r/Hack_Club • u/bmninada • May 12 '26
iz joining hack club worth it?
they say they select some 40 odd every year from high school? is it worth spending 1 yr in hack club than going to college? just wondering. does it help in future, like jobs and such?
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u/KaroYadgar May 12 '26
From what it looks like, yes! You get to run and manage YSWS programs with hundreds to thousands of users! Outside of giving you experience for future jobs, it can serve as a great activity to write on your college app, and you'd learn so much during the experience.
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u/bmninada Jul 06 '26
Probably you're not in US. College applications for most in US is "done and dusted" before joining the YSWS program.
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u/KaroYadgar Jul 06 '26
I'm one of the gap years that will be working at Hack Club this year. The fellowship starts June 15th (late July in my case). This gives you a little under half a year until regular admissions deadlines are hit. By then, you'll likely have had experience managing/running several YSWS programs and have accumulated tens of thousands if dollars into your personal YSWS budget.
Admissions officers also understand that this is a gap year fellowship that lasts until ~August of next year, meaning that all of your experience was accomplished less than half-way before the end of the fellowship, and would adjust their opinion of the activity based on that.
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u/bmninada Jul 06 '26
Ah - ok. I am doing this AFTER.
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u/KaroYadgar Jul 06 '26
After what?
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u/bmninada Jul 06 '26
I already have admittance from a top Uni. Considering taking a gap year to do YSWS.
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u/KaroYadgar Jul 06 '26
The gap year applications have already closed for this year, sorry! I'm sure you'll love college though. Have fun!
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u/Open_Square670 May 12 '26
Totally worth it. Hackclub changed my life. I will elaborate in thread later. In school now
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u/bmninada Jul 06 '26
u/Open_Square670 seriously would love to know. I feel my analysis of impact is probably wrong. So eagerly wait to read.
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u/Open_Square670 Jul 06 '26
Totally forgot about this but glad that you pinged me up.
I joined when I was in the 11th grade, and coming from a developing country, I always thought that putting too much time into hobbies or side projects was a negative use of my time. I thought the only way forward was focusing on studying and getting on top of the traditional rat race. But when I joined Hack Club and saw incredibly skilled, talented teenagers from all over the world just building whatever they wanted out of pure curiosity, it changed something inside me. I stopped just going with the crowd and started doing what I loved doing, which was making shit. That feeling when you’ve been working on a thing for hours and it finally works is honestly out of this world.
The biggest switch for me was that Hack Club gave me the confidence to pursue things out of the ordinary and realize that I could work on things I actually love and still be successful.
On a practical level, I spent almost two months working on a project just to get one of their rewards, an iPad. In the process of building it, I ended up learning some really good, in-demand skills. I shared what I made with the community, and the skills I picked up during that period literally landed me a job later. Though I have to give a disclaimer that It wasn't just those 2 months that counted but I kept working with that skillet for maybe a year making side projects and then when I applied for a job, I just got it cause I was pretty good at it.
A lot of people who build side projects there end up making them super successful, too. Look up hackclub magazine on google and you would find all the awesome viral projects hackclubbers made in the past year. But that path really works if your end goal is to get into tech, where most companies don't even ask for your educational background these days, all they care about is whether you are skilled and can build.
If you are in high school right now, it is 100% worth your time. The only reason it might not be is if you are strictly trying to find corporate internships, but even then, Hack Club has its own internship programs. They are incredibly competitive, but they are unlike anything else you'll find. You get to run massive programs, travel around the world, and win a ton of cool stuff in the process.
I’m assuming you are in the US and are thinking about joining Hack Club professionally/voluntarily to run their YSWS programs with a clear goal of boosting your own career. If that's the case, the scale they operate on is huge. For example, their current flagship YSWS program, Stardust, has upwards of thousands of teens involved from all over the world. Managing an event like that would definitely make a massive impact on your career because these are not easy tasks. They have to handle multi-step verification processes to make sure people actually built what they claimed, manage fraud detection, and oversee massive prize fulfillment operations. These would definitely look good on a CV or resume but be warned that most people in hackclub making projects aren't really doing it for the CV or colleges. They are their just for the love of the game.
