Deloitte adopts hackathon as part of its latest recruitment process

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One of the Hong Kong Big Four accounting firms Deloitte has shaken off its traditional group interview shackles and turned its attention towards a hackathon to discover a candidate’s authentic self in the workplace.

The hackathon will span two hours. In groups of six to eight, different pieces of information, which demands one’s knowledge on business theories, latest technology trends and applications and breadth of personal experience, will be given at certain stages. Through walking around and discussions, the group has to piece clues together and come up with a solution. The whole process will be monitored and eventually commented on by the interviewer.

The game is designed to imitate common scenarios at Deloitte such as clients not giving full details or clear instructions.

The aim of this game, as explained by Jungle Wong, human capital Asia Pacific regional leader at Deloitte China, is to stimulate multi-angle and flexible thinking from the contestants.

While the traditional group discussions may favour eloquent candidates, the more casual, light-hearted assessment reveals candidates’ authentic selves at the workplace: their reaction towards the unknown, their communication strategies, conflict resolution skills and creativity.

Apart from these soft skills, the task in the game also assesses the extent of the candidate’s knowledge about emerging technologies such as how to apply AI to Deloitte and their attitude to new ideas.

While ditching group interviews, the accountancy firm will keep aptitude tests and one-on-one conversations with partners as part of the selection process.

Photo/ Newbium

The story was first reported by Hong Kong Economic Times