Few years back, a lot of people who wanted to be software engineers were all applying to Andela and getting trained. Andela was the talk of the Town.

One thing I loved about Andela was that it really tried in training new software engineers for free.

But after the massive layoffs from Andela. Nobody seems to know what's going on with them again.

Are they still actively recruiting or actively training new software engineers?
But truth be told, I like their business models. They really tried helping people to get jobs. But all we hear now is crickets.

Do we have still have companies like Andela in Nigeria?

What really happened to Andela?

Bloomsbury:
Few years back, a lot of people who wanted to be software engineers were all applying to Andela and getting trained. Andela was the talk of the Town.

One thing I loved about Andela was that it really tried in training new software engineers for free.

But after the massive layoffs from Andela. Nobody seems to know what's going on with them again.

Are they still actively recruiting or actively training new software engineers?
But truth be told, I like their business models. They really tried helping people to get jobs. But all we hear now is crickets.

Do we have still have companies like Andela in Nigeria?

What really happened to Andela?

They run remotely now outside Nigeria, they mostly recruit senior devs

Andela still exists though much harder to get into now. When they started, you didn't even have to know how to code. They taught you themselves alongside a nice stipend and a brand new MacBook. All you needed to join then was an impressive essay on why you want to be a software engineer.

tensazangetsu20:
Andela still exists though much harder to get into now. When they started, you didn't even have to know how to code. They taught you themselves alongside a nice stipend and a brand new MacBook. All you needed to join then was an impressive essay on why you want to be a software engineer.

I suspect it was all a front.
Andela's early investors were people like Mark Zuckerberg and others who invested in the company to train software engineers from low income countries. After the first few years when the company gained stability, they threw away that model to hiring only experienced devs for contract work, meanwhile there were reports the funds that were meant for teaching and feeding aspiring software engineers was cut after the first year.

davien:

I suspect it was all a front.
Andela's early investors were people like Mark Zuckerberg and others who invested in the company to train software engineers from low income countries. After the first few years when the company gained stability, they threw away that model to hiring only experienced devs for contract work, meanwhile there were reports the funds that were meant for teaching and feeding aspiring software engineers was cut after the first year.

Probably, there were other alternatives like Upwork and Toptal.

Who gives af about the most shitles company in naija

davien:

I suspect it was all a front.
Andela's early investors were people like Mark Zuckerberg and others who invested in the company to train software engineers from low income countries. After the first few years when the company gained stability, they threw away that model to hiring only experienced devs for contract work, meanwhile there were reports the funds that were meant for teaching and feeding aspiring software engineers was cut after the first year.

I can't blame them, I work there and it's hard to pay Junior Engineers who are not making a profit, Andela pays you to learn, and some Junior devs didn't want to be assigned, so they can get paid on the bench and still do their side-gigs. No company goes out of its way to lose money especially not Americans, with senior Engineers, you get quality service at a lower cost.

Also if you knew what some Nigerians did, you'd be embarrassed, not even the Ghanaians or other African countries committed such. so I wouldn't go blaming Andela just like that.

LittleBigDick:
Who gives af about the most shitles company in naija

It's a US company

Qtguru

I’m interested on what the Nigerians did. Feel free to ignore if it will put you at risk

qtguru:


I can't blame them, I work there and it's hard to pay Junior Engineers who are not making a profit, Andela pays you to learn, and some Junior devs didn't want to be assigned, so they can get paid on the bench and still do their side-gigs. No company goes out of its way to lose money especially not Americans, with senior Engineers, you get quality service at a lower cost.

Also if you knew what some Nigerians did, you'd be embarrassed, not even the Ghanaians or other African countries committed such. so I wouldn't go blaming Andela just like that.

To be honest, it's not easy to be training people and still be feeding and paying them.

But am curious to know, Andela devs are basically good or better than some self taught developers. Majority of companies are seeking for remote engineers. There are more remote engineer roles.
It would still be feasible to still be training software engineers without feeding or paying them and still be getting them remote jobs.

