Nive Jayasekar created a mobile app for Home Depot over a weekend and won $10,500—and got an offer to work at Facebook.
She's only 17.
The Social-Loco conference organized a hackathon event held June 16-17, sponsored by big brands like Home Depot.
Jayasekar entered, drawn by the prizes. She decided to develop a project organizer for the home-improvement chain as a Windows Phone app, because that was a special prize category.
She swept the event with her app, which made it easy for both novices and experienced gardeners to find materials for landscaping projects. (Those were originally separate prize categories; she developed a single app that addressed both audiences.)
But she barely made it to the conference to accept her prizes. After she found out she won, her mom had to drive her to San Francisco.
It was good timing: Because she was late, she got to present her winning app right before Emily White, Facebook's director of mobile partnerships, was due to speak. They met backstage and White offered her a summer internship.
"Nive is amazing and I'm going to be working for her someday," White said at the conference.
But here's the thing, and it tells you everything you need to know about the war for talent in Silicon Valley right now: The recent graduate of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, Calif., who's headed to Carnegie Mellon University in the fall, wouldn't say whether she'd taken Facebook up on the offer.
"The recruiting process is still going on," she said.
Facebook couldn't comment on where things stood.
Let's review: A 17-year-old just got an internship offer from Facebook, on the spot after winning a programming contest. And she hasn't decided whether she's taking the job yet.
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