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Yeah, hackathons were always shit. They're an apparatus for getting essentially free labor out of unsuspecting and gullible nerds.
by jimty 1y ago
Yeah, hackathons were always shit. They're an apparatus for getting essentially free labor out of unsuspecting and gullible nerds.
- codr7 1y agoCould never wrap my head around the idea. They're often framed by employers as perks: Look, we're giving you the chance to come and work overtime for free, isn't that great?
- parpfish 1y agoI’ve never heard of a company encouraging their employees to participate in a hackathon that they sponsored. Are you thinking of internal “hack week” periods where employees get a chance to build something “for fun” at work?
- codr7 1y agoLucky you, I've experienced several variations on that theme in my own career. Often sold as team building and way to level up in competence/skill, with an undertone of proving your loyalty to the company.
- cortesoft 1y agoI only think this is true if the hackathon is around projects that are part of or similar to the normal work. In those cases, they should be during work hours and treated as work. My company 15 years ago or so did a hackathon with arduinos, where they provided a bunch of arduinos and hardware and food, but the projects we made were completely unrelated to work and served no practical purpose. My team made a Simon says game. It was just for fun, there was no benefit for the company. I think those are fine.
- SoftTalker 1y agoYeah that would be like a “golf outing” or something for the sales team.
- codr7 1y agoSure, hacking during normal work hours is a completely different deal.
- sshine 1y agoIt’s not free, you get pizzas! A recent boss mandated that people come on weekends. Everyone’s contract said you have to, except mine. I pointed out to the boss that even though he can ask people to work on weekends, there are laws that prevent how much (you need more and longer breaks, and you can’t do it every weekend.) He got cold feet and cancelled the event. But he forgot to tell people. The most junior developer had spent 2+ hours on the commute. These are not real hackathons. They’re corporate knockoffs.
- codr7 1y agoCome on, everyone knows that computer nerds live on pizza. Says a thing or two about the typical manager world view...
- deadbabe 1y agoThey have suspicions, they just do it anyway.