Transcript
Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of my Tech story. I am your lovely host, Alice Kanjejo, and today, as usual, we have an amazing guest joining us today.
But before we get into that, guys, just a reminder for you to support this platform by subscribing from wherever you're listening to, whether that's on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. We have visuals on YouTube, so you can go ahead and check that out if you're listening on the listening platforms and just tell a friend to tell a friend, share with your community and guys, let me know. Give me feedback on what you think about this podcast, what you think about the guests that we have on here, or any feedback from the information that we are getting from this platform because we are having such amazing powerhouses in their own industries on this platform, which is amazing.
It's what I envision this podcast to becoming. And I keep using amazing. What's the synonym for amazing in Abamba.
Exactly? Epodcast in Abamba, in anatomy, panga. So I'm just very happy to have not only the guests be part of this podcast, but to have you as the community tuning in and listening. And it's only up from here.
So to help scale, just support the platform. But without further ado, let's get into the episode. Now, if you're not new here, you may notice that I always do a powerful intro of the guests that we have on this platform.
But today we're doing it a bit different. At the request of my guests today, they felt they are the only ones who can really bring out the full potential of that intro for themselves. So I'm going to give the absolute pleasure to my guest today, Ken, who will introduce himself and give you more insight on who he is and why he's an added asset to this MyTech Story platform.
So Ken, welcome to My Tech Story and thank you for being here. Take it away. Thank you very much, Alice.
Feels good to be unique. That's what she's trying to say in a summary. But do I say, God damn it, sips coffee.
Sips coffee. I'll also not fail to mention that Ken has also been a longtime friend and a family friend, to say so myself. So it's going to be very interesting when I talk to him.
Normally it's because of enjoy event purposes, you're having a good time, but I've never really sat down to have a technical conversation with you. So I'm very excited to hear about this tech journey of yours. You can take it away from here.
My name is Kennedy Calvin, I'm a software engineer. Four years of experience. Right now I've had the privilege to work for a startup, a private equity firm, as well as a venture capitalist farm.
My education background is also in tech. Studied computer science from Strathmore University, graduated same day as her. My tech stack is Lump, which is Laravel, more of Laravel for the front end.
I do more of react and pretty much yeah, that's what I like doing so far. And beauty part is I also do clones, which is for me the most interesting exactly thing and why I was very interested for you coming on here. Interest in that particularly starts with the existence of the Fortune 500 companies, top companies that is the likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, we refer to them as fung in the tech.
That is Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Oh, sorry. So yeah, that is something pretty much to take and put home.
And currently it's man, because Facebook is now meta and yeah, I think what else do I have to say? I mean, do you want to name drop where you are now or where you are heading towards by the time this episode is going to come out? It's a Fortune 500 company. I will not mention the name. Okay.
So I'll let you hang in so that you guys can actually contact me more. We follow up guys. I'll share with you.
Good to be a hot kick. The episode comes out, you know, the hot kick. But yes, it's good to be we have a big boy in studio today, so I'm very excited to have you as a guest here.
Thank you very much. Once again. You know, one thing about Ken, he was very ready to start this conversation and so I'm very excited for you to share your story, man.
Where did it begin? Where do you want to share with us your tech journey? Where did it all begin? Your interest and culture bank? It all began just right after high school. Well, my interest was actually in aviation, but I actually had to drop it because we know doing aviation in the country is pretty damn expensive and so yeah, could not more expensive than abroad. Well, if you need quality, you'll have to go abroad.
You'll have to go to the likes of Ethiopia and South Africa. And as a lure, you know, we love quality, right? Oh God. So, yeah, pretty much.
So I had to rethink and redo my choice of paths and then therefore I ended up landing into tech. When you say you ended up landing into tech, what was that shift from aviation to tech? Mobile application development, the love of It, particularly right after high school by the idea you see that break guys usually get once you finish high school and the time you want to transition to campus. Yes.
So I didn't have that, I don't think. I think I only rested during COVID but that's because situation forced it. So I joined Strathmore for a certificate in android development.
And jokingly, just because well, you laugh at me because first of all, the reason I did computer science is not because I wanted to do it. The brochure that I was given for the course was just looking so nice. So I just decided to take the course because of that proof that marketing works.
