The world today is moving towards digital transformation. Companies are readily exploring newer avenues of innovation and recruitment.
This is where hackathons and ideathons come in.
These next generation assessment platforms are enabling remote hiring at speed.
Additionally, hackathons and ideathons are gaining increasing popularity among startups, tech companies and universities across India.
Also given the current pandemic situation lurking outside, technology giants are turning more towards online ideathons as their standard hiring platforms for tech jobs.
What happens in a hackathon?
Hackathons are physical or online events in which participants include coders, analysts, designers, business strategists, and other jobseekers from various backgrounds.
As a jobseeker, you can enroll in them to get together with like-minded folks to solve predefined challenges within a fixed time frame.
The rules are generally defined by the organizer, who could be your prospective employer.
The goal of such an ideathon event is to encourage you to come up with a working solution or prototype of a business model or a product or a service.
How to get recruited through hackathons and ideathons?
External hackathons and ideathons reduce the recruitment cycle to just a few days down from a few weeks.
As a candidate, you can perform on this exceptional platform to display your technical skills, people skills, and time management skills.
In both ideathons and hackathons, ensure to make your quantitative and qualitative mind work in sync with other participants.
If your team member lacks technical skills like programming or data analytics during the hackathon phase, let them contribute to the ideation phase of the ideathon.
Start applying to hackathon jobs on Naukri and display your skills confidently.
Thumb rules for participating in a hackathon or ideathon
As you know, emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), robotics, blockchain, biometrics, 3D printing, Internet of Things (IoT) or web technologies, bots, data science etc., are hardly a part of regular educational curriculum.
If you are interested to develop knowledge and expertise in new-age tech, you can enroll for online certifications in emerging technologies.
Or you can choose from a list of other interesting courses on Naukri Learning to level up your skill game.
Once you pick a field of your choice to participate in, demonstrate your talent in hackathons and ideathons with a dash of confidence.
In hackathons and ideathons, you will get a chance to work on emerging technologies and also get hired on the spot!
Types of Hackathons
There are three basic types of ideathons namely internal, external and hybrid.
Internal Hackathon
These ideathons aim at existing employee engagement, teamwork, and collaboration.
The organizer is mostly your company or employer.
For you, it is a good podium to show off your entrepreneurial potential and get spotted as an existing talent.
In these hackathons, there are no worries of data leakage.
Also, you are allowed complete creative freedom to promulgate innovation.
Internal hackathons also give you some time off from day-to-day monotony and also bond with your colleagues better.
External Hackathons
This platform invites outside talent, who are allowed to interact and innovate.
Also, external hackathons can propel media coverage, start a dialogue in the tech community, and recruit high-quality talent.
How is your performance judged in an ideathon?
You need to portray the following skills to get spotted or hired during an ideathon.
• Show high participation and interest level
• Exchange a decent volume of ideas
• Generate a decent volume of learnings
• Come up with actionable prototypes
• Come up with business strategies
• Show a sense of shared vision and goal
Mode of engagement in hackathons and ideathons
There are 3 modes of engagement in hackathons and ideathons namely offline, online and hybrid.
Offline/onsite hackathon
In an onsite hackathon, you can visit a venue and sit together with team members to come up with solutions.
Given the current coronavirus pandemic situation, these are not taking place at present.
Online hackathon
These are more practical and widespread in the current day and age.
Online hackathons use the internet to engage participants like you. So there are no logistical barriers.
These hackathons and ideathons also run for a longer duration and hence may result in better quality results.
Hybrid hackathons
They are a mix of part online and part offline hackathons.
If you would like to become an emerging technology champion and make the world a better place, you need to start participating in online hackathons and ideathons.
The best part is now you can do it from the comfort of your home.
Happy ideation!
