Yettel Hackathon Seeks to Uplift Talent Solutions-seeking Talents

The 24-hour competition seeks ideas in three main areas and will reward the best projects with an accumulated HUF 5 million in prize money. Mohamed ElSayad, chief commercial officer at Yettel Hungary, walks the Budapest Business Journal through the details of the hackathon.

“Since we launched Yettel, a key area of focus for us has been the idea of balance; we exist to ensure that people have balance in their lives. Why? Because when you do things your way, you can reconnect with your real self, reaching the flow state and coming up with the best creations you can have. We believe that is how you reach balance,” ElSayad says.

This philosophy is at the core of Yettel’s latest hackathon. Entrants receive some guidelines, but the telco wants to stand apart from such competitions and has decided to allow applicants a marked degree of freedom.

The hackathon focuses on three essential standalone issues that need solutions, although the trio is, nevertheless, interconnected in the grand scheme of things. “Hack it Your Way” aims to encourage solutions for reducing household expenses through the use of smart devices; promote more efficient operations for small- and medium-sized enterprises; and rethink urban transport in an environmentally friendly and more energy-efficient way.

But how can Yettel ensure it recruits the most brilliant brains in the Hungarian labor market to find solutions via its hackathon?

Bringing Solutions to Life

“We hope to become facilitators by supporting the best ideas with some funding to ensure that they can bring useful solutions to life and a platform where they can meet businesses who need the talent,” ElSayad explains.

The competition aims to help developers, coders, and thinkers reach target audiences and meet business people in the hopes of either developing their pet projects or finding synergies for future collaboration.

“We want to uplift new talent, give them a stage in the framework of this hackathon, give empowerment to their views, and set them on a journey delivering useful solutions for humanity. The monetary prize here is a ‘thank you’ for the effort entrants put into their project,” ElSayad says.

The 24-hour coding marathon will end with a review and assessment of the solutions and the announcement of the winners in the three categories. On the last evening of the event, essential stakeholders are invited to come together and meet the brilliant minds of the hackathon during a B2B event.

Yettel’s hackathon is timely. Like other labor markets in the European Union, the Hungarian labor market suffers from a shortage of specialized talent. Furthermore, the limited talent pool usually ends up in large firms, which means smaller companies can rarely hire such professionals.

“I believe it is essential to ensure a constant flow of education for people to get specialized professionals. Our hackathon also aims to shed light on the best professionals in the country to encourage young minds through their successes to follow suit once they realize the attractiveness and rewarding nature of this career,” ElSayad concludes.

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of October 21, 2022.