The #BreakTheRules team have built a world class event that attracts companies like Facebook, Amazon, ACI and Oracle. I’m proud to say that when #BreakTheRules takes place on 23 April this year they’ll be using OfferZen as the platform for companies and students to connect.
What is #BreakTheRules?
BreakTheRules is a student run initiative that help student developers from UCT find internships at local and international software companies. You can think of it like speed-dating for internships: putting innovative software companies in front of the best students in Cape Town and making internships happen. More than 100 student programmers and 20 companies take part in the event, which usually runs twice a year.
The event is sponsored by the participating companies, which include a mix of everything from early stage startups to big international companies. Software teams, from sponsoring companies, give talks about the technical challenges they face, and make a case for why students should intern at their company.
Challenges with #BreakTheRules
#BreakTheRules sets out to give all students, who get accepted, an internship.. They have made massive strides to achieving that - but there are issues that prevent them from growing #BreakTheRules and improving that metric further.
One of the biggest challenges is that the event is just a few hours: if a student and company don’t meet at the event they had no way of connecting afterwards. . Most students only get to meet a few of the companies attending the event, and don’t see all the opportunities that are available to them. As a result some students slip through the cracks and don’t find an internship.
Over the past few years #BreakTheRules has experienced gradual growth, but this year they plan on growing significantly. They will host 10 more companies as well as invite Stellenbosch University’s students to participate. This will only make it more challenging for students and companies to connect.
OfferZen and #BreakTheRules
We are partnering with #BreakTheRules! From now on, companies and students will be connecting using the OfferZen platform.
Prior to the event student programmers will apply to #BreakTheRules through a special OfferZen signup process - forging the now traditional Google Form that #BreakTheRules used in the past. Companies will sign up to OfferZen in the exact same way as they currently do to OfferZen, creating a company page that tells developers about their development processes and technology.
Using the OfferZen platform has a number of huge benefits for students and companies, the main ones being:
- After the event companies can find all the students in a filterable list, and send interview requests to those they like.
- Students will be use on their OfferZen profile to showcase their skills and side projects, instead of having to keep a folder full of CVs.
What does #BreakTheRules cost?
OfferZen is always free for programmers to use. We’ve also decided to make it completely free for companies to hire interns through OfferZen as well.
However, if you’re from a company and want access to the #BreakTheRules students you’ll need to be a sponsor of the event. Sponsorships are very reasonable and all the money goes to hosting programming events for students throughout the year. If you’re interested in sponsoring the event you can get in touch with Warren Fletcher via hashbreaktherules@gmail.com.
