Today, Singapore bank DBS announced that it plans to ditch the resume-interview route and hire 100 developers from a coding challenge and hackathon.
Following its mission to cement its position as a leading digital bank and reimagine how banking is done, this unusual hiring process is also the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
Open to both fresh graduates and experienced professionals, DBS Hack2Hire consists of two parts – an online assessment challenge to gauge the programming and technical capabilities of candidates, and a live two-day hackathon session, where their approach to problem solving will be put to the test.
Shortlisted candidates from the second round will then be offered full-time roles at the bank.
Said Soh Siew Choo, DBS’ Group Head of Core Systems Technology, “We want to bring developers well-versed in these new technologies into the bank to accelerate our digital transformation efforts. We believe that recruiting via a hackathon is an innovative and effective way to attract the right talent.”
The recruitment drive is held in collaboration with technology providers Amazon Web Services, Cloudera and Pivotal.
“It is impressive that a financial institution like DBS is using new, innovative ways to bring in talent with cloud development skills, and we are delighted to support them while grooming the technology leaders of tomorrow,” said Nick Walton, Head of ASEAN of Amazon Web Services.
Daniel Ng, Senior Director, Asia Pacific, Cloudera also had positive things to say about the hackathon:
“As the banking industry and its customers embrace digital in the face of the fourth industrial revolution, the need to utilise data for meaningful decision making and improving customer experience will only keep growing. Bringing in talent with this new approach demonstrates DBS’ commitment to transforming its operations.”
Lionel Lim, Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan of Pivotal added: “The financial services sector is a key driver of Singapore’s growth. Forward thinking organisations such as DBS are partnering with Pivotal to digitally transform their operations to innovate with the speed and agility of a Silicon Valley software company.”
DBS, A Bank That Acts Like A Startup
In spite of being a 49-year-old business, DBS Bank has been very much immersing itself in, and emulating fintech startup culture.
From locating their DBS Asia X (DAX) office at uber cool Sandcrawler in Fusionopolis, to DBS Hotspot, their accelerator programme to mentor budding entrepreneurs, to their various startup-friendly banking services, it’s no surprise that it has also ditched the formal, almost archaic interview process for a fresher, potentially more effective means of hiring fresh blood.
