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"For those looking to score a job at a hot tech startup or a coveted spot with a tech behemoth like Facebook or Square, the job search scene has an up-and-coming competitor to the traditional career fair: hackathons.\nReadyforce, a career network for college students, aims to hone in on hackathons as an outlet for job seekers. The platform streamlines the process of connecting students with companies and organizations recruiting those with computer science and computer engineering backgrounds. Readyforce's new platform, HackerHub, launched this spring. Readyforce CEO Alex Mooradian hopes the hub will serve as a one-stop shop for student leaders and companies. \nHackathons are talent hunting grounds\nMooradian estimates around 20,000 students will participate in the about 45 hackathons this spring. These events typically cater to college students, but a select few are aimed at high school students. More still include high school participants on a case-by-case basis.  \nHackathons are ideal hunting grounds for companies looking to score top talent straight out of school. They are often more appealing than a traditional career fair, as companies can send their engineers to an event and get a first-hand glimpse at potential candidates and their skills. \n\nImage: Flickr, Simon Tunbridge\"There\u2019s a wave of companies saying, 'All we\u2019re doing is hackathons; that\u2019s the only thing that we care about right now because those are the students we know are going to make an immediate impact,'\" says Mooradian. \nStudents in the upper echelons of computer science or engineering fields are often highly sought after. \"These are the doers, the students doing things outside of the classroom -\u2013 they\u2019re taking the initiative to start their own projects,\" says Mooradian. \"They\u2019re the kind of students you can hire who, in some cases, are as experienced as an engineer who has years of experience, because some of them have been coding since they were 10.\" Companies seeking to hire such talent may want to consider hackathons as a way of making an impression on these candidates, and determining which students are the best fit for their companies.\nConnecting students and post-grad opportunities\nHackerHub functions as a platform that connects students to companies beyond the big names \u2014 the Googles, MongoDBs and SendGrids \u2014 that are likely already plugged in to the hackathon scene. \n\nImage:  Readyforce\"We launched HackerHub in order to help students get the word out to the larger population,\" says Mooradian, adding that the platform is useful for everything from \"mega\" hackathons (LA Hacks, Hack Illinois, etc.) to niche events, such as smaller hackathons geared specifically toward women programmers, or region-specific events.\nTo get started on the platform, student leaders can learn about partnering with Readyforce here. Once signed up, they can invite all hackathon participants to join what Mooradian describes as a \"virtual resume book,\" a group of Readyforce profiles. Students then import their resumes or LinkedIn profiles, add pictures or videos of the projects they're working on, link GitHub accounts and build out their profiles. Then, about a week after the event, student leaders can share the virtual resume compilations with various companies signed with Readyforce. \nCompanies \u2014 which can create profiles here of their own \u2014 can search for students by name, skill set, graduation date and more, and then connect directly on the platform. Companies may also opt to sponsor a hackathon, which lets them work side-by-side with participants, give \"tech talks,\" provide mentorship or advice and promote their specific APIs. Companies can also subscribe to the HackerHub calendar to get updates when a new event is announced.\nMooradian says Readyforce helped forge more than 20,000 connections between students and companies since the beginning of 2014. \"We\u2019re all about helping students launch amazing careers,\" he says.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\nMashable Job Board Listings\nThe Mashable Job Board connects job seekers across the U.S. with unique career opportunities in the digital space. While we publish a wide range of job listings, we have selected a few job opportunities from the past two weeks to help get you started. Happy hunting!\n\nCommunity Operations Manager at Uber Technologies in Chicago, Ill.\nManaging Editor at Dent Research in Delray Beach, Fla.\nDesigner, Digital Operations at yp in Atlanta, Ga.\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/04/12/hackerhub-hackathon/>