This is still within the capability of Andela.
I think this is perhaps an option Andela should have explored.

Currently there is so much demand for Blockckchain smart contract developer but the talent is extremely scarce. Of the more than. 20M million software engineers in the world, there is less than 0.5% who are Web3 developers.

I think it would be a great idea for Andela to start training Web3 developers as they will be in demand. Since Andela already have the reputation, a lot of companies would even book some engineers before they graduate.

Am a smart contract developer and to be honest, I haven't come across 2 smart contract developers physically here in Nigeria....in a face to face meeting.

Perhaps, I think it would be a good idea to start a bootcamp like Andela in Nigeria for Web3 developers, if I get enough funding lol...😁

But am curious to know, why did Andela so much focused on JavaScript? 🤔

airsaylongcome:
Qtguru

I’m interested on what the Nigerians did. Feel free to ignore if it will put you at risk

Arc which was formerly Codementor, Andela has an account for people that you could use or so, someone was using it to teach his other account and basically paying himself, Codementor blocked Andela's account, which prompted Andela to close Codementor accounts or so, it was shameful and embarrassing for us.

Andela provides food, snack, and even laptops for the students, that's a lot of money.

qtguru:


Arc which was formerly Codementor, Andela has an account for people that you could use or so, someone was using it to teach his other account and basically paying himself, Codementor blocked Andela's account, which prompted Andela to close Codementor accounts or so, it was shameful and embarrassing for us.

Andela provides food, snack, and even laptops for the students, that's a lot of money.

How do people sit down and think of such criminal acts for christs sake?

tensazangetsu20:


How do people sit down and think of such criminal acts for christs sake?

Nigerians will shock you o! We call it “sharpness” but it’s very disgusting how we always look for loopholes in systems to exploit. Yesterday, I was at a Lebanese owned supermarket and they had recently employed a Floor/Operations Manager who was Indian. I had a brief chat with one of the owners why they would hire foreigners for that kind of position. He told me in conc. pidgin “Nobi say we no like to hire una o, but wetin my eye don see from Naija Operations Managers my mouth no go fit talk. If I leave Naija Floor manager here, this supermarket go collapse in 6 months”

airsaylongcome:


Nigerians will shock you o! We call it “sharpness” but it’s very disgusting how we always look for loopholes in systems to exploit. Yesterday, I was at a Lebanese owned supermarket and they had recently employed a Floor/Operations Manager who was Indian. I had a brief chat with one of the owners why they would hire foreigners for that kind of position. He told me in conc. pidgin “Nobi say we no like to hire una o, but wetin my eye don see from Naija Operations Managers my mouth no go fit talk. If I leave Naija Floor manager here, this supermarket go collapse in 6 months”

Some Nigerians don't have integrity, it's why the few that have, always succeed

qtguru:


Arc which was formerly Codementor, Andela has an account for people that you could use or so, someone was using it to teach his other account and basically paying himself, Codementor blocked Andela's account, which prompted Andela to close Codementor accounts or so, it was shameful and embarrassing for us.

Andela provides food, snack, and even laptops for the students, that's a lot of money.

Am pretty lost in this write up. Can you please explain in plain simple English what really happened?

Bloomsbury:


Am pretty lost in this write up. Can you please explain in plain simple English what really happened?

So Codementor is a site, where you get paid to teach, there are some accounts created for Andela people, which allow payment to be made to Andela tutors based on trust.

a Nigerian used the account to act like he was teaching someone else, but he was teaching his other account so he can get paid as a tutor when Codementor noticed it, they closed the Andela account, and Andela decided not to use the Codementor account because of a bad reputation.

qtguru:


So Codementor is a site, where you get paid to teach, there are some accounts created for Andela people, which allow payment to be made to Andela tutors based on trust.

a Nigerian used the account to act like he was teaching someone else, but he was teaching his other account so he can get paid as a tutor when Codementor noticed it, they closed the Andela account, and Andela decided not to use the Codementor account because of a bad reputation.

This is horrible. What a wicked act!
I just can't imagine how codementor would be looking at Andela after what he or she did. This is a criminal offense. The action of this person has really damaged Andela reputation.

