This hackathon is open to women nationwide, specifically targeting those in their 2nd and 3rd years of college. The top-performing teams are rewarded with direct offers for full-time positions or summer internships. Third-year students have the opportunity to secure full-time roles, while second-year students are eligible for internship positions.
Round 1 – Idea Submission:
I worked in a team of 2 to tackle the challenges/problem statements set by American Express.
- We looked at the different problems they wanted solutions for and did a lot of research.
- We made sure our idea matched well with how Amex works and could help people who need it.
- Making a clear and short presentation was important.
- We used visuals like flowcharts, and system designs to explain our idea better. We also made a demo video to make the idea and our approach to the product clear.
- We also talked about how our idea could make a good business in the future.
Round 2: Mentoring Round:
We were excited to be chosen as one of the top 10 teams in the country.
- Amex assigned us mentors who were experts in their field.
- They helped us a lot over several weeks. Generally, 4-5 sessions are planned in 20-25 days.
- We talked about our ideas, showed them our progress, and got advice on how to make things better.
- It was important to listen to our mentors and talk about our ideas with them which eventually helped us with our offers, and networking in Amex,
- We had to make a working model of our idea and also a good presentation to be presented in the finale.
Round 3: Finale:
At the end of the journey, we got to present our idea to VPs at Amex. We showed them how our product worked and why it was a good idea. We made sure our idea fit well with what Amex wanted. We also showed how we worked well together as a team.
In our presentation we focused on :
- Recorded video to demonstrate the live testing of our product.
- System designs to help judges understand how we approached the implementation.
- Future Scope of the Products.
- Business Model of the Product.
- How this product will be helpful for Amex.
Making it to the 2nd position, all over India was really exciting, and I got offered a summer internship at American Express.
The Makeathon with American Express was a great experience. It wasn’t just about winning; it was about learning, working together, and coming up with new ideas that could help people.