Victor Kapiyo via KICTANet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> aliandika:

Local companies are struggling to recruit and retain key talent as US tech titans led by Microsoft, Amazon and Google tilt the market in their favour with high salaries and attractive employment terms.

Local companies are not only losing top talent to "big tech", but also to more niche spaces such as institutions that do research, or build tools. Even so, these challenges we see here are not isolated to Kenya only; it has also hit many different spaces as well - this deserves an entire different story on it's own. But first, let's acknowledge that big tech has an advantage over the small companies: they have "hiring/recruiting" experience.

The three multinationals have increased their presence in East Africa with Kenya as their hub, triggering an aggressive hiring spree that has seen them pay up to Sh1.8 million monthly for principal tech specialists.

This is a good thing: big tech disrupting things. This disruption will hopefully lead to a more positive cultural shift in many different spaces that deal with techies in some way, shape or form. For local companies - the "subject" of the article: I've heard tales of [usually male] developers being scoffed at banks/insurance firms for having piercings and dreadlocks. I hear things are changing. Why? Hiring devs is getting harder(?). Salary negotiations? Well, you have to be good at negotiating to get something decent. Many [techies] suck at negotiating and are one-upped during negotiations. "Promised growth"? Many a young developers have winded hating what they do because of where they work. Not only that, many of these local companies, in John Ousterhout's[0] words, move "tactically" instead of "strategically" - usually due to pressure from [usually] C-level executives or Project Managers [who usually want to meet some metric set by the company]. To clarify things, a "tactical" mindset is focused on getting features working as quickly as possible; while a "strategic" approach means investing in clear designs and proactively fixing problems; something which is a collaboration between the business and the implementers. The aformentioned - moving strategically - needs some one who can strike a balance between moving fast and doing the right thing - these people are few. And the ones that do perceive what they do as a craft are even fewer. Let's call these people "senior developers" for the sake of this discussion. The above challenges are but just the tip of the iceberg for things I've (a) either experienced myself; or (b) heard from someone in the tech space. Of note is that the problems I've highlighed above are not only isolated to local companies. They may also be present in the big players. The only difference is the "price". In the case of big tech, the proper metaphor would be "golden handcuffs" which many [the unhappy ones] seem not to mind. That said ...

Read more: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate/companies/kenyan-firms-hit-...

