Jaguar takes advantage of the Gorillaz app to put budding engineers to the test and see if they can land a job with the company. Jaguar’s Formula E Racing Ambassador isn’t even real (Photo via Jaguar)
Companies are always looking for new ways to recruit new hires. There’s always the traditional job fairs and networking events, but sometimes they don’t cut it. They want to keep up with trends and stay ahead of the competition. How do you do this? Jaguar Land Rover took on this challenge by teaming up with arguably the biggest animated band ever: the Gorillaz.
The band launched their own app earlier this year to help promote their highly-anticipated album, Humanz. Recently, the app updated with a new Jaguar Land Rover recruitment area, where interested applicants will be tested with a series of challenges. First, users will be asked to build the Jaguar I-PACE Concept, the brand’s upcoming sports car. For the second challenge, they’ll have to play an alternate reality game involving code breaking puzzles. This game aims to determine your curiosity, persistence, lateral thinking and problem-solving skills, all of which the company requires for ideal engineers.
As bizarre as it sounds, this isn’t the first time the automotive giant has teamed up with the Gorillaz. Last year, Noodle, the band’s guitarist, became Jaguar’s Formula E Racing Ambassador last year as part of their STEM initiative. Noodle herself released a statement about the new partnership saying "Can you crack the code? Put your skills to the test!! Hey, maybe you might land yourself the most BADASS job you can imagine. Dare to win!"
Jaguar is hoping to hire 1000 people in the field of electronic and software engineering along with 4000 workers in other fields. Those who think they have a shot can download the app, for free, and put their skills to the test.
But just how effective will this approach be? It’s understandable that companies want to take advantage of brimming technology to find new hires, but is this just a gimmick? And does the tool actually work? A team at Liverpool’s Echo put it to the test with some of their tech-savvy staff, and the results were not good. Many said they didn’t know where to start in terms of trying to crack the code. Other’s said the use of the Gorillaz’s music during these tests was confusing. The overall opinion of the challenges was they were too confusing and left users with no clue where to start.
This program is still fairly new, so there’s still for it to improve, but it’s not a good sign if people can’t figure out what’s going on right out the gate. While it’s an interesting idea, chances are companies won’t be turning to app challenges when it’s time to hire new people.
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