The students of EAE Barcelona show their potential at the Building Leaders Hackathon
30 de May de 2019
30 de May de 2019
A challenge, a winning team and a unique employability event. That is one way to describe the Building Leaders Hackathon in which five companies have advised and evaluated EAE students from the School's campus on Calle Aragó, who were divided into groups to develop proposals for real businesses. "Our work with companies and students is really dynamic and, with the aim of adapting to the current reality, we have brought together strong profiles and companies to interact and network through a series of challenges designed by each company, asking the students to come up with an innovative and realistic solution or idea. The companies are looking for talent and today they have seen it in action", explained Federica Assandria, from EAE's Professional Careers Service and the organizer of the event.
Having been selected in advance through a process of texts and phases on the EAE platform, the student were put into random groups and set to work resolving a case proposed by each of the Partner companies, which made the most of this opportunity to evaluate the competences and knowledge that they want for their talent programs. Among other prizes, the winning team receives a Personal Development Analysis (PDA), an innovative test that analyses competences, and the guidance of a coach specializing in employability. In addition, they take part in the final got the companies' talent programs. "This program will help them to prepare for selection processes at multinational companies, which have very demanding recruitment criteria", added Beatriz Hernanz, from the Professional Careers Service and event organizer.
"Reality in its purest state"
Nestlé, Bimbo, Schneider Electric and Enterprise Holdings were the companies that took part in this employability program held in Barcelona. "At Schneider Electric, we wanted them to help us to visualize the salesperson of 2030, analysing the customer of the future, a crazy and very open challenge which they respond to really well, because the important thing is to convince us with their idea", explained Alicia Medralejo, the company's Employment Branding Director, "We have seen a great deal of talent. They got an insight into the reality of the business world in its purest state, the things we talk about in the day-to-day running of the company". From Nestlé, Julián Albelda, the Recruitment Director and former student at EAE, asked the participants to develop a real case that the company is dealing with at the moment, consisting of shifting their work processes towards digitization.
"Our case focused on the working atmosphere at the company. I have season a diverse range of profiles and, although none of them is strictly related to HR, they really stimulated their creativity more than their knowledge, because what we are looking for is innovation and always thinking outside the box", emphasized María Laura Córdoba, the Recruitment Manager at Bimbo. Meanwhile, Domingo Valero from Enterprise Holdings said that he had seen some really good, complete projects, adding that the participants had "complemented each other perfectly. I really rate how they have divided up the tasks, the methodology the used. I was really pleasantly surprised".
Teamwork and leadership: the students explain their experience
Dynamism, stress and, most importantly creativity. The participants agreed that the Building Leaders Hackathon has helped them to work with different people whom they did not know, as well as to organize themselves and manage their time. "Creating a project from scratch is really challenging and stressful, but really exciting", explained Bimbo team member Larisa Sargade, who is studying Online Marketing and Electronic Commerce, and Tim Deckler, from the same Master, who was on the Schneider Electric team. "We have learned to manage situations and strategies under significant time restraints, as well as putting our tolerance, ability to work with each other and patience to the test, not being afraid of generating change when innovating", added Catalina Romero, an MBA student and on the Bimbo team.
Tackling Nestlé's challenge, Andrea Aparicio, a student on the Master in Online Marketing and Electronic Commerce, explained that it was really important to envision, analyse and complete the task on time to offer a solution within a diverse team. "We organized ourselves really well and we all learned from each other. We want to grow and become leaders. That is why we are here". For Agustina Segura, a student on the Master in Corporate Communication, and Ana Sofía Ordoñez, from the Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the case set by Enterprise Holdings was a real challenge. "We didn't know anything about the sector and learning something is very different from applying it in a real company real. It was a huge learning experience at both a personal and professional level, particularly in terms of working under pressure, completing the task in 5 hours and organizing our time".
The Schneider Electric team, winner of the 1st EAE Hackathon in Barcelona
The winning team at this event was Schneider Electric. The company's Recruitment Managers emphasized the participants' creativity and effort, highlighting that they had clearly prepared before coming, which they see as a very positive thing. The winners were very satisfied "because we feel that we have made the most of lots of great synergies and we just connected really well", explained Tatiana Cavelliere, from the Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. "We have learned to work as a team and also that we don't always have to be the same person, with the same background. Diversity among people is important in terms of moving forward and overcoming challenges", added Renzo Iraldi, a student on the MBA International.
Jorge Hidalgo, a student in the Executive MBA, emphasized that the program has helped them because it has given them greater confidence for interviews. "It has been great fun, really interesting and rewarding". "We put our creative minds together, all coming from different Masters and with different qualities, and we have achieved our goal", explained Enrique Giménez, a student on the Master in Marketing and Sales. Jonathan Montoya, his classmate on the Master in Marketing and Sales, added that "as I have repeated throughout the course, to quote William Shakespeare, we know what we are, but not what we may be. Today, thanks to this activity, I am certainly a better person and I hope to have contributed to my team and helped them grow".
The team at the Professional Careers Service are happy and excited about the results obtained at the Hackathon events in Madrid and Barcelona. "It is a key project within the employability service that we offer our students and it has been a unique experience. Seeing the results for both the students and the companies convinces us that we have achieved our objective: visibility and networking for our high potential students among multinational companies with talent programs, as well as helping companies to evaluate candidates in situ for their processes", added Federica Assandria. They are confident that students will leave this event having been selected. "There is certainly going to be a second and many more editions. The results speak for themselves. It is a program that embodies what we are trying to do for our students: enhancing their employability and giving them real opportunities in the School's Partner companies Partners".