Andela is expanding its global talent portfolio to tap into regional expertise and nuances that can support international growth which could mean Nigerian talent would need to upgrade their skills to stay competitive.
It is the first move the New York-based talent platform is making after going exclusively remote in July 2020.
The company said in a statement that the expansion into new regions would allow its clients to have access to a “truly” global network of talented engineers. The company plans to recruit engineers from 37 countries across five continents.
Andela is already seeing growing interest from talents across the world with applications from qualified engineers outside of Africa rising by more than 750 percent in the past six months. In March alone, more than 30 percent of Andela inbound engineer applications came from outside of Africa. Half of those applications came from Latin America.
“This expansion has always been part of our long-term roadmap, and we’re excited that the world is ready for it. When we began inviting developers from across Africa to apply last year, we more than doubted the number of countries represented. We’re already seeing the same effects in new regions, and we’re excited to welcome new talent into our growing community,” Jeremy Johnson, CEO of Andela said.
Latin America hosts one of the top countries with the best developers in the world. Mexico is second on the list of countries with the best programmers in the world according to a SkillValue 2019 Report, based on 550+ technical assessments. No African country appears in the top ten list.
Nevertheless, in terms of supply, there is no shortage of engineering talents in Africa. As the company turns its attention abroad, Andela says applications from Africa are also on the increase, reaching 500 percent in the past six months.
But Andela isn’t exactly looking to add more African talents, at least going by its past records. In September 2019, it let go of 420 junior engineers across Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria. The company was not finished nine months later, as it laid off 135 employees citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior staff of Andela took salary cuts
The global talent hunt means the remaining engineers under the company have to prove they are as good as the counterparts from outside the continent.
“As a business in the developer tool space, a lot of us are trying to enter those areas of the world (Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa) where the emergent developers are coming so we can better understand their needs. Having a local presence there with amazing talent is super valuable to building a global product,” Dane Lawson, VP of Engineering at GitHub said.
