Hackathons, the new avenue to hunt talent

Of late, hackathons are becoming a popular avenue to recruit new talent for companies.

It is no wonder then that companies like Zivame.com, India’s largest online lingerie store, are taking to such platforms in a big way and giving the traditional means of recruitment the go-by.

On Saturday, Zivame.com conducted its very own hackathon to recruit new employees for 20 positions as software engineers in the company.

The hackathon will go on till Sunday. The results will be out thereafter.

As many as 90 participants - half in person and half via online - took part in the hackathon organised by Venturesity.

“The usual way of hiring new recruits was through consultancies and campus recruitment. This is the first time we have used hackathons. In a way, it makes it easier for us.

We have asked participants to build a responsive e-commerce mobile store and application in the light of the huge shift of consumer behaviour from the desktop to mobile phones. The second task we have given is for theme - to design a rule engine that will categorise offers and various discounts,” said Zivame Chief Technology Officer Shyam Krishnamurthy.

Besides job offers, the winners will get a cash prize of Rs 15,000. The first runner-up will get Rs 10,000 and the second runner-up will get Rs 5,000. 

Speaking about the trends in hackathons, Venturesity Co-founder Subhendu Panigrahi said diversification into other domains like life sciences, design and management was the next frontier.