Hackathons play a vital role when ranking tools used by tech companies for marketing. However, hackathons have evolved in different ways as they are been integrated into the recruitment process by IT and allied firms including startups alike.

Conventional hiring processes like interviews, grades or past experience do not cut it when you need to recruit top talent with real-time problem-solving skills being ever more important. You are probably wondering how hackathons can help. Let’s get to it!

What is a Hackathon?

A hackathon is an event of any duration where people come together to solve problems based on a predefined theme. A degree from a good school is no longer enough as organizations need talents capable of coming up with effective solutions within a short time. Companies are organizing Hackathons within the organization to enable the millennial workforce to challenge themselves. This strategy has proven successful as it allows young employees to step out of their comfort zone, acquire new skills and collaborate with other employees.

How important are Hackathons?

While interviews and aptitude tests are good options, it often does not suffice when tech companies are involved. Hackathons help not just in assessing a candidate’s technical skills, but also their approach to problems and their interaction with others.

Hackathons give organizations the opportunity to assess candidates in real-time while they also build brand awareness and network with other professionals in their sector. It is highly effective when an organization has an awesome new product and wants to introduce it to the industry.

IBM resorted to a virtual hackathon when they wanted to promote the artificial intelligence abilities of its cloud-infrastructure service, Bluemix. IBM went all out spreading awareness to about 160 million people through social media which paved the path for 5,520 registrations. This effort enabled IBM Bluemix to spread the word about their product. With time, as organizations evolve, hackathons are going to become predominant and traditional hiring methods obsolete. The recruitment time is ridiculously cut down by almost 80% in hackathons. I’m sure you love hackathons already.

What makes Hackathons unique?

The most beautiful thing about a hackathon is that it is a great learning experience for the participants and the organization. Students experience something similar to the product cycles of a startup company. This helps them to build time management skills, technical know-how, and in the process expand their network. They even get to interact one-on-one with expert and mentors, who help students with their projects.

Companies as prominent as Facebook are wielding the sword of hackathons to break open newer paths of innovation. It has hosted about 50 internal hackathons which have been the reason behind real-world products such as mobile ads or chat platforms. So, the next time you go on a hiring spree, consider hosting a hackathon of your own.

Don’t know how to put together a hackathon? Give eWorker a call +234(0) 815 330 5555