1,000 people solve a tech riddle for a chance to work for eBay in Israel

During a crisis, the competition for open positions in the tech sector has become fierce. Ecommerce giant eBay’s R&D center in Israel, on Sunday, posted a technological riddle on their website to help find candidates to fill 20 developer positions. Within a day 1,000 submitted their solutions and applied for the job.

Since March, eBay’s Israeli offices have recruited over 70 new employees for a variety of positions, including team leaders, researchers, developers, and development managers. But the latest round has taken on a new twist, and contains a riddle that was designed to give additional candidates an opportunity to join the company even if they don’t possess all of the threshold requirements. The open positions are meant for developers with at least five years of experience in developing big, complex code systems. The riddle was written intentionally to recruit developers, and consists of a question that involves developing Java code in three different steps, based on difficulty. The solution at the end of each step is a link that is sent to candidates and allows them to get to the next complicated step of the puzzle. After successfully completing all three steps, candidates will receive a virtual tour of the company’s offices and will be asked to pass from room to room and look for the solution to the riddle. Anyone can attempt to solve the riddle, even if they don’t necessarily meet the position’s requirements.

For those not inclined to solving puzzles a more traditional avenue is opening up. On Nov. 4 the Israeli Hi-Tech Association under the Manufacturers Association of Israel together with the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA) are holding a virtual job fair where some 500 positions at 21 leading tech companies in Israel, including Phillips, Elbit Systems Ltd., Applied Materials, Cisco Systems Inc., will be listed. So far, 1,000 people have signed up to view available positions where companies are looking to recruit candidates.

The fair will list a variety of open technological and engineering positions at various locations around the country, including in cities such as Be’er Sheva, Kiryat Gat, Yokneam, Caesarea, Rosh Haayin, Tel Aviv, and more. At the end of the event, a complete list of all the available positions will be posted on the fair’s official Facebook page, as well as ways to get in contact with those companies.

“We hope that through this fair that we organized together with the Innovation Authority, we will be able to strengthen the Israeli tech industry, which needs talented employees, so that it may continue to prosper despite the difficult financial crisis,” Ron Tomer, President of the Manufacturers Association said. “ That is why this week we joined the Israeli Employment Service to create a new vocational training program, where employees can develop a new career and learn a new trade simultaneously, while working in a factory. We anticipate that the plan will be a success, and create a win-win situation for everyone. The employee will receive a full salary from the first day on the job, and the company will gain a new employee who will receive professional training that is built precisely to fulfill the needs of the factory.”