Hello! I’m Matt Davison and I’m currently a student, soon to start a new course, studying programming. I’m an active member of the MLH community and an avid Global Hack Week attendee.
Global Hack Week is an opportunity to immerse yourself in a world of both new and known topics and improve your skills at any level. Unlike a hackathon, Global Hack Week is a great opportunity to learn because there is no stress or pressure to build a project on a deadline. You’re able to make the time to attend different streams that allow you to learn new things from different people and sponsors.
The Global Hack Week community, and the broader MLH community, as a whole is so welcoming with many new and familiar faces at every event. Between MLH Coaches and hackers, there’s always someone willing to help if I am ever stuck or need a little help.
Global Hack Week is an accessible event that anyone can get involved in from anywhere and that’s one of the things that makes it such a fun and diverse event to attend.
Streams & Mentorship to Build Your Coding Confidence
From the start, Global Hack Week has been a very diverse event with so many different streams to attend in a single day. During streams, the MLH Coaches are consistently interacting with the audience which has helped increase my confidence in asking for help and allowed me to foster friendships with the streamers. At my first Global Hack Week, I immediately felt involved in the community.
My favorite part of Global Hack Week is observing my confidence increase throughout the event. I can start the week feeling lost but by the end of the week, I always walk away feeling like I’ve learned something and am newly motivated to start a new project or compete in a hackathon.
I’ve learned so much from attending Global Hack Week. For example, I’ve learned the basics of building web applications with React, how to use products like Twilio and Digital Ocean, and last but not least, how to brew the best coffee (thanks Will).
Through the professional growth I’ve achieved from attending Global Hack Week, I’ve been able to build projects I’m proud of such as my personal website (matt.lgbt) and an improved version of my discord bot (spectrebot.net). Global Hack Week never fails to provide me with better insight into different technologies, motivation to build new things, and ideas to turn into reality!
My Favorite Global Hack Week Streams
There are so many great workshops I’ve attended at Global Hack Week but there are some that were simply unforgettable! Getting started with Twilio Quest hosted by Joe Nash was my first, and favorite workshop. Joe Nash, the sponsor representative from Twilio took the time to show me and everyone else the ropes of Twilio Quest enabling me to learn how to use Twilio! A tool that I later used in hackathon projects and other projects.
My next favorite workshop was How to use GitHub hosted by Isa a Coach at MLH. Isa taught me how to use cool functionalities in GitHub like creating issues, making pull requests, merging conflicts, and more. This event really made me feel part of the community, and I always recommend it to new attendees!
Make New Friends Through Guilds
Guilds are essentially your smaller portion of the MLH community for Global Hack Week. It’s a centralized space to ask questions, work with others, and group together to earn bragging rights for having the most points as a guild!
I have been participating as a guild member since I joined the MLH community, originally as a member of BlahajGANG but eventually creating a guild of my own, the Orca Squad, a community centered around cats… and some hacking. I enjoy being part of a guild as I see it as an opportunity to get to know other hackers better and continue collaborating with them beyond Global Hack Week.
Give Global Hack Week a Chance
Join me at the next Global Hack Week, whether it’s just for 1 stream or 20, and check it out! I promise you’re bound to find something at the event that you enjoy or that helps you to progress as a developer. The best part? You don’t need to commit to anything and it’s free, so you’re all set to come and go as you please. Plus, you get free swag just for signing up!
Global Hack Week has improved my ability to build projects, increased the speed of my learning, opened new doors to me, and built on my confidence. All of this has enabled me to work with clients around the world and continue my developer journey.
For more information about Global Hack Week and to register for the next event, visit our website here. Stay connected with Matt on LinkedIn here!