You found an amazing profile on LinkedIn. They’re oh so impressive :)

You decide to hit the connect button.

They accept your request (in the best case), and then both of you will move on with life and possibly forget each other a few seconds later.

How can we improve this?

You probably already know LinkedIn lets you attach a message to connection requests. We have this incredible opportunity to personalize this message as much as we want and make a good first impression.

What do your messages look like? A friend asked for help and sent me the message he copies and pastes to everyone, and then confided he isn’t having much success with it. We’ll now explore ways to improve this message.

Hi ! I am actively looking for a position and I am expanding my network to exchange with other professionals in my field of expertise and I was very interested in your achievements. I would like to be able to follow your news and occasionally join your distinguished team. Sincerely, Cesare

Personalize the greeting

Don’t just say hi, but add their name in there.

Hi Kristina,

Let’s make it a little bit more exciting. After all, we’re very excited to connect with this individual.

Hi Kristina!

Bonus: if their native language isn’t English, you can personalize this greeting a little more! When you speak to someone in their native language it’s like you’re talking to their heart instead of their mind. I believe it’s also a nice subtle way to show that you care about them and their background.

I’m going to scroll down a bit to the Languages skills section, and I see Kristina is a native Swedish speaker. Awesome! Or, better said, fantastisk!

Hej Kristina!

Alright, we got their attention. Now it’s time to introduce ourselves a bit and explain why we’re connecting with them. It can be tempting to talk too much about ourselves, or to ask for a job straight away. Calm down a little :D There’s always time to do those things (if ever) after they accept they request.

Why are you connecting with them?

What’s something that’s really cool about them? Be a bit specific. You may be impressed with their skills or work history. Awesome. Let’s write that.

Hej Kristina! I came across your profile and I’m impressed by your project management skills and experience at AmazingCompany.

This is still pretty generic. It’s even better if you can find something very specific about them, such as a YouTube talk they may have given. This really shows you’re interested in their work. A few examples:

Hej Kristina! I came across your talk on YouTube at AmazingConference and it changed the way I think about project management.

Maybe you can talk about something you’ve seen on their work experience:

Hej Kristina! I came across your profile and was impressed by your experience at AmazingCompany. I see you’re nearing your 3rd anniversary 🎉

Maybe you can reference one of the articles or comments they shared:

Hej Kristina! One of the articles you shared on project management reasonated with me, and I’ve already seen a bit of success at work thanks to it.

Build a deeper connection

It’s now time to connect with them on a deeper level. What’s something that really connects you two? Are you both interested in project managament? Mention it.

Hej Kristina! One of the articles you shared on project management reasonated with me, and I’ve already seen a bit of success at work thanks to it. I’m also very passionate about the topic.

While I think that could work, I believe it would be even better if you find a stronger connection. Maybe they have studied at the same university you went to, or maybe you worked in a similar industry, or maybe you took a course that relates to their interests.

Hej Kristina! One of the articles you shared on project management reasonated with me, and I’ve already seen a bit of success at work thanks to it. Not only I’m very passionate about the topic, but I see we have both studied at KTH.

Provide value

Are you looking for a job or want to ask for a favor? Before you ask, you need to give, give, and give. By giving now, you’re making it easier to ask later on. Find a resource on the Internet that could be helpful to them, and attach it to the request. It’s amazing that you’re providing so much value already, and you haven’t even connected to them yet.

Hej Kristina! One of the articles you shared on project management reasonated with me, and I’ve already seen a bit of success at work thanks to it. Not only I’m very passionate about the topic, but I see we have both studied at KTH. Here’s a cool article I came across last week: https://www.ipma.world/projects-and-project-management-in-sweden.

I’m sure they’ll be thankful for the resource.

Time to hit send

Let’s end it with our request.

Hej Kristina! One of the articles you shared on project management reasonated with me, and I’ve already seen a bit of success at work thanks to it. Not only I’m very passionate about the topic, but I see we have both studied at KTH. Here’s a cool article I came across last week: https://www.ipma.world/projects-and-project-management-in-sweden. Would love to connect! Best, Cesare

Compare it with the previous draft:

Hi ! I am actively looking for a position and I am expanding my network to exchange with other professionals in my field of expertise and I was very interested in your achievements. I would like to be able to follow your news and occasionally join your distinguished team. Sincerely, Cesare

What we achieved

First off, we connected with another amazing human being on a deeper level. That alone should be worth celebrating :)

But we’re now making it a thousand times easier for the other person to connect with us, relate to us, and get to know a bit about us.

