With the changing times, it comes as no surprise that the norms of hiring and requirement have also changed. A prime example of this is CodeFights, an online game that is offering programming enthusiasts a chance to polish their skills and get discovered by Silicon Valley giants. An excellent way to amp up your skills and career at the same time, right?
This exactly what happened to London based James Johnston. In a statement given to CNNMoney, Johnston discloses that he discovered CodeFights through a Facebook advertisement in June this year, and was hooked. After playing the coding challenges for two nights in a row, he got a pop-up message asking if he would be interested in looking at new job opportunities. After he ticked yes, he got a call directly from CodeFights founder and CEO, Tigran Sloyan, to take forward the discussion about potential job opportunities.
After going through a number of interviews, Johnston landed up a job at startup named Thumbtack, that's currently valued at more than $1 billion. In addition to him landing the job, he also got a stake in the business.
Launched in the year 2014, San Francisco-based CodeFights has successfully managed to register a whopping 500,000 users by now. Since the platform is absolutely free to use, the game has become a massive hit among programmers. The best of the CodeFights players are then chosen by the startup for various job opportunities and introduced to prospective employers.
According to the startup, as many as 200 firms are using the platform to find new recruits as their own return on investment is a lot better with CodeFights since all of these people have already been vetted for their technical skills.
The startup charges companies recruiting through them a fee that's equivalent to 15% of the annual salary of the employee that is hired through the platform. This means, if an employee hired through the platform will draw a salary worth $100,000 per year, CodeFights would get $15,000 as a fee from the firm. Though the 15% fee might seem a little steep in theory, but according to the companies that have already hired through the platform it is totally worth it.
Seeing the great growth potential that the startup holds, it comes as no surprise that it recently raised $10 million to fuel its expansion. Further, Microsoft's former head of corporate strategy Charlie Songhurst, is also slated to join CodeFights' board of directors soon.
This exactly what happened to London based James Johnston. In a statement given to CNNMoney, Johnston discloses that he discovered CodeFights through a Facebook advertisement in June this year, and was hooked. After playing the coding challenges for two nights in a row, he got a pop-up message asking if he would be interested in looking at new job opportunities. After he ticked yes, he got a call directly from CodeFights founder and CEO, Tigran Sloyan, to take forward the discussion about potential job opportunities.
After going through a number of interviews, Johnston landed up a job at startup named Thumbtack, that's currently valued at more than $1 billion. In addition to him landing the job, he also got a stake in the business.
Launched in the year 2014, San Francisco-based CodeFights has successfully managed to register a whopping 500,000 users by now. Since the platform is absolutely free to use, the game has become a massive hit among programmers. The best of the CodeFights players are then chosen by the startup for various job opportunities and introduced to prospective employers.
According to the startup, as many as 200 firms are using the platform to find new recruits as their own return on investment is a lot better with CodeFights since all of these people have already been vetted for their technical skills.
The startup charges companies recruiting through them a fee that's equivalent to 15% of the annual salary of the employee that is hired through the platform. This means, if an employee hired through the platform will draw a salary worth $100,000 per year, CodeFights would get $15,000 as a fee from the firm. Though the 15% fee might seem a little steep in theory, but according to the companies that have already hired through the platform it is totally worth it.
Seeing the great growth potential that the startup holds, it comes as no surprise that it recently raised $10 million to fuel its expansion. Further, Microsoft's former head of corporate strategy Charlie Songhurst, is also slated to join CodeFights' board of directors soon.
Advertisements