Spathe System’s Junior Developer Co-Ops attend Florida International University’s Annual Shell Hacks Hack-a-thon.

Being a cutting-edge IT oriented company, Spathe Systems prides ourselves on hiring young professionals that offer a fresh look into the tech industry. In support of growing these individuals and providing them the opportunities to excel in their craft, we sent our Co-Op group of Junior Developers to the Florida International University’s Annual Shell Hacks Convention in Miami, FL.

Who are the Co-Ops?

Spathe’s Co-Ops coding in their Airbnb late Saturday night.

Spathe’s Co-Op team is a group of eight Junior Developers who, with the help of Spathe Senior Software Engineers and Developers, are currently working on USSOCOM’s SOF Hybrid Cloud building applications contributing to the Command’s mission execution. All eight members have graduated from a university or certification training course or are still attending university for IT related degrees. They took ShellHacks as the perfect opportunity to show off their abilities.  “We had done a group coding project a few months prior to [ShellHacks] and our Senior Developers really took an eye to it…”, says Hamzah Amer, one of the six employees who ventured down to Miami to compete. “I think we are all really excited to not only compete as a team, but to also put our company’s name out there.” The team competed in the Front-End category and while they did not place, the experience of participating in Florida’s largest hacking convention was more than valuable.

What is ShellHacks?

ShellHacks is a 36-hour tech event where students from all different areas come together to learn and build innovative tech products. It offers all different assortments of coding challenges including front/back end development, IT security, and Data Science. The event is also an official member of Major League Hacking and is sponsored by a wide array of big-time companies including JPMorgan, Microsoft, Twitter, Nike, Google, and much more.  All finished projects are judged at an expo early Sunday
morning for the chance to win up to $12,000 in prizes.

Sponsor tables actively gave out souvenirs and allowed students to submit their resumes.

In addition to a hacking convention, ShellHacks offers employment and various prize opportunities for competing students. Jennifer DiLapi, an HR Representative at Carnival Cruise actively looked for students interested in possible internship for their IT department. “There are so many people from different parts of the world all with different skills and interests and I think that ShellHacks is a great opportunity to reach out to all of them.” DiLapi was one of many representatives offering a hands-on approach to the job recruitment process that participants might face in the future. In addition to bridging the gap between students and the work force, ShellHacks offers a social approach to the job market. Jose Aranguren, one of the founders of ShellHacks, says that the main goal was “to create an event that was not only pivotal to the university, but is a platform for students to perform and succeed.” The event has grown from just a couple of hundred students its first year to over a thousand, earning it the title of the largest hack-a-thon in the state of Florida.

Through all the sponsors, mentors, and eager students, it can be said without question that ShellHacks was an incredible opportunity for our Junior Developers, but it won’t be the only one.