Competition At USF To Find Future Programmers

Bypassing traditional applications and interview processes, SiteWit, an online marketing company with offices in Tampa is hosting a competition in December to find potential employees.

Ricardo Lasa, CEO of SiteWit explains what the company does. "SiteWit is a leader in online marketing optimization and predictive analytics," Lasa says. "Our thousands of customers use our platform to manage and optimize online campaigns on Google AdWords and Bing."

SiteWit is working with the University of South Florida to find programmers to staff its development group. Participants must be students from the MIS and Computer Science/Computer Information System programs at USF and must sign up through the Co-Op program at the university.

The winning team will work at SiteWit in a co-op capacity for the spring and fall 2011 semesters. The winners will be paid $15 per hour for both semesters, in addition to having the opportunity to be hired for full-time positions after graduation.

Lasa explains the idea behind teams as opposed to an individual model for the competition. "We believe that by paring two programmers and having them compete, the contestants will help bubble up the best talent from the program," Lasa says. "The logic behind it is that if you are going to need somebody else to win the programming competition, you are going to select the best possible team mate. If you are good, your teammate will be also. Therefore, the students will help us identify the best talent."

SiteWit has been in business since 2007 and this is the first year for the competition. "The Programming Competition is new, but we plan on having the competition at least once a year," Lasay says.

Writer: Kimberly Patterson
Source: Ricardo Lasa, SiteWit