See how I haven’t really talked much about myself, but I have piqued their interest enough that they will probably go look at my profile and find out for themselves. See how I also didn’t ask for a job, nor I appear to be connecting in a transactional way because I need something out of them.

This approach is definitely more time consuming than copying and pasting from a template, but I believe it should be worth the effort. You’re probably interested in building connections that last for a lifetime, so why not take so extra time now to do things well?

From now on, it should be smooth sailing. You have warmed up this connection and you’re ready to build an awesome professional relationship with this person. Off we go!

Bonus example

My friend who here I call Joe struggled to get noticed by some recruiters. With this message he was able to get their attention (although this was via email, which is honestly more effective than LinkedIn messages).

Hundreds of applicants message recruiters using LinkedIn connection requests. A lot of these requests are ignored, whereas recruiters are always watching their inbox. You can use a browser extension like ContactOut to get their email address.

Päivää Monica, (← Monica is Finn, so why not say hi in Finnish? We address Monica with her name here.)

My name is Joe and I’m working with Unity technologies at Aalto University, as a research assistant, while studying for my MSc in Computer Science. I’m reaching out because I’m super excited about opportunities for students at Unity :D (← super clear why Joe is reaching out, and ties company technology with current experience)

I know that you must be extremely busy as the recruiting season ramps up (← love to see Joe having some empathy here, recruiters have it tough. Joe becomes more likable!) but I wanted to shoot you a quick note so that you can look at my application if you think I may be a good fit. Here’s the link: XYZ (← we make it super easy for Monica to understand exactly which job we’re talking about) and I have attached my CV (← wow, Joe really wants to make it as effortless as possible for Monica. Great!).

Unity core values such as empathy, ……, …. ,… (← Joe here references Monica’s headline, as a way to connect with her and the company) resonate a lot with me, and I would be super excited to learn more about roles if given the chance. If you’re not responsible for these jobs at Unity, could you please forward my email to the dedicated recruiter? (← Here Joe considers all the possible cases, and suggests a back-up plan in case Monica doesn’t handle University Recruiting)

Kiitos, (← Finnish way of saying thank you)

Joe

Before we dive right in, I’m not a recruiter or a hiring manager, so take everything I say with a grain of salt – just like you would do with anything else on the interwebz :D

First, let’s understand the psychology behind internships and why they exist.

Why do companies offer internships?

• Internships are a low-cost, low-risk investment a company makes to find early-career talent. You get to see what working for the company is like (as well the city you’d be living in, your potential manager, the team, etc.), and the company gets to see how you perform in the role. Win-win!
• If your internship goes well, you’ll be likely offered a full-time position to work for the company after graduation. The company hopes you will come back. After all, they have spent time and money training you in exchange for a small return. The upside for them if you come back is huge: you will onboard much faster as you are familiar with the culture, team, and processes, and you’ve already proved you are a good hire.
• Hosting an intern as a full-time employee is a great way for them to demonstrate and hone their leadership skills, and prove to the company that they are capable of managing people. This can be useful if your intern manager wants to get promoted, or is interested in becoming a manager.
• If the internship goes well and you’ve had a good experience at the company, you’re likely to spread the word about the internship program online and with your college friends. This means more people will apply the year after, and the company can be more selective with the applicants it chooses.

The biggest takeaway for you here is to demonstrate lots of passion for the company and role. The company is investing time and money into you, and excitement goes a long way to prove that not only you’ll be a good technical fit for the role, but that you’ll potentially stick around after graduation.

Why are internships great for you?

Aside from the incredible learning, networking, personal growth opportunity, here’s why I think it’s good to break into tech early through internships:

• If you do well, you get a full-time returning internship offer. You have more leverage negotiating your full-time offer as well than someone else interviewing directly for a fresh grad full-time role because you’ve proven to the company that you’re valuable.
• You can quickly out if you like the role, company, team, and company culture without making an extensive time commitment. Perhaps you join as a software engineering intern, and by working in a team you think you would be more interested in product management.
• Internship interviews are easier than full-time interviews. And it’s great not having to interview in your last year of studies (although you probably should interview at other places and get offers if you want to negotiate your returning internship offer well).

What do companies look for in an intern? What makes a great intern?

• Eagerness to learn
• High coachability/humility
• Good communication skills
• Technical competence. It’s great if you’re good at something that other students aren’t (i.e. iOS development or React). Java, on the other hand, tends to be something that most students are familiar with.

