Hackathon focuses on hiring the right talent

An upcoming hackathon in New York City will focus on the hiring process and ways to incorporate technology into finding the right people for the right positions.

"Building Tomorrow's Workforce: Talent 2.0" will take place Nov. 8-10 at Next Jump, 512 W. 22nd St., and is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Global Services in partnership with Entrepreneurship at Cornell. Students can apply to participate here.

During the weekend, 125 undergraduate and graduate students from various universities and disciplines will focus on challenges faced in today's competitive talent acquisition space. Participants will address topics such as:

• Adopting a data-driven human-centric approach to optimize recruitment and make informed decisions;
• Using predictive analytics to attract talent with the appropriate skills and experience for open roles, and;
• Employing emerging technologies, automation and data to assess required skills and qualifications among a high volume of applicants.

"Efficient recruiting of ideal candidates can be a challenge for corporations," said Juliana Nunes, vice president and global head of talent acquisition for J&J Global Services Human Resources. "We are excited to partner with Cornell for a hackathon that will spur ideas, insights and potential solutions from the early-in-career pipeline this event taps into."

Students will form teams during online meetings before the weekend, then gather starting Friday at 5 p.m. for a kickoff and workshops. "Opportunity rooms" on Saturday allow students to learn about open roles at Johnson & Johnson, test drive new technology, and receive resume critiques and career advice.

Teams work throughout Saturday to refine their ideas and their pitches, with the help of more than 20 senior executives and alumni from J&J. Sunday features demos by each team, with $12,000 in prizes awarded to winners.

This is the first year for a Cornell hackathon focused on talent acquisition. Other upcoming hackathons include:

• AI, Jan. 17-19, 2025, New York City
• Animal Health, Jan. 31 - Feb. 2, 2025, Cornell
• Digital Agriculture, Feb 28 - March 2, 2025, Cornell
• Health, March 14-16, 2025, New York City

Find more information about this year's hackathons on the Entrepreneurship at Cornell Hackathon website.