an amazing decision as I not only learned more about technology, but also found an amazing community of people.

Team Building

At my first hackathon TechTogether Atlanta, I did not compete as there were too many issues with my team; however, this time I was determined to find someone who was willing to work with me. I attended two team building activities that TechTogether Miami offered, both of which were fairly intimidating as everyone was either a college graduate or someone looking for a career change.

That did not do well to my confidence as a 14 year old so when I was teamed up with people who had highly professional tech backgrounds, I almost felt as if I would drag them behind. Fortunately, I had attended TechTogether PreHacks the week before and had DM’d a few kids my age to ask whether they would attend TechTogether Miami and compete in it. I got back in touch with Prasi, a freshman in high school, and was ecstatic when she said she’d be happy to work with me.

The Project

We started brainstorming ideas on Friday evening over Zoom and tried to find problems we could solve. After almost an hour of thinking–our brains almost fried–a thought popped up into my head. We could create a website regarding CryptoCurrency! It was something people had an interest in because of its rapidly growing pace, but also something where people had no idea where to start learning.

It also fit right in with one of the categories listed on the TechTogether Miami DevPost. Right as we figured out our idea, a notification popped up on the bottom right side of my screen, “Intro To Figma Workshop.” As we were both interested, we left the Zoom call and attended the workshop.

We realized it was very helpful as it could help prototype our project. It even had CSS attributes listed for us! Since it was getting a bit late for me(I was in the EST time zone while she was in PST) I asked whether she could create a basic layout for me to look at in the morning and end the day there.

Building the website itself was very challenging considering I had very little HTML and CSS experience and this was my first-ever official project. Prasi worked more in the backend so this was uncharted territory for her as well. I scoured the internet and found a YouTube video (lifesaver!!!!) that explained start to finish how to create a website and linked the GitHub repository for the website. Because of the workshops, extremely helpful may I mention, I had some knowledge on how GitHub worked and used some of the code in our website.

There was a slight issue–we didn’t have content. My knowledge on crypto was basic to say the least. I had only recently started to understand that investing was almost nothing like The Game Of Life. Once again, me and Prasi headed to our best friend, the internet, and researched content. Because of this, I learned SO MUCH about cryptocurrency like what a Blockchain was and how to use trust wallets.

There were also many bumps as we tried to complete our project, especially at the last minute (extremely stressful), but we asked a few mentors and we somehow had a final product to be submitted. Both of us weren’t expecting anything; however, at 7 pm EST we got an email saying that we won Best Financial Literacy Hack with Robinhood!

The Experience

TechTogether Miami was an amazing experience! The mentors were extremely nice, the workshops were great, and the amount of resources provided were endless. Through this, I learned that people of any age and someone even with little to no tech skills can participate.

As I mentioned, both me and my partner had little to no experience in our project and it was a huge jump from our comfort zone. It just goes to show that you need not be an expert in technology to create something that you are interested in making.

You may be thinking something along the lines of what I was thinking when I first registered: I barely know anything tech-y. I literally won’t be able to experience anything. If you are thinking this, don’t. Just go for it. This is your opportunity to meet new people, and learn new skills without having to fear judgment. You may think it seems scary or even intimidating at first but you won’t know that it actually is unless you try!

More Hackathons!

If you asked me two months ago what a hackathon was, I would have stared right back at you with a blank look on my face. Now, I will be attending TechTogether Chicago and will definitely continue to attend many more hackathons in the future!

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

TechTogether Miami: A Weekend Worth Remembering was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Read below an in-depth article of Dainyl’s experience.

To the public, software developers are often stereotyped as introverted and crass; men who only care about code. To the media, tech giants such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates are all they see. At TechTogether Miami however, the complete opposite can be found — a diverse group of some of the kindest, most passionate tech nerds I have had the pleasure of meeting.

What exactly is TechTogether Miami?

On Friday, February 18th, I had the pleasure of attending my second ever hackathon (a multi-day long event where developers create applications from scratch) and Florida’s first gender-focused hackathon, TechTogether Miami! The goal of TechTogether is to redefine the hacker stereotype and increase representation of women and non-binary people in tech. This hackathon was a weekend-long event filled with workshops for participants and non-participants yearning to expand their technical knowledge in a multitude of fields. This includes web development, mobile development, and even game development; we also learned how to pitch our projects, negotiate job offers, and more!