Having experience in some niche area of software development shouldn’t be required for the bigger giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Google – possibly just a good conversation starter when it comes to the hiring manager fit call or the resume screen.

The smaller shops such as Shopify, Spotify, Twitter, and startups favor it greatly. The smaller the company, the more niche knowledge matters.

How do you get past the CV screening?

• Have a good LinkedIn profile with a well-lit, high-resolution smiley face. This is huge and so overlooked.
• Have a personal website with a clear software projects portfolio.
• Be creative :) For my Spotify application, I had my personal website display my recently played songs thanks to the Spotify Web API. That was a great talking point in the interview. I also prepared a fancy cover letter.
• Watch lots of videos on how to write a good resume. Read books, get your hands dirty. My go-to advice is 1-page, 1-column resumes, bullet-points, no summary, no self-assessment of soft skills (no “enthusiastic team player”), no self-assessed skill bars, no profile picture, no date of birth, education goes first, then skills, experience, software projects, and awards.
• Get referrals. Get creative. Message hiring managers on Twitter.
• Run A/B test your resume. Change a small detail about it (i.e. by adding a new project) and then see if you get a higher response rate.
• GPA or grades barely matter, I’ve never been asked for them (except at Google & at a startup)
• Follow up every week with recruiters once you’re past this stage. Take a proactive approach with your internship hunt.

How do you do well in technical interviews?

Aside from the usual advice (practice a ton on LeetCode, schedule mock interviews with friends or strangers on Pramp), here is what I think is useful:

• Think out loud! Interviewers want to see how you think, so make it easy for them to say what you’re thinking out loud. This way, not only you’re showing your thought process, but you make it easy for them to chime in if you’re stuck or going off track.
• Ask clarifying questions about the problem you are given. Many times the problem will be intentionally unclear, and the interviewer wants to see you navigate through ambiguity by gathering additional data. Again ask questions! For example, ask: Are we safe to assume the input will be always valid and non-null? Are there any time or space complexity requirements for the solution?
• Don’t jump into coding too fast. Spend some time thinking through possible solutions. Before you start coding, check with the interviewer if they agree your solution makes sense for the problem, or if you could do better. State the time and space complexity before you jump into coding and ask for feedback.
• Make it collaborative. Treat this interview as if it were a meeting with your future coworkers. Make it feel collaborative by using “we” when you’re thinking out loud. For example, ask: Do you think this could be a good approach or should we explore more ideas? Do you feel like we’re moving in the right direction or would you like me to think on it a little longer? Is there anything else you think we should address here?
• Use a programming language that’s fast to write like Python or a programming language that you’re very familiar with. I failed my Google onsite because I wasn’t super familiar with the language I chose, Java, and I was later told to focus on my coding speed. I wish someone had told me to just use Python for that interview.
• Test your solution right after you code it. Don’t make your interviewer ask you to test. Always test your code. Ask: Is it fine if we take some time to run through some sample inputs before we consider ourselves done with the problem? You could also say: I would like to test the code, but I’m checking in with you to see if we have enough time for this. What do you think?
• Understand the metrics you’re evaluated on. These differ from company to company, but generally, it’s coding, data structure, and algorithms, design, communication, and efficiency. It’s not simply about whether you’re able to solve the problem, but how you solve it.

How do you do well in your behavioral interviews?

Here is a video by Lyft that can be helpful to understand behavioral interviews. It’s important to understand the STAR framework to do well in these interviews. And here is a video by Jeff H Sipe, ex-Google recruiter, on how to best present yourself in an interview (his channel is gold, if you watch 80% of all videos you will end up taking away so many gold nuggets).

You need to be likable. Be warm, friendly, and smile! Show excitement for the company mission, and ask lots of questions. This point alone is huge. Again, be likable! No one likes to talk with a wall.