So prior to this, did you have any interest in doing computer science or were you coding at this point before you decided? I know you said you chose the path of aviation and then ended up in computer science, but I think what I'm trying to bring out is what was that decision making process? Was it the pamphlet that you saw and said, maybe this is something I could do, or was it were you playing games or were you on the Internet and said, this software is looking, like, interesting. I've been hearing about this somewhere. The fact that writing code is just beautiful, the fact that you write some English that is not really looks like it has grammatical errors, but the fact that it produces beautiful images or some beautiful kind of display, I think that really triggered me and likes to even the guys who we were with back at Strathmore during my certification course.
I think even the challenges and the projects that we were working on. And I mean, I drew my inspiration so much from particularly, you know, him coding Facebook in his cubicle back then in Harvard with the vision of only connecting universities. But in real sense, he did not know how big, massive scalable his product.
Exactly. So I think my inspiration also came up kutokawuko and stuff. And of course, as we were kids, we grew up, I think, knowing like two kinds of guys bill Gates, Steve Jobs.
Up until then, it's always been beautiful. Well, even looking at the trend back then, well, AI was not really into the game as such, but I'm looking at how software engineering and the fact that software engineering had even brought in the culture of remote jobs. Kutoka Kitambo it's not something that has actually most career paths are trying to shift and to adapt to working from home kind of environments and stuff.
But this is something that tech had seen. Kotoka Kitambo that's the reason, you see, like, tech companies would hire Kutoka Bali, like they can hire global. People have been working in Microsoft even before COVID It's true.
Some of the guests that have come onto this platform have mentioned that part of their journeys was them having actually most of the engineers that we've had here talk about the experiences being cloud, whether that was COVID times, whether that was even previously, where they had to look for jobs. And so maybe they would look for what are these apps that people go to look for upwork the likes of you have? Turing you're right. In the engineering world, this was not a new thing to work remotely.
Exactly. And so I think diversifying into these. And I think we've now seen even the entrance of the big boys into the country.
And I think that would actually probably make us shift and look at all of the pros and cons of this, particularly on a wider scope of view, even for those who think that the grass is greener on the other side. Well, I feel like inasmuch as we love these big boys, the tech companies, the likes of Microsoft, Google and whatnot, the labor in Africa is cheap. I'll have to admit that we've seen the recent layoffs.
And particularly what I know and what I understand from my research is these layoffs were actually brought about by changes in stock prices. If you look at because we are arguably in a recession. Yes, slow adaptation to some of their products.
I know COVID also played a part and also the mass hiring that used to happen actually affected them. I mean, Sayoki fungua YouTube in honor to Aday in the life of a software engineer. It's true there was this whole bust of the tech industry, but it also came from the bust in funding.
It was like a ripple effect because at some point there was a lot of investment in tech products. Exactly. Tech companies I don't know where this potentially came from.
I think people started really seeing the potential that tech has. But also it coming with the ideology of, you know, one thing about human beings, it's what's interesting is that pricing money is human construct. Exactly.
And so pricing also comes in the same thing. So it became that if you work in a tech company, you have to be paid a certain way. And it was a way of life that everyone was enjoying.
And here comes all this funding that people now have for these tech companies so they believe that they then can have the liberty to mass hire people to build scale as fast as we can, build as much as we can. And that, I think, brings me to the point of I don't know if you can recall there's a time Mark Zuckerberg actually came to Kenya. It was a bit low key, but he actually came.
And just as you're talking about money and having a ripple effect, look at our big boy, our local big boy, Safaricom. Safaricom was known to be a telecommunications company for a very long time. I mean, the margins of profit would come back then from calls and SMS.
But if you look at them right now, it's more of, I think, data, it's more of Internet services, it's more of M pesa. And also the growth of fintech in Africa particularly, that has really contributed to the rise of tech that I'm talking about unicorns likes of Jumia, the likes of M pesa itself. And I think M pesa, it shook the mean.
Kenya was up there. And I think, just so you know, that we also need to appreciate ourselves is I remember when Uber came and there was an issue to do with how payments were supposed to be done. They were only insisting on card.
But I think Kenya won by telling them here it's Mpesa. Mpesa is what is ruling the world. And so I think coming from that perspective and the fact that we were able to even appreciate our products then we natural local tournament and I think that's what we have been.
