Are HackerX events worth attending?

August 13, 2016 7:46 PM

I'm a web developer and have received an invite to an upcoming HackerX back-end recruiting event near me. Have you been to one of these? Is it worth my time and energy, and if so what exactly should I expect/how should I prepare? The event is in about two weeks.

I'm not wowed by the language they use to get you excited about having received an exclusive invitation and free admission coupon; I just assume my LinkedIn profile got caught in some algorithmic dragnet, and here I am. On the other hand I don't get the sleazy/desperate vibe I get from one-on-one headhunters, and it is free (well, I know that means I'm the product, but I don't get an overly predatory vibe either) so I'm considering attending.

From what I've been able to gather these events are like speed dating for potential recruits; you have five minutes to sell yourself to a company rep (who may or may not be an actual tech manager) before you're off to the next, and you hope you make enough of an impression to land a proper interview? Where does it fall on the spectrum of "cattle call" to "efficient use of everyone's time"? According to other accounts I've read, attendees don't even find out which companies will be there until they show up, which I'm not sure how to interpret.

Advice I'm reading elsewhere is "bring plenty of copies of your resume/CV," which surprised me; I don't think I've given anyone a paper resume in 15+ years. Do these events really get you that far up the food chain that the people you talk to would want a hard copy of your resume?

I'm currently employed and not really actively looking for a new job although I have been toying with the idea of dipping a toe into the job market as an exercise; I've been in the same place for a long time and should my situation change suddenly I am worried about my viability. I am old (relatively speaking, for a web dev) and most of my work in recent years has been maintaining existing/older systems, not developing new ones. For me this would be more about seeing what's out there and how I measure up than it would be about job hunting. (Which is not to say that I wouldn't theoretically be open to a very compelling opportunity.)

Which brings me to the next question: Given that nearly all of my recent work has been on private projects, it's not like I can point someone to a bunch of github repositories to prove that I know what I'm doing. I could come up with an elevator pitch describing it and include some front-end URLs, but I don't have any recent hobby or open source code to share... how much of a negative is that these days?

Anyway... if you've attended one of these HackerX events as a prospect or as a recruiter I'd be interested in your thoughts/recommendations. Thanks!

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (3 answers total)

I can't speak directly about this but one of my DnD buddies has gone to a few of these and said he found the atmosphere to be kinda awkward. He's met a lot of his business partners through large events like Electromagnetic Field and XOXO, but none through events like hackerX or other local alternatives.

Also, startup(and generally media) companies recruit people they know will work for really cheap pay. I'm sure there really are big companies going to these, but they're not looking to discover some diamond in the rough. They're probably looking for code monkeys or interns.
posted by InkDrinker at 7:56 PM on August 13, 2016

I sponsored one as a hiring company. I was really enthusiastic but we weren't able to hire anyone from the event. Old fashioned networking works better.
posted by miyabo at 6:59 AM on August 14, 2016

It's match.com for the recruiter, who is looking for low hanging fruit and the opportunity to train less skilled recruiters in the aspects of the trade relating to the quality of experience to a candidate and referrals therein. Since most coders and developers work geographically and may not be looking for full time work, the opportunity to corner you toward a decision based on client roles is valuable to them. By making you sell yourself, the recruiters can count on needing to know only how to sell the minimum viable product. In this case, it is not the ability to draw and maintain relationships with a pool of high quality candidates, but to be able to maintain boolean search function to cold approach people on LinkedIn, Stack, and GitHub and convert them to attend an event where paying clients are guaranteed to "meet someone". That you are required to produce your own resume copies for the event makes me wonder for the actual value of the exercise to you. They are obviously never to be invested in you if it requires you to essentially enter their domain to find your own job.
But the catering could be great. Why not bring one resume and then award it at the end of the event to the most interesting company or individual in attendance?
posted by parmanparman at 9:27 AM on August 14, 2016