Atharva Shirdhankar

Posted on Sep 25, 2022 • Updated on Sep 30, 2022

How I use Peerlist to build my Portfolio?

#peerlist #writeothon

Have you ever participated in Hackathon? Ever Contributed to Open Source? If not!
Then this blog is for you. I'll be sharing my Hackathon experiences and Learnings from Open Source contributions. Moreover, how I used Peerlist to build my portfolio for Open Source Contributions and Hackathon Projects.

Hackathon Experience

When I first came across term Hackathon. I was overwhelmed and used to think questions like!
How these folks create amazing projects that too in short time?,
How these folks do project pitching to judges so well?, etc.

After that I teamed-up with one of my friend and both participated in one 12 Hours in-person Hackathon in 2019. We have to build any application(Web/Mobile) or any create something in innovative way using any technology on topics like Education, Environment etc.
We created Mobile application half on Environment topic. Didn't make it for any prize for that Hackathon but it was alright, it was completely new experience for me and my friend and we learn new stuff.
That's how I started with Hackathon in-short.

What type of Hackathon should a Beginner Participate?

As a beginner I'll suggest to participate in 1 month or more timeline Hackathon as a Beginner.This will give you enough time to create project and explore new technolgy and even if you don't find any team member for Hackathon you can work alone cause of 1 month or more timeline.
Many hackathon are based on Technolgy instead of some theme.
Like I participated in Devto Hackathon where we have to create project using Github Actions and Azure services.

Some advantages of Hackathon:

You learn new Technology and sometimes even complete Tech Stack.
Network with amazing Hackers around the globe (online hackathon)
Learn to work in limited time.
Fun and Collaboration with team members(which is important in Software Development world).
Bonus - Swags , Prizes and free food(free food only available in in-person hackathons)

With advantages there also comes some disadvantages or flaws :

Since in some hackathon we have to work straight for 12 or 24 Hrs . It may put us in stress and mental health. Tip - So as a beginner start with month long Hackathons.

Do give this Mental Health Blog a read[Peerlist] :
https://blog.peerlist.io/how-to-protect-your-mental-health-when-working-remotely/

Links to Hackathon Platforms:

These platforms organizes both online and in-person Hackathons. You will find multiple Hackathon running at same time. And you can participate in hackathon whichever you find great Hackathon theme you would love to work.

Hackathon and Writeothon/Blogathon :
https://dev.to/
https://hashnode.com/

These platform organizes online Hackathons and Writeothon both on monthly basis.

Open Source Contribution :

I started Open Source contribution from 2020 Hacktoberfest.
Since Open Source contribution was new and use to get overwhelmed with huge codebase.
So I came across Github projects Documentation which was open source.
I just asked maintainer how can as a beginner contribute to documentation and they guided me.
And slowly steadily started to contribute other projects also which contains code.

Tips to get Started Open Source Contributions:

First learn git and github's fundamentals like how to clone repo, how to push to github, how to create branch, how to manage merge conflict etc. Then you are good to go.
Initial start contributing to Documentation of Open source projects. Cause documentation makes you comfortable with git and githubs workflow. And even documentation contains how to setup locally project and it has info regarding codebase. You will slowly and steadily learn.
Open Source is all about community. So join Open Source community(Suggestion: EddieHub). Eddiehub is amazing and inclusive community for Open Source and tech enthusiast.

Now on lets get on main topic.