Posted on by whysel

Hackathons: Prizes, Waitlists and Making Introductions

I answer questions about UX, Information Architecture and other topics on Quora. A selection of these answers will be reposted on Medium with occasional, minor editing for clarity. The following questions about hackathons appeared in my inbox in August and September of 2016.

If I win a prize at a hackathon, should I put it on LinkedIn?

Hackathons are no longer just about security, pen testing or “hacking” in a systems infiltration sense. I’ve been to hackathons that were about developing a solution to a humanitarian problem, creating a product that utilizes open data, and regular lock-picking type contests. Even the pen test type is losing, if not already lost, its negative reputation. If you won a hackathon, it means you were the best at whatever challenge was put before you. So go ahead and claim that prize. Be sure to link to any materials you publish about the project, like Github or winners page at the hackathon site.

Which school should I put on Hackathon registrations?

I started studying and will graduate from X university in country A, but I am currently on a one-semester exchange program so I am studying at Y university in country B. When I am applying to hackathons in country B, should I put school X or school Y?

Since you are affiliated with both universities you should be able to put down either or both If the entry form is free text. If there is a requirement, discount or preferential status for the local program, use that. If it seems that international affiliation may be an advantage, use that one. Some hackathons like to brag about having international participation. If you aren’t sure and you can only pick one, ask the organizers.

Does getting in the waitlist in mhacks a polite way of saying I’m not invited?

It likely means they met capacity. If anyone cancels you would move up on the wait list. The organizers may be able to tell you how many people are ahead of you, or it’s possible they may open up registrations if they reach a significant number of interested people over the maximum. I’ve done that when it looked like the weather was going to be bad and we might have low turnout. I’ve also been able to book a bigger room when it looked like there was a lot of interest. But a lot of time it depends on how many people you need to help facilitate and volunteer per # of attendees.

You also could offer to volunteer but you may end up running around instead of getting to participate in hacking. But showing a lot of interest, as long as you aren’t demanding or annoying about it, might move you up faster if the organizers have that discretion.

By the way, If by “not invited” you mean “can’t just go anyway,” don’t crash the event. It takes a lot of planning to do an event like this well. Room capacity, food/drinks, security all need to be planned up front. And you may not be let in anyway.

What do Hackathons want when they ask “Tell me something interesting about yourself?”

I’m used to in job interviews them asking questions like this such as “tell me about yourself” and they don’t want your personal life. Are hackathons the same or do they really just want an interesting fact about you

Think of it this way. You are about to spend a considerable and compressed amount of time with a team of people you may not know, working toward a common challenge. Your prospective team mates will want to know your basic skillset, your experience or interest in the challenge topics and generally whether they can get along with you well enough to be on your team.

I went to two Hackathons this summer at New York Public Library and the United Nations. At NYPL I was a participant and introduced myself as a UX designer and researcher and because it was an open audio hack I said what my favorite podcasts were. At the UN I was on the organizing team for uniteforhumanity.com, preparing challenges based on humanitarian goals, so it was really good to hear which of the UN goals people were most fired up about and that also helped people form teams. One woman said she was a UX designer and could do great pitch decks. And since I was building the event repository, I told everyone about my MLIS degree and offered to help with research or datasets.

If you are an experienced Hackathon attendee, say so. If you aren’t, tell everyone what got you there. Some hackathons can be really serious, but even so, I’ve always find them a lot of fun. Enjoy.

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