My role as an International Training Consultant means that I spend a
lot of time working either in our offices around the world or developing and
delivering material from home (I live in Northampton, UK). I am a
subject matter expert for the Aftersales areas of Autoline and before taking this role at CDK I was an
end user at a Mercedes-Benz customer in the UK. My skills are as a front end user and obviously now someone who can
transfer knowledge successfully.
On two occasions I have joined a Hackathon team and both times I feel my
contribution was valuable and my skill set complimented the others in the team.
The first year I wanted to join in I had a look through the submitted projects and there was one in particular where I felt I
could contribute. It was made up of employees based in both Hungerford, UK and
Hyderabad, India. After my Manager confirmed that I could take part in the Hackathon, I didn’t consider
anything other than basing myself with those in the team in our Hungerford office. The camaraderie in the office at both
locations was great fun and certainly kept me awake – along with the deadlines
to the milestones our team were looking to achieve over the 24 hours.
The second year I was able to join I again looked through the projects but the only one I could see myself adding value to was a
team where everyone else was based in Hyderabad. I had no other reason to visit that great
office unfortunately so I was left with a choice of either working remotely with them from our Hungerford office or working from home.
I chose home. I found a world
map and also printed pictures of Hyderabad to go on my office wall to help me
feel as though I was with my team. My
family thought I was crazy... especially when they walked past my office and saw
me having stand up meetings over WebEx.
I loved that and it was a first for me as I'd never had a stand up meeting before! I fixed up a great stash of healthy and
unhealthy snacks to keep me going through the night – and I did. Staying awake was easy when you are working
as a team.
I honestly don’t know which experience was better even though one
resulted in a share of the overall winners trophy! I do know though that a non-developer and a home worker can join in on
the Hackathon, contribute and have a great time working nonstop for 24 hours!
My advice to people in a similar situation would be to go a little crazy and look at this year’s
projects. What can you achieve?

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