Your hackathon projects, after demo day

Hackathon projects make great portfolio pieces

A hackathon project shows things a tutorial cannot: you picked an idea under pressure, worked in a team, shipped something that runs and explained it in three minutes. The trouble is that the demo server goes down a week later and the submission page gets buried.

On makerhandle each project gets a card and a project page that does not depend on the demo staying up: screenshots with captions, a YouTube or Loom video of the demo, the stack as tags, and links to the source and the original submission.

Say what you did on the team

Hackathons are team efforts, and reviewers want to know which part was yours. Use the role field ("backend and the ML model", "design and pitch") and a short paragraph on your part. Add the event and date in the timeline, and wins or placements as highlights, such as "2nd place, sustainability track".

Being specific about your share is more convincing than claiming the whole thing, and it gives an interviewer something to ask about.

Keep the good ones going

Some hackathon projects deserve a second weekend. Mark them Building and update the page as they grow; mark the rest On hold or Discontinued with a status, so nobody hits a dead demo. If one turns into a product, launching it properly is the next step.

Free for students and everyone else

Free covers five projects, three templates and seven days of analytics, with an Open to work badge and a PDF resume. Pro is $20 a year for unlimited projects and a custom domain. Students should also see a first portfolio for CS and bootcamp students.