Where are all the best student developers?

These are the slides that I co-presented with Ricard Murby of Devpost at URx 2018.

During this talk, we helped a group of university recruiters understand the challenges of hiring amazing student developers and how they can tap into hackathons as a great source of talent.

Transcript

1. & We can’t keep these students out of school. 75k While most students are excited about getting out of school on weekends, the world’s most talented student developers are flocking back to school instead. Today, we’re going to tell you why that’s happening and how you can tap into this talent goldmine that you’re missing out on. students spent their weekends launching products last year.
2. & Where are all the best student developers? By @fwdmedia & @SwiftAlphaOne. We’ll tell you what 75,000 of them did last weekend.
3. & What will you learn today? Why the most talented student developers aren’t in your pipeline. Why student developers are declining your offers. How you can take advantage of an exploding, grassroots movement on campus. ? 1 2 3
4. & So, who are we?
5. & Hi, I’m Richard. Here are some fun facts about me… • Head of hackathons at Devpost. • I’ve been a Line cook, developer and diplomat. • Did my first hackathon in 2006 and haven’t stopped since. richard@devpost.com @fwdmedia
7. & They call me Swift. Here are some fun facts about me… • CEO & Co-Founder of Major League Hacking. • Aspiring lawyer who became a software engineer instead. • I’ve been empowering developers, designers, & makers at hackathons for 10 years now. swift@mlh.io @SwiftAlphaOne
9. & 1 2 3 4 Recruiting student developers is broken. The best student developers are everywhere, not just the 10 schools on your list. Most student developers probably don’t know you exist or that you’re hiring. Resumes aren’t a good predictor of job performance. You can’t build strong relationships with candidates at career fairs & info sessions.
10. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
11. & The best student developers are everywhere. Although there is amazing talent everywhere, most organizations only target a few schools. There are some problems with this strategy... • Everyone targets the same 10 CS schools. • Options for on-campus channels are limited. • Not a very diverse pool. 1
12. & Computer Science is not a very diverse pool. 18% If you want more diverse candidates, then you need to recruit from a more diverse pool. According to the 2017 Taulbee Survey, only 18% of undergraduates studying Computer Science identify as female. of CS undergraduates identify as female. Source: Taulbee 2016
13. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
14. & Most student developers probably don’t know you exist. Even if they have heard of your brand, student developers may have never considered applying was an option. When we ask student developers where they’re applying, what companies do you think they list? 2
15. & Apparently almost every student developer wants to work at the same 10 organizations... What companies do student developers want to work for the most?
16. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
17. & Resumes aren’t a good predictor of job performance. Both recruiters and student developers think resumes do a poor job of communicating actual ability. 3
18. & This is a boring, repetitive resume. Every resume you see looks exactly like this and tells you nothing about the candidate’s background. Anonymous Hacker
19. & In reality, this is a Prolific Student Developer. The same hacker has built over 30 unique projects at hackathons, and 1 in 3 of those projects has won an award!
20. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
21. & You can’t build strong relationships with candidates. Both recruiters and student developers know that building strong relationships is key to turning an offer into a “yes”. This is one of the biggest points of feedback we both hear from our customers and community. 4
22. & 70% want to meet between 3-5 people at your company before deciding to accept an offer. Candidates want to get to know you before accepting. Understanding your company and team’s culture is important to student developers. Before accepting an offer, candidates told us that they want to meet between 3 and 5 employees, especially other developers! Source: Devpost College Careers Survey 2017
23. & 1 2 3 4 Recruiting student developers is broken. The best student developers are everywhere, not just the 10 schools on your list. Most student developers probably don’t know you exist or that you’re hiring. Resumes aren’t a good predictor of job performance. You can’t build strong relationships with candidates at career fairs & info sessions. X
24. & 1 2 3 4 Imagine a world where... Meet the most talented student developers regardless of where they go to school. Student developers are excited about working for your company before they start looking. You have better predictors of on-job performance. You are able to build meaningful relationships with the best candidates early in the process.
25. & [HACKATHONS] Hackathons! Hackathons are the best place to build a pipeline of talented student developers who want to work for you!
26. & Hackathons are Weekend-long Invention Competitions. Friday Saturday Sunday Students arrive, form teams, & pitch ideas. Teams bring their ideas to life in 24-36 hours. Teams demo projects to judges & sponsors.
27. & 75,000+ students attended hackathons in the last year alone. Source: TBD
28. & 88% of student developers agree. Source: MLH 2017 Season Survey I am gaining skills at hackathons that I am not gaining in the classroom.
29. & [PROJECTS] 15k projects created by student developers annually. Source: Devpost So, what do students build?
