Meet Brij Patel, an avid hackathon enthusiast who went from being a university hackathon participant to a full-time software developer. Check out how he harnessed the power of hackathons to unlock new skills, confidence, and career opportunities.
Tell us about your first hackathon
I participated in my first Devpost hackathon as a strategy to avoid cooking. In my second year of university, I heard that a nearby university was organizing a hackathon with cash prizes and free pizzas. Money + pizzas is hard to deny, so I took an early train and attended that hackathon. I didn’t win, unfortunately, but something kenya telegram screening triggered in me, seeing the winning team get that big prize motivated me to participate in more. Eventually, after seven straight losses, I won my first hackathon!
I made a lot of mistakes in my first hackathon. Even though the problem statement was very clear, we added too many extra things to our project in an attempt to impress the judges. That ended up backfiring, as we failed to properly explain our main approach properly. One lesson you can take away from that is to stick to the problem statement when building out your project.
In what ways did hackathons help you expand your professional network?
Hackathon is a synonym for networking. I was an introverted student during my first few years of university. Participating in hackathons and presenting my projects publicly helped me overcome my stammering and gave me the confidence to reach out to others and ask them about their projects.