Trying? Well, relatively because I think in the first world countries their industry became so saturated within a short amount of period of short amount of time and so they started coming into the African tech space because as you mentioned, labor is cheaper and the scalability is high because products are still in the adaptation stage. A lot of their people already have access to the Internet, have access to these tech products and the solutions. But for us, Africa, one thing that sometimes we lack, I'll put lack in quotes because money doesn't go where it's supposed to be, but the lack of funding.
So these big boys come here, but also bring a lot of expats to come and take the jobs relatively. But I will say opportunities have been created. And I love the point that you talked about how Kenya decided that Mpesa is what works here and localizing the tech solutions that we have here and making them work for Africans.
And by I love. Of course, I have a passion for fintech more because I'm biased, because I work for a fintech company, but also looking at the likes of Flutterwave taking over not just B two C consumerism, but also on a B, two B level using African rails and whatnot. Which also brings a plus to companies like Little Cup.
I mean, I love what they're doing. They recently have this feature of an airport transfers. Like, for example, if you leave right here, if you leave this place and going to JKA once you load your app with cash, when you land in Darasalam, the driver in Salam will not need to ask for money from you.
So immediately you reach the next like a connected kind of cycle and stuff like that. That's amazing at how we are actually expanding and getting to put our products out there and think africans, we need to appreciate ourselves. I'm not saying that we start doing some kind of civil disobedience to the apps and stuff but I'm just trying to say can we also nurture our own solutions? Because as they say, no one will ever come from outside to sort out your issues.
I really love you talking about that because that's exactly the philosophy that I have for this podcast is that to bring because we are building products but the adaptation rate needs to grow at the same time for it to work together because you need consumers to use your products. So why can't we also have communication channels to tell the people that hey, we have this product built by Africans for African solutions and we are able to put them into light and have more consumers use them so that the ecosystem of the African tech system keeps evolving. I think the why is it's also because of our slow adaptation to our own products? One is because we feel we develop low quality products.
That is the mindset of people. Because let me tell you, as engineers, one thing I've learned about in this career is when you're developing something, particularly myself, I'm currently like working on some ecommerce project. You get really so attached to that project, and you may end up forgetting the end consumer of that particular system you're doing it based on.
Ken likes this and not Alice and the other Alice's outside there who will need to use this product. I love you saying that so much because I don't know, I like referring to the guests that we have on this platform. But we had a guest who came and said actually was the lead engineer for Chums, which, I don't know if you understand, also came as a guest in this podcast who mentioned that you need to not be so attached to the product that you're initially building, which I think you wanted to bring up in this conversation, because the one you initially build is not always nine times out of ten, it's not always the way you fast envision it.
It evolves to something that becomes even more substantial. So that attachment that you have, leave it because you may want to build this product today, but tomorrow you realize that maybe this is not the one that's for me. And then you move into another product.
So there's that balance of I really love what I'm building, but not forgetting that end goal of, hey, this is the end goal to bring solutions to many consumers as much as we can. And I wanted to also as we conclude this conversation and get more into your tech story, because now we're really talking about what's happening in the tech industry, I wanted to take you back to the conversation where you mentioned that we look so much into these big tech companies and like, what did you call them? The fung companies, and assume that, why are we looking to them? Why can't we also build similar solutions? And that's where I think your connection can lie to. You are able to able to clone some of these big company products to know that, hey, this is not something that's impossible.
So I want us to get to Veer now back into your story and how this connects to how you started your cloning, and how it connects to your journey. Good. So basically, I think I'd actually describe my tech story in a nutshell in a way that I'm a self taught coder.
Wow. I know computer science played a part. Yes.
But let me tell you, even my friends, I'm sure they'll be watching this podcast, they know how I hated coding, actually. Coding. Wow.
Coding units were my worst in that is so funny. Campus. Nobody has had that coding units I normally meet.
I've been coding since I was 14. I loved it. Now, I'm not going to lie to you, coding units were like a Kiswaili lesson back then.
In high school, if you know, you know. It was like a moment. Absolutely.
And so I'd always sigh, like, every time and stuff. I was so keen at looking at what do you call this, the class timetable back in Stratha. Kwanza? Kamanim Chani's idea.
But back then, joining sentum, I started doing their projects. When did you join sentum, and how did you join sentum? I joined sentum in 2021. February 14.