But I would like to ask, is Andela still running as usual in other African countries.

I meant the usual way of getting software engineers, training, feeding them and also paying them or did their change of management affect all other countries?

Bloomsbury:


This is horrible. What a wicked act!
I just can't imagine how codementor would be looking at Andela after what he or she did. This is a criminal offense. The action of this person has really damaged Andela reputation.

But I would like to ask, is Andela still running as usual in other African countries.

I meant the usual way of getting software engineers, training, feeding them and also paying them or did their change of management affect all other countries?

It runs remotely like turning, and no, it was because of COVID and also this helps them make money, no more overhead costs and catering to Gen Z behaviours like free food, PS4 and all that nonsense, you're employed to write code and nothing else.

qtguru:


They run remotely now outside Nigeria, they mostly recruit senior devs

So what Happened to all their software engineers that aren't senior dev? Or did they layoff everyone?

I'd there any other coding bootcamp like this in Nigeria or in Lagos in particular?
We need something like the former Andela (apart from the free food & snacks...train and pay software engineers)

tensazangetsu20:
Andela still exists though much harder to get into now. When they started, you didn't even have to know how to code. They taught you themselves alongside a nice stipend and a brand new MacBook. All you needed to join then was an impressive essay on why you want to be a software engineer.

Based on your answer, should I assume they still train people?

Or like someone said earlier, they only accept Senior Devs.
By the way, since it was a sanfrancisco based startup, were they paying their engineers based on 9ja rate or based on international standard.

Cos it one thing to train someone in tech, paying them based on Nigeria peanuts rate offered by many companies here and for them to start using whatever you trained them on in doing Gig works which may not be part of your agreement.


I don't know how much Andela was paying engineers but if their pay range was almost the same with the average Nigerian companies...those engineers might start cutting corners to start doing some freelance jobs abroad themselves and applying to dev jobs that are high paying, and in this case fustrating Andela.

I remember a company based in Lagos that after 3 consecutive interviews for a Web dev role had the mind to tell me they will put me on probation first for 6 months...which comes with free feeding, laptop, shared accomodations etc only for me to ask what's their budgeted payment for my role and they said 30K 🤣.

Am not saying this is what Andela did but we can also learn a lot from hearing from some of their engineers.

Does anyone have an in-house experience with Andela?

davien:

I suspect it was all a front.
Andela's early investors were people like Mark Zuckerberg and others who invested in the company to train software engineers from low income countries. After the first few years when the company gained stability, they threw away that model to hiring only experienced devs for contract work, meanwhile there were reports the funds that were meant for teaching and feeding aspiring software engineers was cut after the first year.

To be sincere with you, the sanfrancisco based startup calls Lambdaschool now known as Blooms institute is doing quite well what Andela tried to do in Nigeria.

They have a target where they will train you and pay after you graduate...one of the most interesting thing about them was that they promised they will help you get a job with minimum pay of $100K/yr. After you get a job, you will start paying back...I think their fee was $30K.

I feel if Andela used this model, they might not have had issues in Nigeria.

Learn and pay after you graduate.

qtguru:


Some Nigerians don't have integrity, it's why the few that have, always succeed

If you want to make it in life, live by this principle.

" Conduct yourself honestly in all things"

airsaylongcome:


Nigerians will shock you o! We call it “sharpness” but it’s very disgusting how we always look for loopholes in systems to exploit. Yesterday, I was at a Lebanese owned supermarket and they had recently employed a Floor/Operations Manager who was Indian. I had a brief chat with one of the owners why they would hire foreigners for that kind of position. He told me in conc. pidgin “Nobi say we no like to hire una o, but wetin my eye don see from Naija Operations Managers my mouth no go fit talk. If I leave Naija Floor manager here, this supermarket go collapse in 6 months”

But am curious to know, what possible loopholes in systems to exploit is there for a Floor/operations Manager role? 🤔

Bloomsbury:


But am curious to know, what possible loopholes in systems to exploit is there for a Floor/operations Manager role? 🤔

