As a business unit, we are constantly on the lookout for highly talented, enthusiastic, web obsessed developers, in all the countries where we operate. Highly skilled people who live, breathe and swim in the data stream that is the web. We are having a very hard time finding these people in South Africa.
Let me explain our position. Our team is spread across two countries at the moment – South Africa and Brazil. We recruit in both countries, and I am involved in the recruitment of developers, architects and other technically skilled people in both countries. In this post I specifically want to talk about our experience in South Africa.
Because of the nature of our team, which does research and development work, product development and a host of other activities, we need people who are able to think creatively, who can find work for their own hands and work independently, who have a deep understanding of technology and an ability to learn continuously. We want creative, analytical, independent, idea-producing team players who bleed binary and breathe HTTP. I realise that such paragons of technological excellence are hard to find, anywhere in the world – but we have found a few – you can find their names here. Our requirements are as much personality requirements as they are skills requirements.
So let us consider these things separately – the personality requirement, and the skills requirement. Skills first of all. Although we will employ people without a tertiary education, we prefer university graduates. Why? Simply because having a university degree guarantees that the candidate has been taught the rudimentary principles of analytical thinking. She may also have picked up some useful titbits of information as far as programming goes. University education often indicates a fairly broad exposure to technology – covering more than one kind of operating system, programming language, and basic skills in terms of the software development life cycle. Add a few years of experience to the mix – and a university graduate with a computer science (or related) background starts looking very attractive to us. In one sentence – great programmers, analytic thinkers, creative geniuses.
Next – personality. We want independent thinkers. Out of the box innovators. People who speak up, ask questions, and leave others blinded by the light. We want people who produce as many ideas as the produce code modules. People who are not intimidated by excellence. OK – you get the picture.
So – our situation in South Africa. Over the past couple of years, I have interviewed dozens of candidates. And we came up blank almost every time. Yes – we found some rock-stars, but they are extremely scarce. And yes – our standards are high. The problem is that the candidates we see tend to fall into one of four, sometimes overlapping, categories:
- Enterprise oriented. All they know is insurance/banking/retail.No initiative. No real joy in programming. The accountants of the software development world. (Or economists if you, dear reader, is an accountant – no offence intended).
- Script kiddies. Zero education, zero in-depth knowledge of programming (do you know what an interface is ? ….um, I have heard of them, but never used them….)
- In it for the money. These are the ones who went “into computers” because there is money to be made.
- Rock stars. This category does not overlap with any of the previous categories. And it is a virtually empty category in South Africa.
Which brings me to the question – WHY is this last category so empty? And believe me – I have been involved with a number of organisations, stretching from the Far East to Latin America, and many bits in-between – in certain (not all) countries there are a great many more rock stars. South African developers perform very poorly in our interviews – some because they do not meet the skills requirement, but the majority because they do not meet the personality criteria. The people we interview too often fall into one or more of the first three categories I listed above.
Why is this? Is there some sort of mystical cultural influence that pre-disposes South Africans to look for secure, routine, stable work? Is the web too alien for South Africans? Do South Africans not see “programming” as a profession?
My personal belief is that the average programmer in South Africa is pre-disposed towards Enterprise type work – both by training and inclination. And this is precisely because that type of work offers stability and routine, without being too taxing. Do not misunderstand me – I am not criticising this mode of work, although I am bemoaning the lack of suitably skilled programmers in South Africa: it makes my life a lot more difficult.
We would like feedback from our readers on this. John is busy creating a post that will explore this theme further. But in the meantime – let’s start the discussion. And if you believe you are the rock star we need…why don’t you d me on twitter, state your case, and we can set up an interview.
Look out for part 2, later this week.
Related posts:
October 14th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
There just isn’t a web-friendly environment here in SA, Telkom notwithstanding. I grew up in a household where (and I’m sure this applies to a lot of people), the Internet is this dark, evil place where molesters and scammers are out to get you, steal your credit card info, and bombard you with porn.
Go get a degree in engineering.
The last time I saw the social web (and I say the social web because the social web is where people go beyond just “innitforthemoney”) feature in mainstream media, it was a (terrible) Carte Blanche insert that started with some nerdgeek at a PC in a dark room late at night, and constant references to MXIT. I mean, seriously, what’s up with that?
The web is misunderstood, I think. And when given a choice, most bright, young, sane people take the established route. I (literally) got kicked out of my house for deciding to take sides with the Internet.
So I, for one, cannot point out the rockstars you don’t already have, sorry. Mainly because the diamonds are deep in the rough.
~ Wogan
October 14th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I hear what you’re saying and I agree with most parts. I do think though that there are more talented people in SA than we give credit for, the problem is finding them because they generally stick under the radar.