What was secure. So, yeah, pretty much. I joined sentum in 2021.
Good bosses. I'd love to give them a shout. Sorry, could you give more context to the people who don't know what CentAm is? Oh, sentum is an investment company, private equity firm.
It's based in Two rivers. It's one of the largest investment firms in Kenya, and it's associated with the late Dr. Chris Kirubi.
Yes. So pretty much that's a nutshell of sentence. So that's where I worked.
Joined at an intern level. And guess what do you think I joined to? Code. What did you join to do? Shikamasimu support.
No way. You are customer support. I was Nilko support.
Now that Ninjango. Interesting part about your story. Now, you started as support in your first support level.
Okay, genie hafo. The cancer growing. And then I think the thing that it was more of an open office structure, so I'd sit next to a developer.
His name is actually Emmanuel Jabez, a very senior engineer, and he's a mentor per se. I think I actually do appreciate my growth, especially for the stack that I mentioned, the likes of Laravel and VJs man, he's one of the guys who's really contributed. So back then, every time so it becomes a point.
I was like, okay, right, yes, I'm working for a good employer and stuff like that. But hey, can't I just do more than the usual eight to five and only stop constraining myself to what is in the job description, what is in your contract? And I think I was like, okay, Ken, it's high time you opened your eyes right now and stuff. So my boss comes in and assigns a project to me.
I think that was now, like, the second month into that job. And he assigns a project, and the project involves coding. So I freak out because I'm like, Whoa, boss, I came here for, you know, that I hated coding back then in Campus.
And why you're not still in Campus at this time? No, I joined 2021. Finished? Yes. I was only remaining with one unit, which decided to play around with me.
Your unit? Nil cooler marks balance, which is life. Okay. Marks ID.
Yeah. Anyway, back at it and stuff. So I'm like, whoa.
And then he tells me like the crazy kind of integrations he wants that system to do at your make sure it sends emails and stuff. I was like just looking at him like, man, if you're done talking, it's okay. I'll just figure out the way guess what? Me being me well, some kind of, I think positive feeling and stuff.
I just started coding it, doing it from scratch. Errors after errors every week. Let me tell you, it's not a smooth path.
Watch. I keep it to a day in the life of a software engineer. Some software engineer wakes up lasagna subu and stuff.
An attacker party views the reality ground reality of being a software engineer. The reality of being a software ask software engineers. Nobody that I've met who is a dev has a casual life.
Yes. Let me tell you guys are like, yeah, it's high paying, but do you know what software engineers go because I think Alice, we need to mention out the challenges also to make people, and particularly for those who are yearning to grow into this space, to actually tell them that it's a plateau. It's not a smooth curve.
It's a plateau like any other career. And the challenges keep you growing. The higher you grow, the more challenges you encounter and stuff.
It's a learning curve each and every day. So, yeah, back at center, I think I adopted to that, that it's a learning curve each and every day. I was like, the error I get today, god, I'm not going to get it tomorrow.
So let me keep on and revise myself, take a look at my stuff and things like that. And so, yeah, I finished that first application, remember this time badatus is under those clones and things. Where we are headed to now, you're building your way.
I'm just doing formal things, things that have been assigned by the company. But the side I'm also looking at, okay, could I even do a website and stuff? It's a mother company to so many subsidiaries. So one of the It firm fully owned, so I was stationed there, it's called Tia Data Limited.
So I looked at their website and I was like, RA, this is not worth. Like, I know I'm not a coder, I'm not so deep into coding, but I just don't like this website. So I tell my boss, hey, let me redefine my job description briefly and hey, let me just redo this website.
It was my first serious project. WW tiadata co Ke, if you look at it. So, yeah, big ups to the like of Isaac Agichu and Steve Carrechio who are my former bosses then for having given me this challenge.
Yes. So, yeah, I do the website. And let me tell you the beauty of software engineer.
When you do something and you deploy it at a your website IndoGo and it's live and it just does something, it just does something for you Monday. So I think pretty much came to adapt to that. So I started doing other websites.
So I started from the basics. Now doing websites, not serious applications, just websites, getting clients, getting near SIM to Alice Kunam to attack our website, Nini and stuff. And I think at that point where you're starting out polypole, one thing that we need also, I think, to note out is for starters, please, as you're starting, that is actually going to blind you.