... let me remark some things from the article: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- “We have a programme we recruit from the university two, three months, they come in from college, and you offer them a hundred. Google tells them two hundred, there's nothing you're going to do. They're going to go. And then they go from Google. Microsoft offers them three hundred, they'll move. So until we start creating a lot more talent, it is the way of the world.” --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- There IS something - retaining people - you can do! Many people in management think that money is the "be it all" of hires/retention. For the outlier developers - the unicorns you want to hire - money is important but only up to a point: "pay me just enough so that money is not a problem." You'd be surprised how low that figure can be sometimes if context is reasonable. For managing and attracting talent, how do you do that? Other than money and stereotypical promises, what more can you offer within your budget? Travel? Health care? Mental health programmes? Really meaningful work (and not from management's perspective)? --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- He said the telco seeks to start tapping developers from learning institutions while influencing the curriculum to have a wider pool of talent for the future. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- This is great! One [very] cynical view of this: By increasing the talent pool vis-a-vis certifications/institutions, you can pay people less for more work. And by getting people fresh from learning institutions, then you can get away with convincing them to work for you for cheap. And should they leave, you have a pipeline of incoming green people that have to keep on training. Ironical, an M/M/1 queue (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/M/1_queue>) of sorts. How do you prevent those people you've trained from moving elsewhere? Also, how will this training be done? Will it be in proprietary tooling? IMSHO, I would encourage improving the quality of the talent pool; not "widening" it. If both can be done, great. Even so, at least in tech, that's a difficult thing - having a wider pool of talent - to work out. Why? It so happens that it takes alot of hard work, motivation, environment, and to some extent luck to be really good at some things. Many go to management, some get comfortable where they are, yet others jump around with the same skill set they have to different places. IOW, the more technical things get, the less people you get. And those few people, well when you need them, you may have to part with a pretty penny. A different perspective on hiring would be to get your culture right, hire unicorns. And like bees following honey, attract good devs. I don't know if this is practical. I'm no hiring guru. Just opinions; take them as such! --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- “We will be announcing soon that we are going to be partnering with other tech companies and universities to influence curriculum, certification of developers, and also internships so that we also develop talent for the industry in the same way lawyers and accountants are developed," Mr Ndegwa said. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Certifications huh? I can't say whether or not that'll really work. I'm strongly against it - certification - since it can possibly lead to gate keeping. Remember the ICT bill? And, not to put too much a fine point on it, but the above proposal seems like something I would read in the minutes from some board-room discussion. +1 on internships; just as long as they are worth it. Again, culture and good company leadership from the very top influences the success of developing talent. --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- But the start-ups are finding it difficult to retain and hire new staff as the US titans take the best talent out of the market. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- These same [not all] start-ups are infamous for being, for a lack of a better word, sweat-shops, and really not good places to work in. From over-working, poor pay, feature-crunching, toxic politics (usually in-fighting between different departments) etc etc. A [poor] metaphor is that some [most?] people view the devs as magicians, and treat them as such - too many expectations with little reward. What about hiring? The tech scene here in Kenya (and globally too) works like a merchant guild. Similar to guilds, there's some level of gate-keeping - which I'd argue is required. That gate-keeping involves being reputable and really good at what it is that "guild" is in, so that at the very least you can vibe on common [technical] interests and consult [informally] on some [often difficult] things: Infrastracture people will nerd out on different platforms; Devs will nerd out on languages; Outlier devs will talk about niche languages/technologies (FreeBSD, Lisp-family, Coq, Provers, Type Systems, Haskell etc etc). You get the picture. These spaces are fun! Stay long enough in some of these "guilds"/spaces, and you get to learn about different company's reputations: some are really good and many are crap. Good devs want to work in good spaces where there are other good devs; and run away from toxic environments; and believe me "they" are aware of some of these toxic spaces [1]. The unicorn workers, the guys you wish to recruit? If they aren't already happy where they are, they land jobs through their guild network - at least most of the time - by simply asking around. Please don't misconstrue this to mean that they immediately land a role immediately - of course they have to go through the usual interview rounds et al. Let's talk about talent - the kind I personally look for and work well with (being one myself, to some extent): Motivated people with "authority" problems (Israeli's call this "chutzpah") who are good at working well with others. What I mean by "authority" problems - forgive my wording - is people who can speak out, even to the top executive, as uncomfortable/anxiety-inducing as that may be. Or someone who can flat out say "no" to un-ethical things like violating data privacy problems. Or take ownership after a big incident. You get the jist. Such people can: (a) Do what no one else is willing to do; (b) Take initiative and do things the best way possible even if it means more work because they see the bigger picture; (c) Be resourceful at getting things done; (d) Do things despite a situation [and rubbing it in on purpose] (e) Attract really good talent. Craftsmen would [arguably] take a cut in pay for [real] growth [whatever that means]. (f) Can be reasoned with. (g) Usually hate politics. And if they are tech-leads, are good at it - shielding their teams. That said, one way to go about hiring - albeit being non-standard outside-the-box thinking - is supporting/promoting Kenyan Free (as in Free Beer) Open Source Projects and events. Instead of creating "programmes" to "train" people, you let the system - FOSS events/projects - do that for you. For the events, don't make them "corporate" "networking" spaces - these tend to attract people whose sole purpose is job hunting. Make the events feel more like a hacker space (someHub in the old days). For retaining talent, moreso when you are bootstrapped for cash, change your culture. Easier said than done though. For people in this space (management/executives), take your time hunting for these "hackers" - the crafts-people - in an informal setting. Build a meaningful relationship with them. Learn a thing or two from how the space works and gain a new perspective and formulate new strategies for hiring people based on such interactions.

Looks like local techies are smiling all the way to the bank.

Not all! This only applies to the ones who landed the roles. Some are "frowning" all the way to the bank - golden handcuffs. Many are miserable where they are at - usually local companies - and are secretly [aggressively] practicing interviews to jump ship as soon as the opportunity presents itself! I haven't really seen conversations about these employment/salaries outside some spaces. And many corporate people I meet are so out of touch with some things - which is allowed [I mean they usually have too much on their plate already, and are sometimes sorrounded by "yes" people]. In conclusion: (a) Executives/Recruiters/Managers/PMs (etc etc): Outside "hefty pay", what else can you offer? Should you meet a unicorn, why should they work for you? What can you do to make the developer experience at your organisation better? Do you need a cultural shift? How do you attract talent? (b) To the "techies" reading this, I add a caveat: don't feel entitled to a big pay because big players are around. What value can you offer? Who are these interesting people you should hang out with and learn much from? What does being "good" even mean? What does growth look like for you? What things - if your are offered "enough money for money to not be a problem" - are/should you looking/look for in a company/organisation. One piece of advice from me: if you can avoid it, don't work in a toxic place. It's easy to pick up bad habits, and very difficult to unlearn them. Only exception to this is if the cheque, at least to you, is worth your loss - your choice to make. As usual, take all this with a pinch salt over a nice cup of tea. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-Ousterhout/dp/1732102... [1] Some local tech company violated a GPL licence for quite some time! PS: I'm tagging the LUG in the Cc since I've spent too much time drafting this. -- (To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.) (D4F09EB110177E03C28E2FE1F5BBAE1E0392253F (hkp://keys.openpgp.org))