Hackathons Are the New Career Fairs

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Image: Flickr, Morten Wulff

By Stephanie Walden2014-04-12 21:26:35 UTC

For those looking to score a job at a hot tech startup or a coveted spot with a tech behemoth like Facebook or Square, the job search scene has an up-and-coming competitor to the traditional career fair: hackathons.

Readyforce, a career network for college students, aims to exploit hackathons for college job searches. The company streamlines the process of connecting students with companies and organizations recruiting those with computer science and computer engineering backgrounds. Readyforce's new platform, HackerHub, launched this spring. Readyforce CEO Alex Mooradian hopes the hub will serve as a one-stop shop for student leaders and companies.

Hackathons are talent hunting grounds

Mooradian estimates around 20,000 students will participate in the about 45 hackathons this spring. These events typically cater to college students, but a select few are aimed at high school students. More still include high school participants on a case-by-case basis.

Hackathons are ideal hunting grounds for companies looking to score top talent straight out of school. They are often more appealing than a traditional career fair. Companies can send their engineers to an event and get a first-hand glimpse at potential candidates and their skills.

Image: Flickr, Simon Tunbridge

"There’s a wave of companies saying, 'All we’re doing is hackathons; that’s the only thing that we care about right now because those are the students we know are going to make an immediate impact,'" says Mooradian.

Students in the upper echelons of computer science or engineering fields are often highly sought after. "These are the doers, the students doing things outside of the classroom -– they’re taking the initiative to start their own projects," says Mooradian. "They’re the kind of students you can hire who, in some cases, are as experienced as an engineer who has years of experience, because some of them have been coding since they were 10." Companies seeking to hire such talent may want to consider hackathons as a way of making an impression on these candidates, and determining which students are the best fit for their companies.

Connecting students and post-grad opportunities

HackerHub functions as a platform that connects students to companies beyond the big names — the Googles, MongoDBs and SendGrids — that are likely already plugged in to the hackathon scene.

"We launched HackerHub in order to help students get the word out to the larger population," says Mooradian, adding that the platform is useful for everything from "mega" hackathons (LA Hacks, Hack Illinois, etc.) to niche events, such as smaller hackathons geared specifically toward women programmers, or region-specific events.

To get started on the platform, student leaders can learn about partnering with Readyforce here. Once signed up, they can invite all hackathon participants to join what Mooradian describes as a "virtual resume book," a group of Readyforce profiles. Students then import their resumes or LinkedIn profiles, add pictures or videos of the projects they're working on, link GitHub accounts and build out their profiles. Then, about a week after the event, student leaders can share the virtual resume compilations with various companies signed with Readyforce.

Companies — which can create profiles here of their own — can search for students by name, skill set, graduation date and more, and then connect directly on the platform. Companies may also opt to sponsor a hackathon, which lets them work side-by-side with participants, give "tech talks," provide mentorship or advice and promote their specific APIs. Companies can also subscribe to the HackerHub calendar to get updates when a new event is announced..

Mooradian says Readyforce helped forge more than 20,000 connections between students and companies since the beginning of 2014. "We’re all about helping students launch amazing careers," he says.

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Topics: Business, Jobs, hackathons, Job Search Series, students