I don’t understand why software developers participate in voluntary company hackathons on top of their day-to-day work. The company benefits the most out of whatever software is developed during these hackathons. In general, most of the work you do in your company mainly benefits the company, but I think this is especially true for hackathons.
I’d rather do a hackathon outside of work with friends or colleagues, even if there is no financial gain.
You might ask, “if you don’t care about money, why not just do a hackathon for your company?”.
If I join a hackathon outside of work I can do it to potentially create a side hustle or simply for the joy of creating software.
If I volunteer to work on a hackathon for my employer, my ideas and creations are taken from me even if I enjoy working on these projects. It feels like someone is taking advantage of me, specially if hackathons are not part of my job description and I receive no additional compensation for participating. If there is compensation, it’s usually something like a $100 Amazon gift card.
Maybe it’s just me that can’t get motivated or excited about a company hackathon.
I can summarize company hackathons like this: you come up with a million dollar idea for your employer and (maybe) get $100 in return.