• Brevity is key! Limit your answers to questions to 1 or 2 minutes. I wouldn’t go over that limit – if you have more content to share then you tell the interviewer: Jane, I’m happy to dive deeper on any of the points I mentioned. You could also say: I hope that answers your question, feel free to let me know if I should expand on any specific point.
• Prepare answers for the most commonly asked questions: Tell me about yourself. Why do you want to work here? Where do you see yourself in five years?
• These interviews are pretty much a culture fit. You must dive deep into the company language and values. This will make it so much easier for employers to see you as a good fit for the organization.
• For example, Spotify calls its teams “squads” and its organizations “tribes”, so use the same terms when you’re interfacing with the company.
• Amazon puts a lot of value on its Leadership Principles, so prepare real-world examples for each of them using the STAR format.
• Applying to Twitter? Put your Twitter handle in your cover letter and resume. Message recruiters on Twitter instead of LinkedIn. Listen to the company podcasts, learn more about them, watch a company keynote or an interview with the CEO.
• Ask tons of questions at the end. This shows interest and that you’re curious about the role. For example, say: I tend to be super curious by nature, and I know your time is precious, but here are the questions… Feel free to stop me anytime. Just the simple fact that you are aware of their time and that you permit them to stop you anytime is huge. Lots of people haven’t developed this self-awareness.
• Be positive. A “problem” can be reframed as a “learning opportunity”. A mistake can be reframed as an area for growth. Language matters a lot. People love to work with positive forward-looking people.
• Don’t badmouth previous employers, colleagues, classmates, universities because employers wouldn’t want you to do the same with them.
• Show where you messed up in the past, highlight the actions you took, and what you learned from it. The last bit is essential.
• When they ask you where you see yourself in the future, make it clear that you are considering the company and would love to explore internship opportunities if everything goes well. They probably want to see if you’d stick around, and also if you also set goals for your growth.

I got my interview coming up! What should I do?

Prepare and practice.

• Find out about the company’s values on the company website. What’s the company mission? You should always keep the company mission and values on top of your mind.
• Check out the resources your recruiter sent you and websites such as Glassdoor, TeamBlind, Reddit to learn more about the interview process.
• If you were given your interviewer's name, find out a little bit more about them. What’s their role, how long have they been at the company? This will help you make a connection with them during the interview and better craft the questions.
• Your recruiter is your ally. If you have any questions about what to expect in the interview, as well as what resources to use to prepare, ask them. Recruiters are evaluated on the number of accepted offers, so it looks good on them if you do well.

Alright, I’ve done my interview. What’s next?

Keep a log of how it went and self-reflect:

• What was I asked and how did I answer the question?
• What’s my overall self-review? (Pass or no pass)
• What’s something that went really well?
• What’s something I need to work on in the future?
• What questions did I ask the interviewers and what were the answers?

After the technical screen, being likable and connecting with the interviewer is the number one key to get you in. Good luck!

Last summer I interned at a big tech company. At first, I wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of working 9–5. Why would I want to spend all day in an office when I could travel the world by freelancing online? One year ago, I even started a draft called “Why I won’t work in an office even for a day”.
.

.

.
Last summer I challenged my own assumptions, and this is what I learned.

Work is fun

Work can be really fun. Why is it so much fun? I think it’s because of the people you work with (which are generally very nice) and the interesting work. I don’t think I’m a workaholic but sometimes I found myself wishing it was already Monday on Fridays. Lack of social life? Maybe, but tackling those challenging problems at scale was addicting.

Treat. Yo. Self.

I was given a fully maxed out MacBook Pro. I loved it so much that I bought my own MacBook Pro after the internship. As a software engineer, working on a solid (but also damn expensive!) laptop can make a world of difference. Since we spend so much time on the computer, it’s probably worth to spend a little more than usual for a good machine. Oh, and 1Password was a pleasure to use and worth the monthly subscription. Sorry, LastPass.

You still get to travel

Sure, you won’t spend most of your days sipping a mojito in Puerto Rico or exploring beautiful South Asia while freelancing online, but you still get to travel and work with different people from different cultures. If your company has multiple office locations or supports remote work, there’s some chance that they’ll let you travel a bit. Good companies also take you to all-paid trips around the world which is a great opportunity to see the world and bond with your colleagues.

You see a company working at-scale

You get to experience what’s working on a big product like. You see how organizations (dev, test, product, operations, marketing, sales) operate together to make shit happen. You get to be involved in the software release lifecycle, and you can be mentored by some pretty humble and smart people. Also, you get to figure out if software development is truly your passion and learn more about other roles (such as Q&A, product management, security engineering).

It has its own limits

Yes, it’s pretty damn awesome. No, it’s not perfect. There’s been great days and bad days. I also don’t think it’s “family”, no matter how a company tries to label you (“Googlers”, “Stripes”, “Shopifolk”). You’re still an employee. And your cool tech job is still a 9–5 job. One thing I know, though, is that I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world. Because the people I met have been exceptional. And you’ll learn so much from it. I promise.