The problem with this scenario is that most “developers” left school, studied an MCSE or similar M$ crap qualification and all took up jobs in corporate south africa. Remember how 7 or 8 years ago there was lots of money to be made in corporates if you had the M$ diploma’s or whatever they classify their stuff at.
For a while this was great but at some point this nasty business called open-source started to rear its ugly head in the mix. Suddenly everyone wanted an open-source CRM, CMS, platform and the skill-shift as I call it started to happen.
Now we have this “skill-shift” which is essentially up-skilling existing developers to languages they’ve never worked with and we still haven’t addressed the issue of creating real creative developers.
I can name about 6 or 7 devs who I believe are simply awesome. No names needed here because most people won’t know them.
In the end though I think due to lack of skills and lack of education we haven’t really bred a culture of true shit-hot developers. This is changing I think but we’ll only be in a different position after many many many more years of this.
If you consider that there are 7-million developers in the US alone and you look at SA with just over half the internet penetration then maybe we can contextualise this scenario a little.
That’s my 2 cents worth.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
The thing is, at the level of developers that you are looking for (rockstars), they aren’t going to show up at your door, CV in hand, asking for an interview. YOU have to go out there and find them yourself. (job ads and recruitment agencies don’t usually work.)
Same goes for almost all top-level positions. Rockstars can be bred, so that’s the other option – hire the freshies right out of varsity, and every 10 or so newbies you employ, maybe 1 or 2 turn out to be rockstars – who will inevitably be pouched from you.
It’s the nature of the business!
If you still hitting your head against the wall and getting the same result, maybe you should try a different angle?
October 14th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
@jbagley – we are more than willing to actively pursue people – and have done so. I believe that this team offers an opportunity that is unequaled in South Africa, and in most other parts of the world – but still, we struggle.
Hand-rearing developers…yes, it is possible, and we do it to some extent. But timelines often makes two years a bit long to wait.
Change our angle…well, yes again. But therein lies the question : what angle would inspire SA devs to leave the cosy .Net world of insurance and banking..? We pay well, We have career opportunities. We have high standards and expectations. You will learn – a LOT. We’ll buy you the latest shiny Macbook if that is what you want – but still, we struggle.
This post is not a statement, as much as it is a question: what do SA devs WANT ?
October 14th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Jacques!(I speak mostly from observation) most developers with a degree in IT aim to get to the highest point of that developer career ladder, and become development managers. i have seen this happen here at mnet on 3 occasions, then the hunt begins again for the elusive degree holding IT career starter with umph! Bright eyed and full of enthusiasm. Sometimes the “script Kiddies” can be molded into rock stars, but often not worth the effort as their drive is not career, and this often creates a high staff turnover.
Ping me later I have a rock star for you, and is looking for a good job. He is a genius at coding, does not have a matric, but you spend 1 hour talking tech with this guy and you know if you don’t offer him a job you will be missing out.
We are always looking for devs, but because of the outsourcing rules and BEE legislation forced upon us, this search for the right developer has become even harder. No offense to anyone here but why can we not hire the right person for the job?
IT professionals who have their head on straight and who are not ever so patriotic will search for a job where the currency is greener. This makes our job a whole lot harder. So now there are less skilled people to choose from a pool that is running dry in nutrients.
Is Brazil any easier?
October 15th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Jacques, it’s a numbers game.
Your plight is not dis-similar to many Dev Managers/IT-shops I have chatted to. We all have a similar problem and I think its the combination of skills and personality/thinking that makes it tough to find the rock stars in a skills-starved market. Getting both requirements mean you narrow the market in SA too much.
I spent the day at UCT yesterday talking to the cream of UCT’s Bcom/IS honours crew at their Expo. Most of them weren’t interested in Development, no matter what the language, culture, toys or price. They see development as the ‘poor cousin’ in the IT world. Opting instead for IT-related jobs as Business Analysts or IT Consultants. Those that had been bitten by the dev-bug mostly have that scarce entrepreneurial spirit and are ballsy enough to want to give-it-a-go on their own (or naively want to walk into an Architect role).
Chatting to a lecturer of the 2nd-year IS class, IT Majors are way down (somewhere like 30% of 10 years ago). And this is a national (and global) trend. Most who can’t make it into BCom are gladly accepted by Comp Sci who are seeing even fewer numbers.
So, consider the number of national graduates wanting to stay in Dev as employees, it’s a mere hand-full and certainly way behind the number of positions offered. Factor in those leaving to go overseas for more attractive opportunities and that number dwindles even more.
So it doesn’t matter how attractive your company/package/offer is, I think it’s a skills crisis, and unless the IT Industry assists collectively, the situation will only worsen.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:15 am
@Jacques – take Facebook, Google and the likes (bad example, but lets start there) – they have rockstars literally falling over themselves to come and work for them. Ask yourself the question, why? Because they are building some of the most kick-ass apps anywhere in the world and everyone wants to be a part of it (nevermind the perks…. those are normally an aftereffect – keeps them from leaving)
Now look at MIH. You guys pretty much operate like the FBI (in my perception.
