Hackathon Gold: How To Win a Job Offer In a Coding Competition

itwbennett (1594911) writes "Hackathons have stirred up their share of controversy — mostly around too-big prizes and the inevitable cheating that follows. But for some developers they also can be the ultimate job interview — not just a coding test, but an opportunity to show off your people skills. Take the case of the January 2014 GlobalHack contest in St. Louis that was initially attended by several hundred programmers. The story of the contest isn't who took away the top $50,000 prize but about the other participants who didn't finish in the money but came away with something else that is arguably more important."

Comments

Google Code Jam

[hcs_$reboot]

Another famous coding competition of interest, Google Code Jam is about to start... (registration ends in a week),

Re:Google Code Jam

[JMZero]

Google Code Jam is a really super excellent way to get into algorithm programming competitions, at least in North American. The serious competitors are pretty thin on the ground here (or at least they have been in past years) so with a bit of commitment, some programming experience, and a little luck, getting to the on site rounds is very achievable.

It's especially a great opportunity if you're interested in working at Google - doing well will definitely attract their attention.

It's also one of the most approachable competition formats; it's very "approach agnostic", and doesn't focus on anything too obscure in terms of required knowledge or skills. The time bounds are loose enough that you don't have to worry about things like "reading from a file efficiently". The initial rounds usually just test whether you can do basic programming. The test cases they supply do a good job of making sure you get things like formatting right - meaning you get to focus on the actual problem instead of goofy side issues.

Very well run contest, and lots of fun even if you're not a real expert.

Re:If you can win a coding competition

[Anonymous Coward]

Being a great code monkey does not mean you'll be great at running a company.

not for the job

[phantomfive]

Hackathons are great, but there are easier ways to find jobs.

Re:not for the job

[pla]

Hackathons are great, but there are easier ways to find jobs.

No, actually, I would very much have to disagree with that.

I got my first job out of HS (over two decades past, now) in a "hackathon" for a scholarship with a bonus summer internship (which evolved into a "real" job once I graduated, though I earned that part, it didn't come as part of the package).

Although I eventually moved beyond that job, I have honestly never gotten another job that easily since then. And suffice it to say, having won that scholarship and internship, I have a reasonably impressive resume.

If you can actually code well, "hackathon" style contests let you prove it, simple as that. No stupid psych questions that HR forces interviewers to ask, no stress on whether to dress up or down to "fit" to corporate climate at your target company, no "you match our listing perfectly but we really meant to hire someone internally and just posted the ad to meet funding-requirement-X". Just show off your skills, and call it good.

If, however, you can kinda sorta do some things with computers at your Uncle's company... Don't bother, and invest in a better suit..

Re:not for the job

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a nice anecdote, but I'd have to agree with the parent. First of all, jobs available through hackathons must be several orders or magnitude less numerous than jobs available via other means. Second, the process of going through an interview to get a job is not that difficult. Throw on a suit and answer some questions. You may not get an offer from every interview, but you won't win every hackathon either.

I don't think there's anything wrong with hackathons, but I don't think your view meshes well with reality.

+1 that's me. (or want to run one, w/ 10 taxes)

[raymorris]

That's me. I'm not good at running a company, though I've run a few during the 16 years I ran them. I also don't LIKE running a company, filing taxes every month and all that. You've got employment taxes four times a year, state franchise tax, income tax, sales tax, business personal property tax in the county where the office is, business personal property tax where the servers are, managing group heath insurance - holy shit wtf is Obama doing today, unemployment tax, worker's comp ...

Being an employer in the US takes about 30 hours per week. The other twenty hours are left to manage the business - strategy, cash flow, manage the employees, etc. If I was lucky, I'd be able to code for five hours in a week.

That's unfortunate, because I really enjoy STARTING a business. Moving from being just one person to big enough to hire a full or half time accountant and full or half time HR person is REALLY difficult, though.

While I'm not that good at running a business, most people who know me say I'm really, really good at software systems design. I never did any real marketing - I didn't know how. My companies stayed afloat only because the product was clearly best in class.

Now, I'm rather enjoying NOT running a company. I just code all day. Some lady down the hall deals with insurance companies and studies Obamacare changes all day. Several people around the corner take care of the various taxes. I just build cool software and I like it.

(Is it a problem if we need more people dedicated to taxes and other government forms than we have programmers, marketing people, or customer support staff?)