My reflections on the life cycle of a Kenyan developer are as follows, the Kenyan breed of programmer/developer e.t.c has a life cycle that tends to be like a soccer players. You start in college and proceed to start working of course depending on how luck/good/both you follow the following steps.
- Division three
This is where you are picked by the small boys, you generally do every thing, “Mambo ni one man show”, and this place have problems in that the salary is always late. You work too hard, you basically learn the ropes ,you may get to ‘management’ level here but its only a title-the salary is “Mteja hapatikani” and get to discover the best software development…sorry soccer clubs around. There are no KPIs, and basically what you earn can stagnate for X number of years , depending on the Managing Director/Owner/CEO or can grow in “Leaps and bounds” depending on your Managing Director /Owner/CEO.
- Division two
This are basically better paying clubs that people move to and it seems like the best of places to be around, get a better developme...sorry playing side. More structure, the salary is seldom late and of course it harder to climb the programming ladder, you get in as a Junior guy-regardless of your performance in Division three but you are still ok of course until the next review meeting and you get a few coins to your pocket...and as the old adage goes-the rest is history, you start looking for opportunities to move up the ladder.
Most “Big Software Firms” in
- Division one
This is a place where you find even more structure, but the roof top is ceiling is quite high, you rarely get to be “Head” anything without serious “Siasa” and well, KPIs are a bit stringent. In
- Premier League.
This are basically multinational companies that rarely get guyz from
Of course any programmer/developer/coder e.t.c worth their salt dreams of either two things,
- Working in a Premier league level firm i.e. playing in La LIGA, Serie A.
- Owning a Premier league team equated to being Roman Abramovich.
Going into number 2 above however tends to take you to Division one…but as the Manager/CEO/Director, then “doing unto others what was done unto you.” This stage is normally characterized by research, one starts researching on how Bill Gates made it big in the software business or how Larry Page and Sergey Brin had their big break. In a number of years depending on wit and/or luck you make it big and follow the same steps of a player but as a Managing Director/CEO/Director.
In conclusion, you whoever you are; wherever you are in the development cycle, work hard and progress to the next level. But all in all its like chasing the wind.
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