, very secretive.. ) You guys might also be building the next Facebook or Google, but no one knows that – and the only really public product you have out there is feedalizr (which is really neat BTW). For Facebook to be where it is today, it had to start small – then slowly it started changing the social networking game with Facebook, and when devs started noticing it, they stoodup and started knocking on their doors. No offence, you not going to do that with Feedalizr.
Please don’t get me wrong, I really want to help you guys and companies in similar situations (look at Brennan’s comment) – but you have to start billing yourself as THE place for rockstars to work.
BTW, the first time I ever heard of MIH was when Rafiq moved to you guys… and I’m guessing you have been in operation for a lot longer than a couple of months!
October 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am
You are looking for someone with intelligence, vision, specific skills, experience and the willingness to work for a company. That’s a tough call – most of them are not here.
My ideas:
1. Recruit back. A lot of the people that would have been ideal for you have left the country due to much-hashed reasons. Give them a better reason to come back.
2. Change the approach. The combination of innovation and technical skills is rare, and it is increasingly difficult to hire. That’s because those kind of people are often scared to be tied to a corporation. However, there are plenty of people who have one of those attributes (innovative nature or technical skills) who would relish the opportunity to combine themselves with the other half, even under a corporate umbrella. So, look for people you can team up, and where the total will be greater than just the sums of their skills.
3. Forget the university education. You are looking for adaptors and mavericks. The local education system is rather stifling, and a lot of those people would not flourish in that system. (Or, even worse, they would be moulded to be box-thinkers.) A lot of them might also not have been able to afford it. And yet, if they have the skills now, that says a lot about their motivation, perseverance, confidence and ability.
4. As J Bagley suggested, hone the skills from an early age. Your employees should not be the only ones with vision ☺ You will thank yourself in the years to come.
Ultimately, this is a chicken/egg dilemma. You cannot realistically expect droves of brilliant thinkers and doers to be knocking down your door if there hasn’t been an environment in the country for them to hone those skills. What you guys are doing is great, but it is new and very forward. You are paving the way and paying the price.
Good luck.
BTW, I cannot dm you on twitter if you don’t follow me….. @eved
October 15th, 2008 at 10:56 am
The geeky person on TV was me.
Carte Blanche had no idea of the concepts and ideas shared with them that cannot be received by attaining a degree.
Would love to get hold of the unedited version of the 2 day interview for the whole world to see.
MXit is only 0.001% of .me
October 15th, 2008 at 11:07 am
@jbagley That was a really great comment and I fully agree that rockstars want to work in that kind of environment.
I know that MIH is not known as a brand (we are better known for owning newspapers, lots of mags and DSTV), but we also have investments in the top internet destinations in most large developing markets.
Tencent in China for example, is far larger than facebook and far more profitable. There are other examples in our group like ibibo in India, Brasigo in Brazil, Sanook in Thailand, Mail.ru in Russia…perhaps these opportunities should be better marketed as you say. BTW Feedalizr is one of our labs products of SWAT (an R&D unit within MIH) and by no means even in the league of any of the businesses in our group.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:18 am
@Neill – that is just depressing.Development is the “poor cousin” ? We have certainly had different experiences in countries such as Brazil, where it appears to me that people are fighting to get out of “management” and into development.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:32 am
You also have to keep in mind that those ‘rockstars’ (god i hate that term) who are in SA may just not want to work at your company, freelancing or sitting in a job with awesome people but not as much cash might just be preferable for someone who can think creatively AND is a shit hot developer – a rare combination by the way whether they could afford varsity or not.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:42 am
There is a shortage of skilled professionals here in South Africa. Why choose development when there are higher paid positions waiting for you?
Sure you may love it, but enough to give up a better salary?
October 15th, 2008 at 11:53 am
@Jacques. Depressing indeed, but that’s the perception from the horses mouth.
Our situation can be likened to the current thinking in SA sport about BEE. You can’t expect to see BEE candidates with the right skills and attitude at a national level if you aren’t encouraging and developing it at a junior and club level. But start there, give it some time, and it’ll come through in a natural cycle.
Maybe innovative SA dev shops can accelerate that cycle, by better marketing of bleeding-edge IT companies, a growth programme to cultivate that thinking and skills internally, closer working with our Academic institutions (who shockingly don’t cover any New Media/Web 2.0 aspects to their courses). Reconsidering if tertiary = analysis = entrepreneurship.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Sigh, I hear you, your situation mirrors ours. We have very similar requirements for the people we’ve been trying to recruit and jeez, we spent no less than four months and haven’t found a soul.