There has never been a time when you could listen to all the music you wanted, for free.

..

There has never been a time when you could communicate to people, wherever they lived, for free.

..

There has never been a time when you could travel to the other side of the globe in less than a day (still cheaper than the phone you carry in your pocket).

..

There has never been a time language barriers weren’t a thing anymore.

..

There has never been a time when you could change the world with a few lines of code.

..

There has never been a time when you could read all the books you wanted, almost for free.

..

There has never been a time when you could receive a world-class education by watching free video courses online.

There has never been a time when you had access to the healthiest food in the world for cheap.

There has never been a time when you could make money online, by working anywhere.

There has never been a time when you could be part of underrepresented groups and still feel like you do belong.

There has never been a time when you could work on your passion.

There has never been a time we knew so much about the human body and how the mind worked.

..

..

I could go on and on…

..

..

..

There has never been a time like this.

Stop making excuses.

Start living now.

Hustle.

Work hard.

..

..

You only have one chance.

There’s no going back.

Ever.

Once you die you’re done for good.

How are you going to make an impact?

..

Now is the time.

With love and gratitude,

Cesare

User Onboarding (become a better UX designer)

• First learn what makes a good design a good design. A good design is something that doesn’t need a tutorial or an explanation. Simply put, good design is design that’s easy to use.
• Get good at recognizing what makes a good design easy to use by exploring this free resource. You’ll learn more about user experience design, permission priming, and what’s a good user on-boarding process is like.
• Samuel, the creator of User Onboarding, tears down some of the most popular apps and gives feedback on what to improve. Duolingo and Apple Music are my favorite teardowns on the site.

Sketch (design user interfaces)

• Now that you have the basics down, download a free trial of Sketch and play around with some of the free resources that you can find online. There are so many awesome UI kits already built for you like this one.
• Pros: very easy to use, lots of good free resources online, awesome community, good plugins specifically made for Sketch.
• Cons: sometimes there bugs with the software, Sketch only works on Mac and you have to buy a license every year to keep using the latest version.

UsabilityHub (get good feedback on your app design)

• There’s always room for improvement in design. Test your design with UsabilityHub to get a sense on how good and how easy your design functions. Never trust your eye!
• Pros: great tool to get decent feedback on design quickly, lots of test options to choose from. You can target your audience very well.
• Cons: a little expensive to run multiple for startups (1 user feedback for about $1 is very expensive, especially when you probably need to chip in $100 for test results to be accurate). 1 user feedback is just 5–10 words of text.

Flinto (create interactive and animated prototypes of your app design)

• Got your UI ready? It’s now time to animate it to show it to people.
• Pros: easy to use, test your app on a real device, easy animations lots of good tutorials recorded by the creators on their YouTube channel.
• Cons: there may be better solutions out there (check out Principle and Invision).

Zeplin (easy collaboration between designer/developer)

• Hand your design over to your developer. Don’t just send the Sketch file because using Zeplin is going to be much easier (version control, comments, better measurements).

• Pros: great tool to both developers and designers. Helps a ton with translating design to code without errors.
• Cons: it’s free for only one project.

Additional resources

• Apple Human Interface Guidelines – follow these to get along with Apple.
• Dribbble — top-notch design!
• InVision and Principle — these tools are not entirely my cup of tea, but they’re still very good!

And that was it! What’s your favorite design tool? Please clap if you liked this short write-up and feel free to comment below :)

What’s a hackathon?

Hackathons are programming competitions usually 24 or 36 hours long where people gather together and form teams to build web apps, websites, mobile apps and hardware. Hackathons are almost always 100% free because sponsors pay to be there (they collect resumes, have participants their APIs, etc.). Check out this video to learn more about what a hackathon is.

At hackathons, I met the smartest people I know and built the projects I am most proud of. I interacted with the coolest companies and made so many new friends. Hackathons are for everyone who’s passionate about building cool things. Designers and UX experts are welcome, too!

Hackathons are known to be beginner-friendly. Still, I believe some previous programming knowledge helps *a lot*.

Apply to a hackathon

Getting into hackathons can be competitive. Check out this guide to increase your chances of getting into a hackathon.

Remember to RSVP ⏰

Most of the times hackathons have a RSVP form for accepted hackers and have a waiting list for the ones who weren’t accepted because there are limited spots and they want to know if you’ll actually attend the event.

