Intellect Global Hackathon Case Study: How they interviewed less & hired more!

5 mins read

Hackathons are all the rage right now! They’re quick, intense, and are an unparalleled hiring strategy for companies to find top talent in fewer resources. Many companies are succumbing to the “Hackathon Boom”, spurred by the race to attract candidates with the relevant skills and competencies faster. Here is a case study of Intellect, which tried its hand at a hiring hackathon and leveraged it to establish positive brand reinforcement and hire the masses. 

10 million transactions a day, 12,000 users, and an impressive list of 260+ clients across 91 countries - Intellect Design Arena is a thriving FinTech Unicorn that is redefining the digital aspirations of multiple banking channels and legacy applications. The company is expanding its footprint across the globe and is making every effort to deliver an uninterrupted digital customer experience in Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Services.

And with this comes the inflated demand to attract, engage, hire, and train top talent!

Here is an infographic that explains the Intellect Global Hackathon in and out -

Intellect Global Hackathon story: Headhunting and hiring masses

With the challenge of hiring the right candidate in masses with lean teams and leaner budgets quickly, Intellect realized that pitching different campuses individually across the country can take several months, resulting in the best candidates finding jobs elsewhere. 

The team soon questioned themselves - 

• Is the traditional way of hiring even necessary?
• Can we skip some stages? 
• How will we communicate quickly and effectively?
• Will we be able to evaluate hundreds of candidates in a limited time fairly?
• Will we be able to tap what’s going on at every step? 
• How to reach out to a broader spectrum of niche talent?
• And above all, are we even pitching in the right place to build the talent pipeline?

They knew hiring in masses and attracting diverse talent would not be a breeze. This is when Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete) did its bit and put all their worries to rest.

"We had specific eligibility criteria for our global hackathon such as students from CS/IT streams only along with a set percentile. Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete) targeted our audience exclusively, gave us huge numbers in that segment itself, & helped us hire 300+ students, a behemoth task in itself. It is commendable to see that they’ve created a niche for themselves in the student market. Totally loved our association!"

- Shephali Srivastava
Senior Manager Employer Branding and Campus Strategy
Intellect Design Arena Ltd.

Unstop answered all the questions!

This is where Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete) suggested Intellect to use the hackathon model to scope out the problem. Well, the idea sounded simple (all thanks to the hackathon boom!); it needed strategic execution at every step. 

After carefully drafting the entire process, the story of the Intellect Global Hackathon began in December 2021, when the company pitched its first season. With no bar on the colleges, the hackathon achieved 6931 registrations across the country from CS/IT graduates and MCAs. 

This attempt to open the registrations to every engineering college helped the company to welcome a diverse talent pool. Spanned across 4 stages, 2042 potential candidates made a cut through the MCQ assessment, which funneled down to 497 students after a coding round. 

Interestingly, the assessments designed by Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete) were so thorough and vetted, that the acquisition team decided to scrap off the HR Technical round after witnessing the technically-sound candidates in every interview - thus leaving the process comprising of just three rounds.

This made the entire hackathon process even quicker (yet very effective)! They eventually were able to find the strict process and control exactly what they were looking for in a new hire without manually following a long paper trail.

Outcome

Intellect capitalized on the advantages of hiring challenges by opening its door to all engineering students. The company attracted candidates from a targeted talent pool in a short span on just one platform. To date, they have hired 302 candidates from 497 interviews conducted with lesser financial resources.

Thus a ~60.76% conversion!

In summary, the company was able to,

• Attract perfect-fit candidates
• Connect with the students easily without burning holes in their pockets
• Build an impressive employer brand through powerful PR
• Manage everything under one roof, from the launch of the hackathon to rolling out offer letters, thus saving resources
• Get access to carefully vetted assessments 
• Received unparalleled execution support at every step

With ongoing HR Interactions and 302 hirings already done, the future of Intellect has a promising talent pipeline. It will be exciting to see how the company builds its employer brand and continues to carry on its legacy. Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete) is all prepped up to bring them on board for even more exciting challenges in order to make its employer brand live and breathe in the hearts and minds of its high potential employees.

Here’s to creating another bigger shift in the industry with new-age hiring tools!

Contact the Unstop team to get a free consultation on what can be your organization’s right hiring strategy.