While I didn’t find any script kiddies the enterprise and initforthemoney types were plentiful, in addition to guys who just plain knew squat (perhaps that’s what you mean by “script kiddies” but my interpretation of that phrase is very different).
We found one guy who was a rock star. Despite not having had any formal university experience he knew how to write low level buffer overflow exploits – this level of skills are incredibly rare. Guess what? By the time we were ready to make him an offer he had already been snatched up by another company.
So we’re changing our recruitment strategy totally – let the founders do more development work and rather recruit more admin and sales people to do the other stuff. There’s a shortage of people here too but not nearly as chronic.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Hi,
IMO, one of the problems is that you (and most other tech companies in SA) are looking for “Rock stars” or guys with proven experience. How is the current crop of developers supposed to get that “rock star” status or experience if they aren’t given an opportunity and encouraged?
Maybe you do already have such a programme, but I’ve found that most web dev companies don’t have internship programmes or graduate placement programmes. On the other hand most corporates do, hence the large numbers of “Enterprise oriented” developers.
As a big player with as much financial muscle as you, you should be engaging ISETT SETA and creating learnerships and programmes with them. Most of their programmes have been failures so far because no big web companies like you have gone to them and said “This is what we need. Let us help you create the supply.” Companies like Microsoft and SAP are starting to do that. Without a Web2.0-type company doing the same, ISETT will just churn our more “enterprise” types.
Of course, you are not alone. The rest of us dev companies also have the same problems . I’m not blaming you either. We all share the blame for our apathy.
It’s just that all of us need to start thinking about how we help create a supply of excellent web developers instead of moaning about the lack thereof. Yes, we might lose money due to poaching in the short term but in the long run we all benefit.
M
October 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I think there are rock-stars around, but not enough to go around. You can’t assemble a shit hot team in SA because the best developers are already doing jobs they love, commanding the salaries they deserve. Alternately the kind of people you are talking about ultimately start their own businesses here because there is so much opportunity.
I think JBagley raised the really relevant point that nobody knows about you, you do not seem to be involved in the social networks of the geeks of SA.
I don’t think SA universities etc. are producing incredible graduates though, I mean, how many CS courses in SA actually expose students to the web? I went to Rhodes and learned about MySQL, PHP, Apache, Linux, Python, etc. outside of class. With no exposure to the technologies or ideas the web is built on there is little or no room for people to be hooked by the ecosystem. We need more web people/startups/companies going to universities and education institutions and enthusing students, pressuring educators to include solid web courses in their curriculum, etc.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
@Eve, that’s a valid point you made: university education is too expensive. I know I couldn’t afford it back then. And I still only have a degree, lots of passion for what I do and am on my way to become a rockstar.
@Jacque: Why do you not have a look at Freelancentral? I don’t know if you’ll find anyone on there but it’s worth a look. Offer money for a referral (not recruiters, though. recruiters are stupid). And what about linkedin? If you want quality people, be prepared to pay well. Offer perks and benefits. Make them want to work at your company.
I agree with what Eve said about university education: that piece of paper doesn’t mean much. I’ve met some insanely bright people without a matric certificate. Yes, it helps to have that piece of paper, but it doesn’t guarantee an original thinker.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I think the biggest problem with the South African IT industry is that they have their heads so deeply buried in Dot Net sand that reality is beyond their comprehension.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
There are some of us that has been “in the game” for a good number of years that areinterested in networking with each other. We are even interested in mentoring “the younger ones”.
It is however very interesting to me that most “IT Specialists” are operating as islands, dotted all over SA’s IT-space. We oly know of each other due to the relationships picked up over time – the ones worth keeping. Very informal indeed – but trusted. Ask a good Services shop – they’ll find them in their network.
=> I’t high time the “specialists” and “specialist shops” come together to offer each other, and Business our services.
I’ve started my own experiment – let’s see if SA’s “IT Elite” is ready & willing…
Good luck with your’s! ; )
October 15th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
It’s a bit arrogant to confuse an apparent lack of talent with a lack of candidates willing to work for you. Just because you aren’t attacting talent, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Let’s face it: what has SWAT really done? Feedalizer is not exactly taking the world by storm and decent developers (who are in demand) understand that promises to work with big players like Tencent are unfounded.
In reality, the big players like Tencent (which are unfairly used to attract developers) have their own development teams and the chances of doing any collaborative development with any of them is slim to none. Why would they need SWAT’s help? They are already successful and have their own local talent.
In an industry as small as the South African IT industry (where developers tend to rotate in the same circles and know each other), reputation is everything. Reputation is something that needs to be earned – name a single thing that SWAT has done that would attract anyone to work there?
October 15th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
@John Kotsaftis you see, I never knew you guys had investments in all those apps! (never heard of them either, but anything that has China’s name on is HUGE)
Get your name out there, and start “bragging” about what you guys are working on, working with, investing in, and developers will start sitting up and noticing.