Looting inventory? I’ve deployed a number of ssupermarket checkout systems and I’m shocked at how those guys at the tills play tricks on the business. People have been known to sell their own inventory inside other people’s supermarket

davien:

I suspect it was all a front.
Andela's early investors were people like Mark Zuckerberg and others who invested in the company to train software engineers from low income countries. After the first few years when the company gained stability, they threw away that model to hiring only experienced devs for contract work, meanwhile there were reports the funds that were meant for teaching and feeding aspiring software engineers was cut after the first year.

and I also held this same view too, but the last time, we had our Senior Engineer's meeting, he explained they were burning cash fast. You know, they have to provide returns for their stakeholders. But Covid also gave it a justification to further cut support staff and less performing staff. Jeremy is a good guy who needs to make cash for stakeholders sadly, he really did like Junior devs but business is business so I can see why it looks like that but e fit be I won't put it past these Americans.

airsaylongcome:


Looting inventory? I’ve deployed a number of ssupermarket checkout systems and I’m shocked at how those guys at the tills play tricks on the business. People have been known to sell their own inventory inside other people’s supermarket

This is really bad o...this is pure evil

davien:

I suspect it was all a front.
Andela's early investors were people like Mark Zuckerberg and others who invested in the company to train software engineers from low income countries. After the first few years when the company gained stability, they threw away that model to hiring only experienced devs for contract work, meanwhile there were reports the funds that were meant for teaching and feeding aspiring software engineers was cut after the first year.

Someone mentioned on Twitter a few months that once most Nigeria tech founders get angel investment, by Seed A round, they've all relocated abroad. I think that's what happened to Andela.

Most seemingly tech startups with social welfare structures are barely sustainable. At least ALX isn't pretending and being upfront about payment.

DissTroy:


Someone mentioned on Twitter a few months that once most Nigeria tech founders get angel investment, by Seed A round, they've all relocated abroad. I think that's what happened to Andela.

Most seemingly tech startups with social welfare structures are barely sustainable. At least ALX isn't pretending and being upfront about payment.

A lot of startups in Nigeria were a front for the founders to get recommendations for the uk tech nation visa. Now that that's being cancelled, I wonder what will happen to the startup industry at least in naija.

airsaylongcome:


Looting inventory? I’ve deployed a number of ssupermarket checkout systems and I’m shocked at how those guys at the tills play tricks on the business. People have been known to sell their own inventory inside other people’s supermarket

Someone brought her own POS terminal to a certain supermarket.

Stole an alleged 554m naira

Source:
https://theinfong.com/2017/07/shoprite-sales-girl-steals-n554million-lagos-personal-pos/amp/

tensazangetsu20:


A lot of startups in Nigeria were a front for the founders to get recommendations for the uk tech nation visa. Now that that's being cancelled, I wonder what will happen to the startup industry at least in naija.

True enough. There also seems to be a particular circle one needs to break into to get access to these VCs. I mean, asides Y Combinator, other publicised tech startups getting funding announced on TechCabal and the likes seem to come from certain circles like the Lagos Investment Network.

How then do tech founders outside these cliques get funding for their viable startups/digital products?

DissTroy:


True enough. There also seems to be a particular circle one needs to break into to get access to these VCs. I mean, asides Y Combinator, other publicised tech startups getting funding announced on TechCabal and the likes seem to come from certain circles like the Lagos Investment Network.

How then do tech founders outside these cliques get funding for their viable startups/digital products?

True there's guys that know the CEO of yc one on one. Nepotism works when they want to recommend their friends startups to get funding. A lot of things are rigged lol

tensazangetsu20:


True there's guys that know the CEO of yc one on one. Nepotism works when they want to recommend their friends startups to get funding. A lot of things are rigged lol

Exactly. I've always been inclined towards this after studying the Nigerian tech startup ecosystem.

Many individual investors are asking for outrageous equity.

It's sad that the Startup Law isn't being implemented. It'd have democratised access.
---

You know of alternative feasible options?