Hiring tournament gives away prize of $100,000-a-year salary

Technology company Crossover plans to hire over 200 senior software architects in Pakistan

AUSTIN/ KARACHI: Global technology giant Crossover ran a successful hiring tournament in Karachi, with the aim of hiring the best talent from Pakistan.

Crossover hires through a gaming tournament approach, where programmers are tasked to go through a multiple round competition based on technical knowledge and a solution approach. More than 300 programmers in Dot Net and Java technology applied in the competition.

The winners of the tournament will be offered job contracts with an annual starting salary of $100,000 per person.

In the message to participants, Crossover Chief Executive Officer Andy Tryba said the company was planning to run more tournaments across Pakistan and were planning to hire over 200 senior software architects in the country.



“We aim to bring an additional $20 million per annum worth of employment to Pakistan’s economy this year,” he said.

Earlier this year, Crossover hired eight senior software architects in Lahore. The next round will be held in Islamabad.



The full-day event was made out of multiple rounds, which finishes with a technical interview and an on the spot job offer.

During the first round, candidates were asked to be tested with their basic skills with a multiple choice test. However, the second half of the tournament was primarily focused on project assignments and coding challenges. The top candidates who passed these rounds were invited to the interviews.

The event was jointly organised by Crossover and Mishal Pakistan - the country partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network, World Economic Forum.



In March, Crossover organised a similar competition in collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board, for Java and Ruby programmers. Eight programmers were hired with an average salary of $100,000 per year.

The company employs more than 2,200 people from 98 different countries working full time for its clients. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2017.

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