Good luck!
October 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
@Neill
I agree with you 100%. I did my Bcom IS at Wits and the level of code/development phobia is incredible. The curriculum is centered around Analysis and Systems design (as in tons of use case diagrams and design methods).
We(My friends and 2 other self taught coders in the class) had to offer web dev lessons to the rest of the class with just a few days left till our project day.
People get scared when ever code comes up, only those that are somehow entrepreneual ever got their groove on.
on the other side, most Comp Sci guys are not that web centric..just my views
October 15th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
@anonza – SWAT does not necessarily do work in South Africa, and a great deal of what we do is not direct product development. The opportunity we offer is global – and the opportunity to work with all of the organisations that MIH has a stake in, is precisely what makes this possible. What we are experiencing is that SA developers do not seem to be attracted to the opportunity to gain international exposure way beyond the industry in SA.
I am writing this from Brazil, sitting in an office where five different high energy web companies are working from – every single one of which we deal with regularly – sharing code, knowledge, experience. I would not be exaggerating if I say that very few global companies can offer this level of exposure to a developer.
I do take the point of various commentators in this stream, that we need to highlight this more – so I rephrase: ‘we offer an unparalleled opportunity to do research, development and get exposure to some of the world’s largest web operations. The list of companies is here: http://www.mih.com. This is a global opportunity, not a South African one.’
October 15th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
@anonza we DONT use Tencent as a sales pitch to lure developers by promising them secondments in China etc. You are right that a technology organisation such as theirs (with over 2000 software engineers) would not need a SWAT. What it DOES give us however, is context of technologies and practices that we haven’t even SMELT yet in SA. The exposure alone is priceless. Tencent is WAY ahead of the pack in China where the likes of facebook hardly hit the richter scale.
We have been involved in many other global initiatives and built software and components for several businesses within the MIH Group. I think that looking at Feedalizr & other labs projects as the reason for our existence is misleading. We use those projects as technology testers and experimentation with early adopter products such as Twitter but it represents a really small element of what we do.
The ‘grunt work’ of SWAT is to act as the “glue” between the MIH Internet investments as much as possible and keeping synergy high within our Group. Some of the businesses that we have been involved in at various levels are http://www.ibibo.com and http://www.brasigo.com.br. At http://www.Nimbuzz.com we helped them develop their widget strategy just after Facebook Apps launched. Just as an example, have a look at the Nimbuzz widgetizer http://widgets.nimbuzz.com/ .
The project list is long, but I guess point taken… we haven t had a public face up until now and now you can consider yourself ‘sales pitched’
gavinThank you to everyone for their input I have learnt a lot by reading the comments.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
@anonza When you’ve gained a little more insight into what MIH actually does online, believe me, you’ll be clamoring for an interview.
I work at an online marketing company, and this year, a guest speaker from MIH gave us a little insight into their global Internet portfolio. He was the only speaker in that entire conference that was applauded so profusely, not only for his great speech, but also for his obvious enthusiasm for the work MIH’s doing – and the work in itself.
SWAT might be a long way off from those frontlines, but it’s a chance to work in a company that really knows what it’s doing, “perks” like Tencent or not.
Most developers I know are keen on getting their own little businesses up and running. Build their own strawpile. I don’t know too many that are willing to give up those ambitions to form part of a larger whole.
That’s probably one of the detriments to our all-out lets-do-it own-the-day South African mentality. It has to be according to our terms.
Kotsaftis, van Niekerk, good luck, lol. I can imagine how headbangy it must be…
October 15th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
In the late 90′s I left school as a wannabe programming rockstar and started a Bsc Comp Sci at UCT. After 3 months we had covered the first few chapters of “Java for Dummies” (or something equivalent). When you exclude the ridiculous holidays, study time and exams, we were going to get less than 6 months a year of actual lectures and tuts, and programming was going to make a very small part of each week. I did the sums as to what 4 years of that was going to end up costing me (over R120,000 including Res back then; way more now) and decided I couldn’t afford that.
You have to be rich, patient, and have a lot of hobbies to get you through 4 years of a Comp Sci. Unfortunately there isn’t any other form of training that I know of that can help you achieve “rock star” status.
If you’re not having your education paid for, you have to earn your keep with whatever pays the bills, and these days that is probably .NET or basic PHP (which doesn’t require an understanding of interfaces). Hence most of us are in the “script kiddy” or “corporate” categories.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
It’s interesting to see what happens to those stars while they are still rising. I get to know most of our E&E/CS university students in their second year of study, and often stay in touch during the rest of their degrees and beyond. A small number of them (maybe 2-5%) stand out as potential “rock star” coders and innovators. I also agree with Eve that I likely see only a sample of them at varsity, since many may choose not to follow this perceived detour. But those that I got to know well over the past decade included some astonishingly brilliant people.
