Mayowa* has only three years of professional experience being a developer, worked with both amazing employers and less-than-ideal ones. While he currently codes for a living, his plan is to solve problems with tech.
Which do you prefer? Being an employee or employer? Being managed or managing people?
It is being an employer, for sure, because it gives me new challenges each day and keeps me on my feet. But I've worked for good employers and I enjoy getting paid monthly.
I can be easily managed because I make things easy when it comes to the work I'm given. Managing people, on the other hand, is not as easy because not everyone can be like me, but I've been a theatre group director and enjoyed the way the people I managed flowed with me.
So yes, I prefer being an employer and managing people.
Have you taken any shot at starting your own thing?
Yes, I have and am currently working on something. In 2021, after my final school exam, I started my tech brand which kicked off with a bootcamp.
I had to pay two developers to teach HTML, CSS, and JavaScript after leaving for a good-paying job offer I received in Abuja.
Currently, I’m building a product for vendor verification with a team of four which I hope one day will become employees and get paid when we eventually kick off.
That's cool! Was there another cohort after that bootcamp?
We did two. The first was purely beginner's Python. I handled that one. The second was HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
The third was supposed to be "How to build websites using Python Flask" but it never happened.
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You mentioned you've worked with good employers, which of them stands out for you and why?
My current job. The work culture is great. I have a good line manager who is not only interested in the work we do but also in my personal growth. Eye service doesn’t lead anyone anywhere, as there’s a structured way to grade performance for promotions.
You can literally meet anyone to talk about anything that’s disturbing you work-wise. The pressure is there but like I said, my manager is there to assist me and show me the ropes.
I’ve actually declined two Nigerian jobs that offered higher because of fear of the kind of people I could meet there and for their culture not being as good as this one here.
It could be PTSD from my previous workplace.
Let's talk about the PTSD. What happened in the previous place?
I was employed as an entry-level backend developer. The pay was ₦150,000 monthly.
The managers always pushed problems to the developers. Mind you, they were developers themselves, but because we all worked with the CEO, they didn’t want any problems to be caused by them.
You could follow a process flow generated by them, and if the CEO does not approve of it, they’d lie that it wasn’t what they told you to do.
There was this one time that I met the Head of Software for a meeting multiple times and he kept postponing. On the day our CEO asked why the task hadn’t been done, the man argued that I hadn’t told him anything about it. I almost swore that I told him. I just got tired of the whole situation.
What made me quit was because I was forced to improve face recognition on a website using JavaScript. Mind you, I was entry-level and only knew Python back then. The person who initially implemented it had travelled to the UK and he wasn’t picking up my calls.
But anytime the CEO called him, he would pick up and say he wasn’t seeing my calls. The CEO said I wasn’t productive.
Waking up every day to go to that kind of work became painful to me as my heartbeat changed. It didn’t take long before my dad died and my mind was no longer stable. These guys were still mounting pressure to finish the JavaScript course and fix facial recognition issues.
I simply sent my one-month notice and left afterwards. Thank God I had like ₦600K in my savings that time. Used it to settle my Dad’s burial and go for NYSC while also hustling in Abuja for some gigs.
That's a lot.
I think this is a combination of shitty managers and top executives that don't promote open communication.
After I left, sapa was dealing with me. One time, I thought about going back, and I just remembered why I quit. I immediately focused on myself.
What did you wish you could tell those managers if you had the opportunity to?
You already make a whole lot of money. You don’t need to kill the spirit of other hustlers just to be on the good side of another man.
I feel you...
I could have sworn this kind of attitude is a corporate company thing and it's not common with startups.
It wasn’t a startup. I don’t even know if it was a corporate company. I’d just say they’re a group of people who hit the jackpot with government contracts and hired other people to push business.
Oh... I see.
They definitely don't have any idea about managing people. In your journey, what lessons have you learnt about work that you didn't expect?
1. There's a difference between normal pressure and workplace pressure. Workplace pressure requires you to be really confident in yourself and the fact that you can achieve your tasks in good enough time.
2. Just because you can be easily managed doesn't mean you'll enjoy work. Some people move with you based on how they are and not how you are.
3. Having a good team where everyone is aligned with what to achieve is really great. But what is better is having good managers; trust me, you will enjoy work.
Would you say you've been paid what you're worth in the different places you've worked?
Yes. I really appreciate the money I receive at the places I've worked as a Nigerian.
The pay has been good so far, based on my experience and my location. Sometimes co-workers try to push this narrative that we're not been paid our worth compared to our mates who do foreign jobs remotely and I remind myself that when the time comes and I get a foreign remote job I'll compare myself to what I earned in the past because there'll always be someone earning higher.
So... on the basis of Nigerian companies, the pay has been competitive?
Yes. When it comes to Nigerian companies, it’s really competitive.
My entry-level pay was ₦150K with a free fully furnished apartment that was in the same compound as the office (This had its pros and cons though).
My second tech job was ₦250K which was increased to ₦350K because of the economy. Plus I do small side jobs that complement it.
That's fair.
How have you been able to manage working more than one job at the same time?
Working on more than one job actually makes me focus more.
I go to my onsite job, sit at my desk, and accomplish my tasks. I don't mingle much with colleagues till after work or I'm done with my tasks for the day.
The other (remote) job I got, luckily and to my surprise, I was paid in dollars.
The onsite job has drilled me so much that the remote isn't that tough. So I mostly spend my weekends achieving a lot for the remote one.
Plus I got an intern under me who I train on backend development, and also pay to accomplish small tasks for the remote one.
Smart! What are your future plans after working professionally for three years? How long before you start chasing foreign gigs?
Coding is not a career that I want to chase. I enjoy writing codes but what I enjoy more is solving problems, which is why I am starting my own business.
I don’t actively search for jobs now because I don’t want to start what I won’t finish. I have tried in the past and honestly, it didn’t work out.
I once got an interview for $7K monthly. Got to the second stage of the interview and when they heard I was Nigerian, the meeting was closed. I stayed in the meeting room alone for almost 30 minutes thinking it was probably a network issue but when the interviewer didn’t return, I knew I had lost it.
But I have received a lot of “unfortunately” that I know that isn’t because the person they plan to pick is better than me, but because it’s not yet my time.
I’m also looking at the approach of growing my network with foreign developers so that when they need someone with my skillset in their company, they can just reach out to me.
Hopefully, that works. But whatever I get now goes into one project or another because I don’t want to settle as a backend developer but rather a business backend developer.
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