My company had done a few. I’ve never participated, because the vibe I got from my management was that we shouldn’t have enough time to work on something like that.
Some of the winning projects seemed way more involved than what would be done within the hackathon. It seemed like these were things that had been in the works for a while, and they used the hackathon as a means of internal marketing, to get the idea out there and give the team recognition. It felt like a dog and pony show in some respects. Though I could be wrong. Some data to support this is a video contest we also had, and my team was one of the winners. No one on the team had any idea about it, going 3 levels up to the VP level. They had the marketing team (or something) throw a bunch of fake videos together with made up information, and presented it as if teams were participating. This is one reason why I question the validity of the hackathon.
One thing that kind of upset it, or made me jealous, was that those working on the hackathon had a portal with a 1 click setup for the internal CICD system, so they could jump in and start coding right away. When working normally, trying to get into the corporate CICD seems to take months, with countless meetings, hoops, and tests of strength, followed by significant manual setup and a steep learning curve. I’ve seen more people fail than succeed, and some leave the company defeated over it. Why time would be invested to make it seamless for the hackathon, while everyone else is left to struggle, I will never know.
When working normally, trying to get into the corporate CICD seems to take months, with countless meetings, hoops, and tests of strength, followed by significant manual setup and a steep learning curve
So this CICD is not a normal part of being a dev at that company? What is it then?
Perhaps the culture of the company is the problem affecting your morale. Not specific to hackathons.
Comments
My company had done a few. I’ve never participated, because the vibe I got from my management was that we shouldn’t have enough time to work on something like that.
Some of the winning projects seemed way more involved than what would be done within the hackathon. It seemed like these were things that had been in the works for a while, and they used the hackathon as a means of internal marketing, to get the idea out there and give the team recognition. It felt like a dog and pony show in some respects. Though I could be wrong. Some data to support this is a video contest we also had, and my team was one of the winners. No one on the team had any idea about it, going 3 levels up to the VP level. They had the marketing team (or something) throw a bunch of fake videos together with made up information, and presented it as if teams were participating. This is one reason why I question the validity of the hackathon.
One thing that kind of upset it, or made me jealous, was that those working on the hackathon had a portal with a 1 click setup for the internal CICD system, so they could jump in and start coding right away. When working normally, trying to get into the corporate CICD seems to take months, with countless meetings, hoops, and tests of strength, followed by significant manual setup and a steep learning curve. I’ve seen more people fail than succeed, and some leave the company defeated over it. Why time would be invested to make it seamless for the hackathon, while everyone else is left to struggle, I will never know.
So this CICD is not a normal part of being a dev at that company? What is it then?
Perhaps the culture of the company is the problem affecting your morale. Not specific to hackathons.
This is accurate. The hackathon situation is merely a symptom of the larger culture problems.
"I’ve never participated, because the vibe I got from my management was that we shouldn’t have enough time to work on something like that."
At my company it's the opposite - they look at you negatively if you don't participate.
Same here, but learned my lesson in the past and won't participate anyway.
Perhaps it might help to seek out hackathons that are better organized or have a clearer focus on areas that interest you.