Some loose observations:
- I’ve never known any of these stars to play the job-hunting game. Many of them start freelancing and consulting early in their undergraduate studies, or they choose from a number of offers while still finishing off. One I know started his own company on VC in his second year of study. I can only think of a single one that actually applied for a job and went for an interview, and she applied at Microsoft, Redmond, because she thought the R&D looked interesting.
- Many of the brightest sparks are also socially connected (even across relatively wide age gaps). Often, job moves seem to happen along these social edges. I believe the degrees of separation between any two rock stars in SA might be as small as 2 or 3.
- When they talk about development work, they talk about cool projects, or working together with cool people. I seldom hear them excited about companies or perks, even when I catch up with them years after graduation.
- Many companies come and do recruitment pitches at our department. I’ve honestly never seen one that worked, because the rising rock stars have more interesting things to do than attend, and the companies aren’t interested in the desperates that tend to pitch up. Anyway, the rock stars seem to recruit each other.
- They often seem to be nomadic, migrating to interesting projects, or clustering around thought leaders that they admire (several years ago, one such charismatic industry leader had so many bright developers gravitate towards him that the jealous referred to them as his “oompa-loompas”).
- A fair number seem deeply distrustful of “corporateness”, hard marketing, contracts that tie down, and commitments with that bind for too long.
No doubt I’m generalising, but the above are the characteristics that stand out for me from the best of the best that I’ve had contact with. Personally, I think corporate-style recruiting is a lost cause. Rather
- Be a cool brand.
- Offer projects that are intellectually deeply stimulating.
- Present yourselves early without being overbearing.
- Penetrate the social network. Catch a thought leader if you can.
And think unicorns: if you want to catch them, you’ll need a silken rope, not cages and collars. It’s a seller’s market right now, so it’s difficult for a prospective employer to dictate terms.
October 16th, 2008 at 5:48 am
4 day work week ‘nuf said.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Here is my opinion of the current dev climate as brought to light by your post.
There are several influencing factors that all contribute to the current developers “climate” and these are not limited to the following:
Universities all offer “ivory tower” perspectives where a career in IT is almost without exception based on analysis and design with the facility to delegate. However the harsh reality is that our industry is an eco-system and everybody cannot reside in the previously mentioned tier, otherwise there will be nobody to delegate to and perform actual execution.
This naturally then bring us to the cultural disposition which dictates that everyone wants to be a boss. I personally think that this is due to the traditional “brainwashed” pattern of SA thinking. Please excuse my analogy but it resembles old Apartheid thinking where one foreman would be in charge of several workers (who nobody with a proficient education really wants to be). However in any “first world” country these “lower” positions are filled by prideful individuals relishing every moment of it. Please do not misinterpret what I am saying, however it is clear that perspectives need to be changed.
Also do not forget that SA only acquired main stream Internet access well after developed parts of the world, our “digital” native generation is at least 10 years after that of these places. Perhaps the “Rock Stars” you @gustible have come into contact with in abundance during your expeditions are from the more initially fortunate corners of the earth.
I must however state that from interaction with several recruitment agencies in the likes of the UK & Canada it is a well known fact that SA developers are in very high demand there. Ironically this is also sometimes attributed to the late arrival of a general commodity which is television. It is only a hypothetical theory but suggests that the generation of SA devs that developed their abstract thinking abilities without TV owe their prowess to it for this very reason. Perhaps we will still somehow benefit from a similar hindsight effect if we can stimulate the necessary interest in our field of specialization.
However you do get the passionate developers who really enjoy development. People who gain satisfaction from producing software in the same extent than a kid does when constructing a Lego masterpiece. Building individual pieces of code and then assembling them into a system is a marvellous experience. Especially if you are given the opportunity to do it correctly and put the appropriate measures in place for you to really take pride in your creation. The problem is that more often than not these creative protégé’s find themselves in organisations where they are forced to sell out and follow “the way”. Often taking part in shoddy approaches just to finish on budget and satisfy client’s sometimes ill conceived expectations. Not even to mention that Salary Surveys generally dictate that “web developers” earn at least 10-15% percent less than what are coined “system developers”. Of course from an insider’s perspective this is moot but when a young aspiring dev sees this it does influence their chosen career path.
My conclusion therefore is that the structural methodical independent thinkers that you are looking to attract are around.
Finding them is possibly more of a timing issue than anything else because enough time spent within an Enterprise or financial monolith kills all the creativity these guys possess. It definitely seems that a point comes in most developer’s careers where they have to “settle” for an acceptable situation. Maybe it is because the opportunities where one can work on AWESOME projects and even have what can be referred to as 10% time just does not seem to exist in our current South-African landscape which then also brings the brain drain argument back into play.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:29 am
[...] message on the Cape Town SPIN discussion list this morning pointed me at this post by Jacques van Niekerk at MIH SWAT about hiring talented programmers in South [...]
