Problems Young Developers Face In Nigeria – Programming
Thanks for coming in.
I will like to point out 6 problems young developer face in Nigeria.
I will explain it as stages so as to show you how hard and most times stressful trying to be a successful programmer in Nigeria.
1. Electricity.
I have to add this to number 1 spot because all programmer needs to charge their gadgets and you find it hard to learn further without light.
Outside Nigeria you can dedicate your time to learn and also code without going out for months, but you can’t try that here. It’s very expensive to run learn programing with generator unless you are from a rich background.
2. Working in a start-up company
Now you have tried learning some few programing languages, maybe you have some pretty code to show and a little portfolio to brag about.
You applied for a frontend developer role in a NEW start-up company. Lucky you got invited and you find out its just one guy who probably have a Fiverr account and maybe can’t handle all the jobs coming to them, so he decides to get an extra hand. (Red flag)
You end up showing some code but if you don’t have any hosted site on the web, they can’t employ you. They don’t want to take the risk of employing a newbie and start teaching him some industry standard in web development.
Most times you will come to the interview with your laptop, you work with them with your laptop and they pay you 30,000.
3. Not solving problem
To be successful in programing is to have the idea to solve problems. Problems are just walls blocking you from bring your dreams to reality.
Some people learn coding just to work and earn a moderate salary. Some learn programing to solve problems.
4. Don’t learn for fun, learn to make money
Are you from a rich home? If yes you can learn for fun. Play around and test all the languages. But if you are from a low class , I will advise you learn for the money.
When you learn to survive, you unleash the zeal to find small project to live from to think out of the box in problem solving. eg PHP, Laravel, Flask, React or WordPress (Pokect no dry languages)
5. Working under pressure
Becareful when accepting to work under pressure because most times you get frustrated along the way. Working under pressure without giving the programers time to rest or have time for family and personal issues should not be over look unless it’s a six figure project.
Many companies gives young programmers task and limited time or space with low salary. Some even have to work as intern for months.
6. Working for scammers
All this scammers are no geek. Most of them don’t even know coding but the get scripts from developer who are ready with cash.
Let me paint a story for you using me as an example.
I spent 2 years learning coding, after learning you find it hard to get a moderate job just to start life.
After some few months you give up, just because you are good a friend from your street contracted you to build a site that steals people social media details. He pays you 70k ( That’s your two months salary working under pressure) within some days you are done.
You hand over the job and he pays you deal settle, you got more request from his friends of friends and you got caught up in the dark web.
People will say you don’t need to do that but in reality, having the power to put your skills to test and you got paid handsomely. These are ways we keep loosing our young and talented developers.
7. No competition
Coding contest is another ways to catch them young. Looking at the country social life we only focus on entertainment. Everybody wants to be the next emmanuella. Comedy shit everywhere, reality shows promoting zero talent or skills.
Coding is boring, and finding love and passion in the boring things we engage into is why we need to create a world class ICT code competition.
8. No local investors
I have seen great programers who have build great pet projects which can solve one problem or the other.
An avarage Nigeria man can’t spend is one kobo on any internet related idea or business.
You create an amazing app but no money to promote it. No money to hire more team to improve on the projects. That’s another problem.
Thanks for your time.
By EkenmaPeter
It is well