[kictanet] Kenyan firms hit as Microsoft, Google talent war raises pay

[Munyoki Kilyungi]

Victor Kapiyo via KICTANet
<kictanet at 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-as-microsoft-google-talent-war-raises-pay-3953242

... 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/1732102201

[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))
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