Paypal hack was defiantly an interesting experience and most notable an awesome networking opportunity. I walked into Braintree headquarters completely blown away by the beautiful office space, collaborative areas, and obviously, the abundance of food. After the initial setup, we were given the prompt for the hackathon. All the prompts were centered around finances, which isn’t exactly my strong suit or my interest. The actual hackathon was… disappointing at best. We worked with Masters students who tried to force artificial intelligence at every aspect of the event despite the fact that in a 24-hour hackathon nothing of the sort is needed, a simple prototype is more than enough. Aside from the actual hackathon, I met 2 really amazing individuals who helped me out with my resume and helped me get familiar with their roles at PayPal. I even connected with one on LinkedIn! I was also selected to be a part of the PR video for the hackathon where I was interviewed in-depth about what I was doing and who I was. Despite the lackluster hacking experience, the PayPal hack was a great opportunity for me to learn about their company and even inspired me to apply for their internship!
Before attending the PayPal hackathon, I had no idea what I was getting into. I pulled up to the 8th floor of the merchandise mart to a line full of people and I was afraid that I wasn’t going to make it as they only accepted the first 100 people. I was initially intimidated by the bright white walls and the professional setting of the office, but I quickly became excited once my friends and I began to work, luckily for me I was teaming with friends who are experienced 4th year computer science students. They taught me how to use github and git told me how important it was for group projects. The most valuable thing I learned is how to works on projects in a team setting larger than two people. I found that because of how little time we had, we had to separate our jobs amongst the group. I was working with html, css, and java script to create an app that allows donors to donate to hungry college students who could not afford meals. The activity helped me understand more about cs because I see the value in teamwork and the use of git. Git allowed us to work on the same project and continuously update our program. I would attend an activity like this in the future because I can learn from others and become better at working under stressful conditions. I wish we could do another hackathon for credit. I agree with Yasama that it was a great networking experience where I was able to learn more about resume making and was also inspired to apply for their internship. I’m excited to see where hackathons can take me in the future!
Paypal hack was defiantly an interesting experience and most notable an awesome networking opportunity. I walked into Braintree headquarters completely blown away by the beautiful office space, collaborative areas, and obviously, the abundance of food. After the initial setup, we were given the prompt for the hackathon. All the prompts were centered around finances, which isn’t exactly my strong suit or my interest. The actual hackathon was… disappointing at best. We worked with Masters students who tried to force artificial intelligence at every aspect of the event despite the fact that in a 24-hour hackathon nothing of the sort is needed, a simple prototype is more than enough. Aside from the actual hackathon, I met 2 really amazing individuals who helped me out with my resume and helped me get familiar with their roles at PayPal. I even connected with one on LinkedIn! I was also selected to be a part of the PR video for the hackathon where I was interviewed in-depth about what I was doing and who I was. Despite the lackluster hacking experience, the PayPal hack was a great opportunity for me to learn about their company and even inspired me to apply for their internship!
Before attending the PayPal hackathon, I had no idea what I was getting into. I pulled up to the 8th floor of the merchandise mart to a line full of people and I was afraid that I wasn’t going to make it as they only accepted the first 100 people. I was initially intimidated by the bright white walls and the professional setting of the office, but I quickly became excited once my friends and I began to work, luckily for me I was teaming with friends who are experienced 4th year computer science students. They taught me how to use github and git told me how important it was for group projects. The most valuable thing I learned is how to works on projects in a team setting larger than two people. I found that because of how little time we had, we had to separate our jobs amongst the group. I was working with html, css, and java script to create an app that allows donors to donate to hungry college students who could not afford meals. The activity helped me understand more about cs because I see the value in teamwork and the use of git. Git allowed us to work on the same project and continuously update our program. I would attend an activity like this in the future because I can learn from others and become better at working under stressful conditions. I wish we could do another hackathon for credit. I agree with Yasama that it was a great networking experience where I was able to learn more about resume making and was also inspired to apply for their internship. I’m excited to see where hackathons can take me in the future!