It started on Thursday, 22nd November. We met near the airport in Schiphol, with about other 30 to 35 more participants, and 10 to 15 people form the organization. The participants came from different countries, specially european, some already living in Holland, some not. Ukrainian, Italian -the most numerous minority, even more than Dutch-, Finish, French, Polish, English, a Nigerian, and of course Dutch people were invited, without any clue as to what they were about to go through. They had applied for Junior and Senior Tester positions, C++ and Java developers, Project Managers, Requirements Managers,… most were technical positions.
The candidates were distributed in six teams of six people. We were given a backpack for the whole group, containing a videocamera, three TomToms, a photo camera and a mobile telephone. A logbook, pens and the London subway map completed our tools. Our budget consisted of 100 pounds for the team, for the two days.
The first eight hours passed without any clue as to what was awaiting us. We were all busy meeting and talking with lots of new people. We flew to London and were received in our hotel.
It started after dinner: the first game was called Jack the Ripper. We received a message in our TomTom: ‘go to coordinate x x x’. Using the TomTom for translating the GPS coordinate into an address, we used the subway to get us there. The quickest team would get extra credits. After getting to the first location we received a message with a question. Only after answering it correctly we would receive the next coordinate, or the answer served as clue to the next location. Then another question, and so on. We had also been given some photos and on our way we had to locate the exact places where these photos had been taken, and take pictures ourselves to prove that we had found them.
After sleeping for 5 or 6 hours and having breakfast, the second game began. The structure was the same. The questions were mainly about London and England, so that we could ask the Londoners in the street. Wikipedia and Google accessed from our personal telephones saved us quite some of the questions as well.
Also this time we had other kind of assignments, like asking people to sing some song while we recorded it with our cameras, make interviews, or create and perform a theatre play for which we had to collect 5 pounds. (It’s incredible how easy is to get money in the street, we collected 7 pounds in 20 minutes!) In the meantime we had to think of a new innovative TomTom product which would represent the company’s mission for the next 7 years.
That second day was a very long and intense one. Time counted, and we had to visit many -well-known- places, like the Tower of London, Saint Paul’s cathedral, the Millenium Bridge, Buckingham Palace…
At the end of this tiring day, and after having dinner, it was time for announcements, and it was when the biggest surprise came. We found out that one person in every team was a mole, a TomTom employee. I think no one expected this, at least I know that no one in my team -except for the mole himself, of course -, suspected that all of our actions and sayings had been carefully watched.
Of 27 participants, 6 passed the challenge, 15 didn’t, and 6 had already been offered a contract before the challenge. The criteria used stressed the ability to be a team player, as well as the proactivity and creativity. For those applying for a team leading role it was expected that they were able to work in a free environment, collaborating rather than making unilateral decisions.
The TomTom Challenge, a new recruitment method, was organized to the detail. It took four months and the work of people in two companies to prepare it. It involved the work and time of many people. Is it worth it? I am sure the way you get to know people in this way is much deeper to what you can see in an interview. Also for the candidates: I know more about TomTom and the people I would be working with. For both sides the decision can be made on a more solid ground now, I know better if I match with the company, and the company knows if I can work immersed in their philosophy.
It will also be great publicity for TomTom (I’m looking forward to the videos that they will publish soon). As a recruitment method, will it pay off for TomTom?
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Flavia, nice story but I am wandering if you got the job??
I did :D
I guess this story shows a couple of things:
1. Good people are in short supply. I’d say this, because they’ve put a lot of energy, time and money in selecting the right people to do the job. It feels like luring them in, it impresses and it shows that TomTom cares about their employees.
2. As John Naisbitt has written, we are entering an era in which talent will be decentralized. Meaning that you can work anywhere and there shouldn’t be any borders anymore between countries or regions. I think the international character of this challenge illustrates that TomTom understands that they have a global reach for talent. It will be the era of mass customization of talent, and devising a challenge like this, shows you exactly what competencies work (and which won’t?)
3. I’m not sure about this: but it seems to me the focus in the selecting of talent was on the strenghts, rather than on the weaknesses, something Stefan wrote about last week as well.
So it sure looks like TomTom does understand the dynamics of the (labor) market today and have applied several new strategies to anticipate the changes that they are part of.
Have fun at TomTom, Flavia
I think this company is the best match for you if they work the same way as they hire people
I like the challenge, its creative and all but a company has to put in a lot of money and effort into doing something like this. I think the traditional way still provides good results. But i guess some companies can afford to play around like this. It does sounds like fun.