It’s crucial for you to RSVP within a few days so that you can secure your spot.

Pro tips:

• If you got into the waiting list, ask the hackathon organizers about your chances of getting off the list. I’d say it’s usually around 20–30%.
• If you got rejected, apply next year! Make sure to pimp up your LinkedIn/GitHub/portfolio, plus have a decent personal website which showcases your work in meaningful ways.
• You may be required to upload receipts of your flight purchases within the RSVP deadline if you’re a flight hacker.

Stay up-to-date 📆

When you get accepted to a hackathon, make sure to like the hackathon Facebook page if you haven’t already and enable all notifications to stay up-to-date with the event. This will help you not to miss any future deadlines, schedule updates or announcements.

So many people end up missing application deadlines. Connect with the page to avoid this.

Join the party 🍾

Don’t forget to join any Slack or Facebook groups, if any, to connect with other hackers. Hackathon organizers usually put the link of the secret Facebook attendees group in the acceptance email and they send a brand new email for the Slack invite.

Sign up on Devpost.com

Devpost.com is the place where your team will submit your hack. So why not signing up in advance and create a profile? You can even connect with other participants on the page of the hackathon.

Having a complete Devpost portfolio makes it easier for you to get into hackathons because it shows what you’ve worked on.

Find team members

You can find team members either on the Slack/Facebook groups or at the event, where they usually have a team formation session after the opening ceremonies. I recommend finding teammates on Slack & Facebook groups by introducing yourself.

Write an introductory post to say hello, where you go to school and what your skills are.

The maximum number of people that can be on a team is usually 4, but some hackathons on rare occasions allow up to five or six team members. Check the hackathon website to find out what the limit is.

There’s no minimum number of team members. That’s right, you can hack solo if you want, too! I did this once and it turned out to be a pretty nice experience. I’d generally work with a team if possible, though.

There’s some sort of excitement behind forming a team at the event. You won’t know with whom you’ll be working with until you get to the event.

Brainstorm an idea 🚨

If you’re anything like me, you never come up with good ideas. I pretty much always end up working on my teammates’ ideas, so you should too. You can find inspiration by taking a quick look at the sponsor APIs. If you develop an app around that API, you may be eligible for a prize.

Sponsor API can help you brainstorm ideas if you really can’t think of anything super cool. You can win prizes, too.

Get to the event

If you’re coming from another country, ask organizers for an invitation letter and show it to the immigration officers if they ask it. You may need some sort of visa (eTA, ESTA, etc.) if you’re travelling from another country. If you’re a minor, your parents will have to sign some sort of form before the event.

Got lost? Most airports have free Wi-Fi, get in touch with the travel coordinator.

Do not say you’re there to “hack”. Do say you’re there to participate in a programming competition. — Christopher Ngo

Check-in early

Some hackathons offer shuttles from schools and airports nearby. Make sure you check-in early at the registration desks if you don’t want to miss opening ceremonies. Checking in late made me miss Justin Trudeau’s speech at the opening ceremonies of Hack the North 2017, huh 😔.

There are usually long lines at check-in, so check-in early.

Most hackathons require you to bring a photo ID which can be your driving license, school ID, etc.

What to bring 🛄

You won’t need to bring with you too many t-shirts, as these are provided by sponsors. Remember to bring basic hygiene products (deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste). These things are sometimes provided by the event, but they’re good to have them with you regardless.

Pack as light as humanly possible. I’ve seen people leave their “swag” at the hackathon because it couldn’t fit their luggage.

Sleeping accommodations 😴

Sleeping bags are optional but recommended. Most hackathons provide with some sort of sleeping accommodation (mattresses). If they do, don’t bring a sleeping bag. The way it works is that you sleep on the floor. There are no hotels (although some hackathons offer a bed in hostel rooms sometimes, especially in Europe).

But there is a designated area for sleep. Please remember to switch off any alarms :) it’s not uncommon to be woken up by some random alarm in the middle of the night, lol.

Pro tip: remember to sleep a lot & often! I would often take short naps of 4–5 hours every 12 hours. The biggest mistake I made at my first hackathon was not sleeping enough. Social interactions at the end of the hackathon go downhill if you don’t sleep.

Pro tip: don’t drink Red Bulls or energy drinks. They’re just not that healthy. A power nap of 1–2 hours works like a charm.