How does TechTogether stand out?

As alluded to earlier, TechTogether is the largest initiative aimed at decreasing the gender disparity in the software development and tech field. Not only that, but TechTogether pushes for attendees from all backgrounds and skill levels — especially early developers! As of their 2020–2021 report, 98% of hackathon attendees would recommend attending a TechTogether event.

There were an outstanding number of workshops at TechTogether Miami which were suitable for entry level developers — but more experienced developers could learn a thing or two as well! While I did not attend the Web Development track of workshops, I attended workshops in the App Development and Game Development track and learned a lot of things. As soon as I have the time to dedicate to it, I’m very interested in learning Kotlin and looking at the Unity engine.

Building a team project

At my first hackathon, I built a relatively simple project on my own to see if I could withstand 10–12 hours of coding. If you’re having fun with your project, then I found it was actually quite easy! However, I decided that I would prefer to split up the work rather than tackle the entire project lifecycle on my own and ended up teaming up with a UI designer. The team formation process was quite simple — introduce yourself in the team formation channel and reach out to other developers!

Not only will working as a team save you time, but you’ll also be able to make friends and connections with others like yourself. Working in a group also provides a somewhat different dynamic — if you have designers and developers, then you’ll have to work together and plan a schedule for the next few days as opposed to working at your own pace.

However, this gives developers extra time to develop their infrastructure while the designers can plan out the look and feel of the project. Additionally, this gives you a chance to work as a team (which you can talk about at your next interview)!

Advice for attending a hackathon:

While I would consider the hackathon an overall success, there were definitely things I could improve on during the development process. I usually take hackathons as a learning experience by picking up a new technology such as a database or coding language. Unfortunately, piling on a new coding language to an entirely new database while utilizing a new feature of your tech stack takes a lot of effort! While I was able to get the entire application to match the wireframes (mostly), some routing errors prevented full functionality of the website (you can check it out here!).

As a general piece of advice, I would highly recommend using hackathons to expand your knowledge. However, possibly limit it to a smaller goal — try a new API, database, or feature one at a time. Additionally, make sure that your team is okay with that! Some teams will take hackathons at a more relaxed pace, while others will try to aim for the top spot.

Final takeaways and what’s next:

Overall, I would highly recommend attending a TechTogether hackathon if you can! It’s a wonderful, diverse, and welcoming experience where you can connect with those like you — which can possibly be hard to find in the tech field. Similarly, I’ll be attending TechTogether Chicago on February 25th; if you’re going to attend as well then don’t be a stranger and feel free to say hello!

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

Attending Florida’s First Gender-Inclusive Hackathon was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Read below an in-depth article of Jenny’s experience.

I’ll admit it — my first experience with a hackathon started with me wondering “what the heck is a hackathon??” before I shrugged and signed up anyway (I may have briefly considered that my friend had sent me the link to TechTogether Miami in error).

However, as we all have learned through the pandemic — one of the joys of virtual events is that you can always shut your laptop and go for a comforting pint of ice cream if you don’t enjoy where you are. Much less awkward than physically backing out of a room while mumbling about “another commitment, must go.”

Attending TechTogether Miami would prove to keep my ice cream addiction in check; however, welcoming mentors, knowledgeable workshop hosts, and friendly participants all made sure everyone was included and I felt entirely comfortable at every turn.

For those of my fellow self-described ‘non-techy’ and new-to-tech friends I offer this brief explanation of a hackathon — a short ‘marathon’ of ‘hacking’ where you work with a team to build a project. Honestly that definition may have swayed me from signing up for TechTogether Miami altogether had I read it before committing. You see, I am but a young padawan just dipping my toes into the vast lake that is the tech world — I had been learning web development for under a month before signing up.

Being told I would be taking on a big coding project sounds bad enough, but having to convince strangers that I would be an asset for their team makes me want to just curl up on the sofa with my dog for the weekend instead.