30. & How do hackathons address the issues we’ve identified?
31. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
32. & Hackathons let you recruit from everywhere at once. Hackathons bring together the best student developers from all the schools in a region. This allows you to… • Save time and money on T&E. • Pull from a self-selecting pool of passionate problem solvers. • Access a more diverse applicant pool. 1
33. & Hackathons are more diverse than CS. 50% If you want more diverse candidates, then you need to recruit from a more diverse pool. At MLH hackathons in 2017, 27% of participants identify as female. While there’s still a long way to go, this is about 50% better than CS student enrollment. more diverse by gender than Computer Science enrollment. Source: MLH 2017 Season Survey
34. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
35. & 2 Hackathons are an important part of the job search. The most talented student developers have already know that hackathons are a great way to find jobs & internships. Many student developer use hackathons to discover new companies. The top 3 reasons participants attend hackathons are... 1. Learning new skills 2. Networking with sponsors & fellow participants. 3. Having fun.
36. & Hackathon participants are already looking for jobs. 68% Hackathons are already a critical part of the job search for student developers. In fact, 68% of hackathon attendees have looked for a job at a hackathon already. of hackathon participants look for jobs at hackathons. Source: Devpost College Careers Survey
37. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
38. & 3 Spending 24-36 hours with a candidate while they bring a crazy idea to life will give you a unique opportunity to... • Observe how they solve problems & work on a team. • Compare them to other candidates side-by-side. • Listen to how they communicate ideas. Hackathons are a great proxy for real-world performance.
39. & 30x more time spent with candidates. Spend 30x more time with candidates. A typical job interview lasts 1 hour. Hackathons last between 24 and 36 hours, which means you can spend an average of 30x more time with a candidate.
40. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
41. & 4 Hackathons are a great place to build relationships. Hackathons are long enough to build relationships with the student developers you meet. • Act as a mentor for individuals and teams. • Connect candidates with future team-members. • Create an additional touchpoint with candidates at your target schools.
42. & 92% of candidates stress over one or more aspects of a job interview. Source: Harris Interactive & Everest College Survey, 2013. Talking to sponsors is low-pressure. Interviewing is stressful for everyone. Student developers usually aren’t experienced interviewers so it can be even more challenging. Hackathons are a safe environment for candidates to have preliminary conversations.
43. & The world’s most innovative companies sponsor hackathons... & thousands more!
44. & 1 2 3 4 Too few schools. Lack of awareness. Poor performance predictors. Transactional relationships.
45. & Sign me up! How do we actually get going with hackathons?
46. & So, how should we Get Involved in Hackathons? Participate in a local event. Sponsor a season of Hackathons with MLH. Hire through Devpost Jobs. 1 2 3 You’re in luck! We specialize in helping organizations reach this community of student developers.
47. & Participate in a local event. Each year, MLH supports over 250 hackathons around the world. Inevitably, one of these is happening in your backyard or at a school you recruit from. Get involved by... • Sponsoring at the local level. • Sending engineers and recruiters as mentors. • Presenting a cool technical challenge.
48. & Shariq H. University of Maryland.
49. & Sponsor a season of hackathons with MLH. If you want to reach 75,000+ student developers, you should think about partnering with MLH to sponsor a season. • Reach 400x more student developers without killing your team. • MLH will work with you to create an authentic, custom activation that will resonate. • Develop a clear understanding of the ROI through reporting.
50. & “MLH gave us a unique and targeted way to reach some of the smartest students out there in an authentic way that actually resonated with them. The MLH hacker community is an amazing competitive advantage for any organization savvy enough to work with them.” – Robert Faldo, Bloomberg Technology Recruiter
51. & Easily understand & share your ROI. Employment branding initiatives can be difficult to measure. MLH’ season sponsors receive weekly recaps that are full of KPIs and quotes from student developers.
52. & +
53. & Continue the conversation & hire through Devpost Jobs. By creating a company profile on Devpost Jobs, you can... • Continue the conversation after the hackathon. • Create materials/job descriptions that will resonate with student developers. • Allow student developers to apply on a platform they use and trust. • Expand to cover more schools.
54. & Create materials that will resonate. Job postings do a terrible job of describing what the role is & what you are looking for.
55. &
56. & Reach the best student developers regardless of where they go to school. Ensure that student developers are aware of you & that you’re hiring. Evaluate how candidates will perform on the job. Build relationships with the most talented student developers. 1 2 3 4 Traditional Recruiting Hackathons
57. & Bonus Pro-tip: Follow-up with the students you meet! Students also report a lack of follow up from companies. They engage with your colleagues during the event and then never hear back!
58. & Happy Hacking! By @fwdmedia & @SwiftAlphaOne. Thanks for attending our talk. Please stick around if you have questions!
59. & Any Questions?