100 Job Strategies
100 Job Strategies · 77 of 100
Hackathon Entry
Company-run challenges are recruiting events wearing a competition costume.
In short
Hackathons, challenges and competitions run by companies exist substantially to identify people worth hiring. Engineers and managers watch participants work for a day or two, which is far better evidence than an interview — and simply turning up puts you in front of them.
The situation
A company runs a weekend hackathon. There is a prize, some sponsorship, and forty participants.
Around the room, the company's own engineers are circulating as mentors. They watch how people scope a problem under time pressure, how they handle something breaking at hour nine, whether they are decent to their teammates.
The prize goes to one team. Six other participants get approached about roles, including two who did not finish.
The competition was real. It was also a two-day assessment centre that nobody had to be shortlisted for.
Why this works
Companies sponsor these events for recruitment as much as for publicity, and they are explicit about it internally even when the marketing frames it differently.
The reason is that a hackathon is a better assessment instrument than an interview. Interviews measure how people perform in interviews. A weekend of building something under constraints reveals how someone scopes an ambiguous problem, what they do when an approach fails, how they work with people they have just met, and whether they can ship something imperfect rather than nothing.
Access is the unusual part. There is no shortlist, no screening and no resume filter. You register and you are in the room with engineers and managers from the company, with a legitimate reason to be talking to them.
Winning matters far less than people assume. Companies hire from the middle of the field regularly, because the qualities they are watching for are not the same as the qualities that win a judged competition. Turning up, working seriously and being someone others want to work with is most of the signal.
The mentors are the real opportunity. They are typically senior engineers who spend the event moving between teams, and a genuine technical conversation with one of them is worth more than any application.
It also produces an artefact and a story that every subsequent interview can use.
How to run it
- 1
Target company-run events specifically
Hackathons sponsored or hosted by a company you want to join are recruiting exercises. Generic community events are less directly useful.
- 2
Read whether hiring is part of the framing
Many advertise recruitment explicitly. Where they do, treat the event as an open assessment centre and behave accordingly.
- 3
Talk to the mentors deliberately
They are usually the company's senior engineers. A real technical conversation with one is the highest-value interaction available.
- 4
Ship something finished over something ambitious
A working small thing demonstrates judgement. An unfinished impressive thing demonstrates the opposite.
- 5
Be conspicuously good to your team
How you behave when tired and blocked is exactly what is being observed. Collaboration is weighted heavily.
- 6
Follow up within days
Message the mentors and organisers you spoke to while they can still picture you, referencing what you built.
What to say
When it does not work
- Weekend-long events exclude people. Caring responsibilities, health and shift work make these genuinely inaccessible to many. That is a real limitation, not a personal failing.
- Some are pure marketing. Not every event has hiring behind it. Check whether company engineers actually attend.
- Intellectual property terms. Some competitions claim rights over what you build. Read the terms before entering with an idea you care about.
- Burnout culture. Events glorifying sleeplessness are a poor signal about the company. Working through the night is not evidence of anything good.
- Overreaching on scope. The most common failure is attempting too much and finishing nothing. Judges and observers notice.
An interview asks you to describe how you work. A hackathon lets a company watch you do it for two days, with no shortlist to clear first.
Questions
Do I need to win to get anything out of it?
No, and companies hire from the middle of the field regularly. What is being observed over a weekend is how you scope an ambiguous problem, what you do when an approach fails, whether you ship something imperfect rather than nothing, and how you treat teammates under pressure. Those qualities are not the same as the ones that win a judged competition, which frequently rewards presentation and ambition. Participating seriously is most of the signal.
How do I know whether hiring is actually part of the event?
Many company-run events state it explicitly in their materials, which is the clearest indicator. Beyond that, the reliable signal is whether the company's own engineers and managers attend as mentors and judges rather than just sponsoring from a distance. An event where senior technical staff spend two days circulating among participants is a recruiting exercise regardless of how it is framed; one with a logo and no people is marketing.
Who should I prioritise talking to?
The mentors, who are usually the company's senior engineers and are there specifically to move between teams and help. A genuine technical conversation with one of them — about the problem you are stuck on, the trade-off you are weighing — is the highest-value interaction available at the event and is far more memorable than anything you could engineer socially. They are also the people whose opinion carries weight in subsequent hiring conversations.
What should I watch out for before entering?
Intellectual property terms in particular, since some competitions claim rights over what participants build, which matters if you arrive with an idea you care about. It is also worth noticing the culture being advertised: events that glorify working through the night are telling you something about the sponsoring company that is worth taking seriously. And these events genuinely exclude people with caring responsibilities, health conditions or shift work, which is a limitation of the format rather than a reflection on anyone.
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