October 16th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Very thought provoking post indeed. I’m not sure that I agree with it all, but it turned out I had quite a lot to say about it. So instead of a huge comment I posted a response on http://www.assertionerror.com instead. Comment is, of course, welcome.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am
@herman_smith I can just repeat what I said – we can offer that job: AWESOME projects, 20% time, South African based. We just need the right people to put up their hands…and yes, we will raise our profile.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
@Jacques At this point, MIH might as well be MIB with a typo. All i know of MIH was shown to me in a private conference. You guys aren’t big on ground-level social interaction in SA, are you?
But yes, @herman_smith, they mean what they say with “awesome” projects, and not “awesome” in the traditional corporate kind of way.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
where are we??
we are too busy compensating for the skill shortage up in this mofo.
“igad brain”
October 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Maybe I missed something, but where is the Jobs/Carrer link on your website if you are looking desperately for developers?
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:20 pm
[...] recently posted an article on our experience of recruiting developers in South Africa, on our team’s [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Before I start…I didn’t read all the comments, so I’m not replying or responding to any of what had already been said. There is also the risk that what I’m going to say, has already been said. So, I’ll keep it short.
The problem Jacques described (absence of Rock Star developers in SA) is directly linked to the fact that the internet has really not “arrived” in SA yet. It might be in a few hundred thousand households, but even in these households it has not really and properly “arrived” yet. Very few in SA “live” the internet. Like the people do in Europe. Night and day. Internet this, internet that. Here life revolves around the internet. In all households.
The statistics show that internet penetration and use by the SA community is still comparatively low. I look at this fact every weekend, when I peruse the Google Adsense user reports of my blog and see how “non-existent” South Africa still is in the world when it comes to internet consumption. Already on Fridays the visitor stats from SA drops down to almost nil (as people leave offices early to go on their long weekends). No-one surfs from home over weekends (I mean in SA…the rest of the world stays connected!)
On Mondays the numbers pick up noticably slower from SA than from other places in the world. In short, SA is not an internet country (yet). (Work ethic is a topic for another day! And I don’t want to make foes here…)
Why is that the case? No, it has nothing to do with race. (Caught you out, heh?)
It has to do with Telkom and the fact that the state has had a monopoly on communications infrastructure and service for most of the last years – and still practically has.
In Germany competition has seen several upgrades of broadband speed in the last 8 years (since I came here) and everytime the connection became faster, it became cheaper, as more people are interested and get hooked. Cheaper brings more, again. And so there has been a “virtuous cycle” at work here, which quickly turned the internet into culture and put it in the centre of life – business life, private life, every facet of life.
This still has to happen in SA. And will in the next 5 or so years, I think, thanks to Joe Venter and Google’s satellite initiative etc.
Affordability, speed, stability of connections – all of these things will really introduce the people of SA to the internet in the following few years. And link Africa together in a single community as never before. And it’s not impossible that the internet penetration rates can one day equal the penetration rates of cell phones in SA. We all know how high that is…
Until the internet hasn’t arrived in SA, there won’t be “begeesterde” “rock-star-type” developers in SA.
Blame it all on Telkom and the monopoly the state gave Telkom shortly before Naspers went into the internet with a bang in 1998 (not to speak about hundreds of millions of rands).
Of course, the clever guys at Naspers should have foreseen this problem, before spending all that money, but that is (also) a topic for another day.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Not to offend anyone in particular but generally South Africans think they the most gifted developers in the world. Yet most application desktop and web don’t work have many bugs. Recruiters and software comps alike think that developers are great becouse they answer technical question correctly such as what is an interface, what is inheritance etc, yet most of those who answer corretcly are incapable of programmin an app. Too much emphasis on theory. I could ask 100′s of question on dot.net and the best of the so defined best would not be able to answer. In dot.net the help files are well over many gigs… can anyone remember all in it? I don’t think so. Over and above in the past many method did not have specific names today all have a name and abbreviation but these are basically the same thinngs: wrapping something dosen’t make a new thing. I went to interviews over the years and was bombarded with test, questionnaires etc done by some who only new those question and answers and nothing else. Yet I have been in dev for about 20 years and developed apps which South Africans companies and developers could not get anywhere near its sofistication, logic and speed and made me a rich man. Yet don’t ask about abstract, inheritance or crap like that as I use it daily but never bothered at what it was called. Just not interested. The reason why these questionnaire are asked in my opinion is that SA so called architects or IT managers have to justify the f.ups they make they knowledge in front of they bosses for their theortic utopia (thats what I call abstract). This elements most likely spend 90% of their times at Microsoft conferences and blogs but never developed and most are unqualified to even be called Software Architects. I contracted most years fixing the crap SA devs/architects did. But they had a carbon copy memory of the meaning of most terms. Thanks to them there is an internet a www ’cause of the free code available for them to copy to then brag saying they wrote it! Just like some even told me and are convinced that Ferraris are made in Port Elizabeth! Believe or not its true. Example G5 spends millions on software every year yet everything runs on Excel sheets! Kalula brags abouts they devs knowledge yet msot things work on and off not to mention they still pass params exposed to all the address bar! I can go on and on. Like the big shot at Oracle said at Oxford: most succesfull people have no degrees, those who do end working for a max of 1/2 million per year. I have no degree and look where I am. If you doing your first year leave now! If at the third year you lost!