If this line of thinking sounds familiar to you, know that you are not alone. Most people experience this ‘imposter syndrome’ at some point or another. The trick is to not let it bully you out of attending events, competing in hacks or going after your dreams. Or, you can do like I did and attend your first hackathon and just… not do the hack part.

I know, I know! How can one attend a hackathon and not participate in the hack?! It’s in the name for goodness sake! Well friends, that’s the other bit about hackathons I didn’t know before signing up: they aren’t just for hacking. TechTogether Miami was a jam packed weekend with workshops on everything from building basic websites, to tweaking your LinkedIn to attract more connections, to getting started in building games. My personal favorite workshop taught me how to craft a basic phishing email that can get past email filters (and yes I promise I won’t use that skill for evil. Probably).

The online hackathon format worked really well. We had a Discord server that was always popping with pictures of cute pets, mentors answering questions or making suggestions on projects, and new friends coming together to form teams. Workshops were hosted over Zoom, so the video calls helped you feel like you were really there with people. And of course it wasn’t all learning and serious programming. We relaxed at night with games, music parties and even karaoke.

At the end of the weekend, the closing ceremony gave me an opportunity to see what the competing hackers had come up with. And let me just say — there were some amazing projects that I was surprised came together in only one weekend.

But more than that, there were some projects I looked through that gave me a moment of “I could do something like that!” Not that these projects were any less impressive, but rather I had managed to out-bully my inner imposter syndrome from making my decisions for me with the help of all the support and encouragement from all the lovely ‘techy’ people I had met over the weekend.

So, after I had updated my LinkedIn by adding all my new TechTogether friends (and confirmed in an exit survey where to send my newly won swag to) the first thing I did after the event concluded was sign-up for the next TechTogether hackathon. And this time, I will be telling my imposter syndrome to hush, because I will be joining a team and competing fully. I hope to see you there.

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

Hackathons for the Uninitiated was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Luckily, she found TechTogether Miami and attended the hackathon! Read below an in-depth article of Stephanie’s experience.

I’m Stephanie and I am so grateful to have found this event while searching through Eventbrite! I live in NYC and I am currently transitioning from a career in healthcare to a career in tech (specifically cybersecurity) and was looking forward to TechTogether Miami’s Career Fair.

I had a chance to meet and learn from current employees working at Capital One and Robinhood which was extremely exciting! They shed light on their journeys and were very candid about their experiences. The great thing about attending these virtual career fairs is that even if you don’t know which questions to ask, you can learn from other attendees who might be more experienced.

I usually have a difficult time asking direct/concise questions but there was an attendee who was just going for it. At that very moment I decided to not let fear and anxiety stop me from engaging with others.

*Disclaimer: Although my initial interest was sparked by the Career Fair, I ended up staying because of the wonderful workshops that were offered! I think I attended over 10 workshops throughout the weekend lol.*

I was amazed by all the tools available for coding, web development, app development, UI/UX design etc. I really enjoyed the Intro to Cybersecurity workshop taught by Ali Segovia. She specified some of the most pertinent attacks that hackers are using today, like social engineering and phishing. She walked us through setting up a phishing campaign and demonstrated how easy it is for hackers to deceive end users into providing their credentials. I felt so inspired by her presentation that I decided to simulate my own phishing campaign! I hope to continue working on other projects like these in the future.

The greatest aspect of TechTogether is that ALL presenters, mentors, and administrators made me feel welcomed and safe. They encouraged all participants to ask questions and connect on Discord and LinkedIn. They offered advice on interview prep, LinkedIn networking, and salary negotiations for FREE which is incredible!

Since graduating from my Cybersecurity Bootcamp, I have ventured on my job-hunting journey alone and attending this event instantly reminded me of the importance of community. This event also helped to validate that I am on the right track, and I just need to focus and persevere.

I left the hackathon feeling empowered, enriched, and fortunate. A big “thank you” to all the administrators who were so diligent and attentive; I am looking forward to future events!

Interested in attending a hackathon and getting access to more articles like this one? Subscribe to TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter. 💡

TechTogether Miami 2022: My Experience Traveling From NY to Miami in Just Seconds was originally published in TechTogether on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.