Forget any degree – $30 billion defense startup Anduril will fast-track your job application if you can win its AI-powered drone competition

Getting a high-paying job right now may not feel like climbing a ladder Kind of like running through a gauntlet– Especially for Generation Z. Competition for entry-level roles Generative AI has made it easier than ever to polish CVs and cover letters, making it difficult for candidates to stand out on paper alone.

On the sensora $30 billion defense technology startup, approaches hiring with a radically different approach: Don’t tell us what you can do, fly it.

The company launchesAmnesty International Grand Prize“An open-call event starting this spring for the world’s top engineers to prove their programming skills in a high-speed drone racing competition. Evolution: Humans won’t be driving, their autonomous software will be. The competition is open to individuals, university teams, and research organizations. No credentials or professional certifications are needed. The only prerequisite? A passion for AI programming.

The top 10 teams will share a $500,000 prize pool, while the participant with the highest score can “win a job” – meaning they can skip Anduril’s usual hiring process to interview directly with hiring managers for open roles.

“This is an open challenge,” Anduril founder Palmer Luckywho conceived the idea, said in a press release. “If you think you can build an independent group that can outperform the best players in the world, show us it.”

The competition will begin with two virtual qualifying stages between April and June, where teams submit custom Python-based AI algorithms and compete on a simulated racetrack. Top performers will progress to a two-week personal training and qualification program in Southern California this September. The series will culminate in an “AI Grand Prix” in Ohio, where finalists will compete for a $500,000 prize pool, as well as a potential job at the startup.

Anduril did not immediately respond luckRequest for comment.

Anduril’s Palmer Luckey is betting on builders, not degrees

The Silicon Valley company’s founder is best known for his early work in virtual reality. Lucky First Company skylightwas obtained before dead In 2014, about $2 billion. After leaving the companyLuckey founded Anduril in 2017, building it into a major defense technology company focused on autonomous systems designed to support U.S. forces and their allies.

But as Anduril did puffy For his 7,000 employees, Luckey said he looks less for candidates who have gone down the beaten path, and instead looks for those who are willing to try something new.

“When I hire people at Anduril, I look for people who did projects that were outside the scope of what their job pushed them to do or what their school made them do,” Luckey said on the website. Sean Rean displays last year. “Because it means they’re the kind of people who want to work on things with their own money and their own time because they want to bring something into this world that wouldn’t exist otherwise.”

His advice to aspiring engineers is clear and straightforward: Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do. “Work on projects that interest you,” he said.

Employers are becoming more creative in their search for top talent

Anduril isn’t the only one rethinking how we identify high performers.

A growing number of startups are bucking tradition and turning to skills-based challenges as an alternative way to test engineering candidates – starting with ‘virtual’Capture the flag“Cybersecurity competitions for Digital scavenger hunts.

Tech giant Palantir I took the idea further last year with Merit Fellowshipa four-month paid internship for recent high school graduates who have… Mixed feelings about the university experience. The program combines technical work alongside full-time staff with seminars on United States history and the foundations of Western civilization. High-achieving participants are given the opportunity to interview for full-time positions with the company.

The initiative also reflects the CEO Alex KarpLong-standing disdain for higher education. The fellowship was marketed as a way to “earn a Palantir degree” and “skip debt (and)…indoctrination.”

“Everything you learned in your school and college about how the world works is intellectually incorrect,” Karp He told CNBC last year.

The broader shift towards Skills-based hiring It has spread across various industries. In fact, about 90% of chief human resources executives say their organizations have a growing need to hire workers without a four-year college degree, according to one study. reconnaissance Released last year.

“It’s not about replacing degrees,” says Michelle Fruah, global head of marketing and innovation at educational testing company ETS. He said luck last year. “It’s about balancing real, demonstrable skills that make people employable and make companies competitive.”

This story originally appeared on Fortune.com