Good devs work and succeed for themselves and developed till they die. The rest work for the above mentioned companies!
May 6th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
The search for rockstars is major a challenge in South Africa. Cultural and political aspects play a large role in this dilemma. The one of the cultural aspects are, as mentioned, is that a lot of developers or any educated person takes a clear and defined career route. Why is this? As South Africans or myself even more as an Afrikaans South African, are under the assumption that we must work hard to work for someone else and we will get a very clear description of what is expected of us. I am a web designer; I design websites for the company’s clients according to their specifications while still following company policy. What is wrong with this way of thinking?
Firstly there is no entrepreneurial spirit in statement “work hard to get a job”. Yes as developer you have to work hard on improving your skills, but not solely improve your skills to get more money. This is the second point, money is important yes, but there is also no real personal satisfaction in it. A developer should be inspired by himself and a potential company to work harder. The culture in South Africa is, get maximum payment even if I am not inspired by my job.
So where can we change our culture? Or what can business do to inspire a developer? One of the things that I find at university is that yes it teaches you how to learn, how to be analytical and my particular course exposes me to a lot of different fields of expertise. The problem I have is that it does not feel as if I am making a contribution to the academic field. A project is just another project to pass a module. There is no prize for exceeding really or recognition. As you might know, most university student aim for 50% and nothing more. This means you are only 50% capable of doing something. In schools however, the one I came from, students excelled more as they wanted to be guaranteed to get university acceptance. Why do companies not make it clearer that 50% is not enough? A 50% student will not even dare to send his CV to Google. Why? A culture in Google has been established, you are the best if you work there. A lot of the satisfaction comes from working for Google as well because of this culture.
Back to the problem, what can your company possibly do as recruitment and simple job advertisements do not work. Advertise a problem for the specific developer you are targeting. Only developers that pass the problem can progress for the job. Only developer whom are truly inspired, whom have the right personality and skills will attempt this problem. Goodbye 50%-students. This is a great way to advertise your company’s culture as a place for rockstars. You have awesome companies like Tencent, why not advertise it. It is an marketing in itself like Google and Facebook.
Advertise Tencent’s achievements like Google does with applications. Some of these applications are not completely functional, but it shows the developer community that they are continuously busy inventing and trying new ideas. They are not a stagnant company.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Here’s a thought. I know it has already been mentioned once or twice in the previous comments:
MIH should consider being more open about the super-cool stuff that they are pioneering (note the word pioneering, not cloning).
Working on Twitter clones and the equivalent of anything that already exists (e.g. Facebook, digg, ebay), whether in China, Eastern Europe or Brazil simply won’t attract the talent that you are looking for. These types are too smart for that and there are many star programmers who make (excellent) twitter clones and such stuff as hobby projects. Why do they need you for that?
Show them an exciting concept, direction or product that you are working on they haven’t seen or heard of before and be loud about it.
Show them your pioneering efforts. They will come in droves.
Also, don’t discount the youngsters who are not even out of high school yet. You’d be surprised at how many would run circles around University graduates. (e.g. Firefox is the brainchild of 14 year old Blake Ross. Thank goodness he was’nt lugging around the cranial weight of Six-Sigma and the concept of SDLC conventions – otherwise we’d all be stuck with the 2001 version on Internet Explorer /* shudders */)
I think you’re on to something good here, but lumping it under opaque “corporate goodness” speak is just not going to attract the Rockstars you seek.
They have no interest in convention, and the fact that you’re a spinoff of a print publication giant does not help your cause either (we all know where that section of the industry is headed).
It raises questions, especially about just how much of the corporate “old guard” mentality has filtered down into your unit. So you’re at a slight disadvantage because of that, meaning you’ll need make more of an effort to distance yourselves from that stigma and make it really attractive for stars to want to associate themselves with you. Take some pages from Google, Apple and Silicon Valley culture for inspiration.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I had already posted this when I saw your latest announcement on the SWATLabs website (http://swatlabs.net/).
A step in the right direction. But I still think you don’t fully get it (IMHO), but what do I know anyway?
All the best with your initiatives.