Opening ceremonies

Opening ceremonies are nice but definitely not essential to your hackathon experience, but hey! They paid for your travel (sponsors often talk and present their stuff at opening ceremonies) and they also do a good job at setting up the hacker atmosphere. At opening ceremonies, sponsors present their APIs and talk about their companies.

Where to work

It doesn’t matter that much where you end up working at. Just make sure you have a decent Internet connection. I haven’t found proximity to the restrooms/food that much important.

Hackathon participants are usually very nice, open-minded and welcoming people who share your very same passion for programming and building things. So don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Some hackathons have some pretty amazing mentorship systems. Simply open the mobile app or Slack and ask for a mentor to swing by your hacking table.

Time to build your hack!

Communicate as much as possible with your team and use Git to push any code. You decide how competitive you want this hackathon experience to be. Do you want to make new friends? Play around with new technologies? Win a prize?

Most hackathons have hardware available for you to use during the event (you’ll have to give the hardware reps your ID which will be returned as soon as you return the hardware you borrowed). Food is usually pretty decent. Also generally unhealthy, especially snacks.

Judging

Judging varies by hackathon. Sometimes you present your hack to everyone who passes by your table. Other times you enter a room where the judges are sitting and present your hack that way (not a fan of that personally). Other times you show off your project on the stage.

No PowerPoint slides, build your hack

It’s not uncommon to see people building out their slides/mockups. Student hackathons in North America don’t allow this, but I have to admit it’s a quite popular thing at European hackathons. If you actually code, that’s going to be rewarded.

• ** please comment with any suggestions that can be added to the guide ***
• Please clap this guide 👏👏👏 so people can see this. Thank you!

It sure is a compelling product to get things up and running fast, especially for small startups, when time-to-market is everything. You get social authentication, a realtime database, A/B testing experiments, and self-hosted cloud functions, to name a few. All features come with extensive documentation, easy-to-use SDKs that support all platforms (web, iOS, Android), and a user-friendly dashboard to manage all the features. The best part? It’s free to get started.

It comes with a cost though. First off, it’s almost as if Firebase was built to lock you into the product — if your startup eventually gets big and you will want to use a custom backend solution, you’ll have to deal with the overhead of moving things around. I’m not saying they don’t make it easy to do so, just that it will take a while. Secondly, the pricing isn’t as friendly as other services out there. However, if Firebase ever charges you money I would consider, I would consider it a good point to switch to other services if more convenient. Lastly, Firebase is packed with incredible features, but it doesn’t do ‘exactly what you want’. If you need laser-cut customization, you’ll need to shop around.

For bigger teams (3+ developers), look into AWS (Amazon Web Services) and MongoDB. All things considered, for smaller startups, it’s pretty damn great, and I am glad such a service exists. Here are the top features I love the most when I use it for my own personal projects.

Email, Phone, and Social Authentication

Most of the apps we build require some sort of authentication. Firebase lets your users authenticate (different authentication providers such as Facebook and Twitter are available), register, reset their password and verify their emails. You can also authenticate users via phone, which I think is pretty neat (it’s pretty much all implemented for you!). Authenticating users is as easy as writing a few lines of code.

Real-time Database

Firebase has a real-time database that you can use to store your data. Data is grouped into different “nodes”, which makes the whole thing a lot different than what you’re probably used to (MySQL/Parse tables). This is really like a JSON tree. In Firebase you define a few nodes such as “users”, “invites”, “projects” and then you add children (sub-nodes to these nodes). You can append/remove data directly from the interface:

Learn more about structuring data with Firebase from the official documentation here. The great thing about this database is that it is realtime. This means it’s easy to have all clients in sync when something changes in the data. Firebase also recently introduced Cloud Firestore which makes querying more efficient and the database more scalable.

Cloud Functions

Firebase lets you run code which interfaces with external APIs on their own server. This is pretty cool in situations where you need a middleman between your clients and third-party APIs to safely and efficiently get the data you need. The major downside is that it takes a while to change the functions once they are up or to debug them. Cloud Functions can be written using JavaScript or Typescript.

Dynamic Links

Dynamic links are awesome because when tapped they take the user directly to the app (or to the App Store or Play Store if they don’t have your app installed). Links can contain chunks of data (referral codes), which enable a whole new level of possibilities (for example they can be used by users to invite new members to a group or project and reward them for doing so).

I have used dynamic links in a few projects which required users to send “invites” to other users to join a group. Firebase provides developers with a built-in dynamic link generator that user A can use to invite user B. User B taps on the link which contains some data, and is redirected to the app.