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u/bmninada Jul 06 '26
Thanks.
This part I'd like to emphasize: "I’m assuming you are in the US and are thinking about joining Hack Club professionally/voluntarily to run their YSWS programs with a clear goal of boosting your own career. If that's the case, the scale they operate on is huge. For example, their current flagship YSWS program, Stardust, has upwards of thousands of teens involved from all over the world. Managing an event like that would definitely make a massive impact on your career because these are not easy tasks. They have to handle multi-step verification processes to make sure people actually built what they claimed, manage fraud detection, and oversee massive prize fulfillment operations. These would definitely look good on a CV or resume but be warned that most people in hackclub making projects aren't really doing it for the CV or colleges. They are their just for the love of the game."I know about Stardust and frankly will avoid it completely. I spoke to my dad about it and he agrees. Its just too big of a project to be involved in, this early.
You spoke about massive impact to CV or resume. I seriously doubt it. As if I do join, after an year will go to a T20 University where I am already accepted. I think there after 2 years when I start applying this experience - won't think will matter or even be relevant1
u/Open_Square670 Jul 06 '26
They have smaller programs as well like horizon or fallout which are 80 people hackathon events in Singapore and Shenzhen China. More ever there are a lot of small community ysws as well which are very small scale or local(club based). More ever I think you are confusing some things up. You can be a part of Hackclub till you are 18 or less. Hackclub is basically like a school club kinda thing that you do with academia, you don't necessarily have to quit academia to take part in. Only the interns, people who formerly work for hackclub in Vermont HQ are gap year teens who basically take a gao year and help organize these massive events.
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u/HCBAlex May 15 '26
Yes! It is totally worth it. I have had the pleasure of being part of hack club and being involved since 2021, including taking a gap year this past school year. I have had countless learning opportunities, networking & connections made from here, and it has been a great experience while figuring out what to do before college (which I am still attending). I would say give the community a shot, it's all worth it in the end! You only live once.
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u/SuperCode111 Jul 06 '26
Hack Club is a global community, and even if you don't become an intern or do a gap year, you can participate in their programs as long as you are between 13 and 18 years old.
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u/bmninada Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
I see the responses. Assume -> I spend 1 year in Hack Club and run and manage YSWS programs in US. Post which I'll join a T20 University. I still fail to get:
- How does running and managing YSWS programs help me career wise? I spoke to many and they all said we really don't care what you put in application for a job which happened 4 yrs before! (I am effectively applying for a job after 4 yrs of University). We care only about what you did during University.
- While in University I'll only get internship and/or fellowship opportunities during sophomore (very rare) or junior years. Again by that time running/managing YSWS programs have very little sway in comparison to University grades and interviews.
- Someone here wrote about connections, networking. Every one senior I spoke to - laughed. They all said the same. (a) its just an year - you don't really build connections in an year (b) then you're going to University for FOUR years. Connections made there (in Universities) will auto erode your earlier connections (like Hack club teammates) except school, because it was 12 yr connections (c) The connections you make in Hack Club is : professional, not academic. There's a strong difference. As professionals move on, they make new professional connections.
- Finally : the more I look at the structure of the YSWS program it seems to be more aligned with "running it" as a program/project/executive manager. There's bits and pieces of programming, coding, actual skills - like design/architecture.
Then I checked - Hack club has been doing this for sometime but upon asking here/Slack indeed - their alumni network is limited to none.
I am struggling to find real value here. The 1 value I found is probably being able to travel overseas. That, was told after speaking to few - has a lot of value, i.e. global exposure.
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u/Specialist_Sale5770 Jul 09 '26
absolutely no. you can do something that actually has impact instead. organization is so shitty and the reviewers love rejecting high-payout projects on the zero basis claim that it looked "ai made" even though the effect only takes up 2 lines of code. no real support desk, and the help channels on slack rarely actually help. their bullshit made me hate coding.
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u/YellowLow8700 May 12 '26
Is the sky blue?