Re: Growing ICT talent (was stage of development)

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 15:09:03 -0800

Hi Shane,

Thanks for writing this.

At 21:34 25-02-2016, Vy-Shane Sin Fat wrote:
>Mentoring
>In my experience, mentoring happens on the job. I wish that I had
>received more technical

Yes.

> mentoring during my career, especially early on. All of my peers
> tell me the same thing when the subject comes up. Is this an
> indication that we should be doing more to help juniors? Probably.

Yes.

>Technical mentoring in our field is tough and requires a high level
>of commitment from the mentor. The nature of our work is such that
>the mentor will need to have a deep knowledge of the mentee's
>project in order to be able to give meaningful advice. This means
>that the best chance that a person will have to get mentored is
>going to be at work, where colleagues are collaborating on the same project.

This can be part of the on-the-job training. The junior employee
would have to have the desire to "grow" and mentor would have to see
the benefits of having that employee gain experience. It's useful if
a company offers a personal development path.

>Open Source
>An alternative to mentoring is to contribute to open source
>projects. Pick one where the barrier to contribution isn't too high.
>If there's a lot of elitism and ceremony in the way it's not going
>to be worth your time.

This is a way to gain technical experience. A few weeks ago, I
discussed about this (outside the island). It was pointed out to me
that the barrier can be too high. It can be discouraging to be
involved in Open Source as the environment can be harsh.

>Join a High Calibre Team
>The best advice that I could give to someone who is starting their
>career in ICT is to join the best team that will let them through
>the door. Don't worry about how much they will pay you. Your pay
>will increase very quickly as you get better. The quality of the
>team is usually in direct correlation to the caliber of the
>development lead. So research the person. You research their
>background the same way they research yours: LinkedIn, social media,
>blog, GitHub / open source contributions, Google. Ask them questions
>during the interview. Some topics that you can ask them about are:

I'll comment about internship here. This is not about picking any
"job" to fulfill a course requirement. The objective is to gain
experience and it is up to the intern (and the counsellor) to discuss
about how that objective can be reached.

The pay is not the most important. You can earn a lot of money now
or you can acquire skills which will be in demand (for a higher
salary). There is also the work culture (or the team) and whether
you can fit in the team. If you are unhappy in the environment you
won't get far.

>Industry Trends
>How about industry trends? It pays to be ahead of the curve. Where
>are we heading and what should we be looking into? The following is
>an opinionated writeup based on what I'm seeing. It is obviously
>coloured by the space that I'm in: startup tech companies,
>non-enterprise, unix back-end, mobile front-end.

This is linked to skills which will be in demand. Don't choose
popular; it is better to have a skill which will distinguish you from
the other candidates for a job. What you learned at university is
yesterday's technology. It is up to you to keep up with industry
trends and to find out what the industry is or will be looking for.

Why do I need a system administrator or software developer when I can
set up a web site on Wix? It's cheaper.

In a different thread a person mentioned getting a "corporate"
job. Won't that regular job be outsourced in future? How does your
experience match what is happening in the industry? If you are in
Mauritius, should you follow the local industry trends? How do you do that?

The topic could have been: growing the talent pool. Is it about
finding another employee to replace you? Yes. It is also about
retaining you as it is valuable to keep your talent in the company.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Fri Feb 26 2016 - 23:09:36 PST