It's going to blind you sana. It's going to prevent you from advancing nilukanam. I'll have to be honest, one of my weaknesses is Niliquana Manjaya pesasana.
So I'm like, Nanyataka website 60,000. You're like, yes. But you're like, hey, you're also growing your portfolio at the same time, so grow your portfolio.
Things will happen, and stuff like that. If something is meant for you, it is meant for you to be for you. Sorry, before you proceed, too, I just wanted to have a relatable moment here and say that you studied computer science, but your love for coding started now after Uni.
And what's funny is, I feel the same way about my career. Like, while I was doing I did communications. While I was doing communications, it came very naturally to me, honestly, like, me, communications, it's just me.
English was never an issue. Language, speeches, everything. But when I was doing the degree, I felt like it was such a pain in the asset.
I was so frustrated, like, uni. Remember when you had lunch together, something? Yes, I remember when we had lunch. Wow.
Uni was such a point of frustration for me. But post uni, doing the job that I'm doing, I really literally ended up getting a job, honeycoin, which is where I work right now with regards to exactly what my degree did, I did in my degree. And every other day, I find myself like, we learned this in Uni.
Or, you know, first, more, it's a pain in the ass, but they really make you do things. Like, you do a lot of projects, a lot of things. So a lot of the times I find myself when my boss says, you need to do this or that.
I already know how to, because I've done 50 of these things while I was in Uni. So then I start having moments of realizations, of appreciation for what I actually did in Uni. But in that moment, I was like, now, what is all this? How is this going to help me? At that time, people are convincing each other, you don't need a degree, which is also true.
You don't need one. But I will say that degree that I loached so much contributed so highly into who I am today. They say that sometimes you cannot see the hidden passion or the hidden gift.
That until you start exploring it. Yeah. And that's where we need to bring, I think, ourselves into exploring things.
So, of course I do websites at this point at and I think I've forgotten some. Did I mention to you my first job? My first job was at the Microsoft Policy Innovation Center at Strathmore. Wow.
You did mention you used to work at Microsoft, I remember. Yes. Microsoft Policy Innovation Center.
Unfortunately, the job was cut off because of COVID universities were shut with the government. So it was something way beyond control. And I think we were trying to see, can we really do things remotely? But it was like a no, like everything came to a standstill.
So I was only there for like four months and stuff. But I think it was a good stepping stone and stuff. I also appreciate, I mean, the university for having given me that opportunity.
So, yeah, back then, back again now. Yes. You've built websites.
Then what next? What was the next step? Yeah, now you need to build an application. So I was working It at center was divided into, I think, three. We have network and infrastructure, we have innovations department and we have service delivery.
So service delivery is mainly concerned with items to do with support issues, tickets and guys raising tickets and stuff. So I was there and I tried and looked at our service It service culture in the company. It was a bit vague.
If audits were to be done, I'm sure we'd be scoring, like easy if you are supposed to grade them. So I was like, okay, let me try and redefine this. Let me try and bring something new.
So I was like, okay, so I need some technical acumen into what technologies I'm going to use to actually build this, because I do actually have the master plan. Like an architect, I know what I want to deliver at the end, but how do I actually approach it? So right now we are now collecting tools. So more of what do you call this term? The idea of getting after the feasibility test.
Feasibility study, not test visibility. So I do that and everything and come on board. So I'm like, yes, I think it's doable.
But I took like eight months or seven months to finish those projects. It was big and I think I was learning every day. It's something that right now, if I'm given, I'll crush it in a month.
But I appreciate where I study. At that time. You needed to go through that to learn the language.
Exactly. Like a kid walk anguka anzatena. So, yeah, I'd start.
And of course, I was being held by the likes of another engineer called Evans Mburu. I love how you are just crediting everybody. I mean, what I'm trying to tell people is you don't walk in this journey alone.
It's barely any journey that you can walk. Give give credit, give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Absolutely.
Yeah. So pretty much I have at this point started now building this up and stuff. I was failing, doing failing.
Doing everything. And wow, I really had very understanding bosses. Like, they were like, we know you can do it.
You can finish. I hosted it. Oh, damn.
The very day I hosted it. I remember the following week, I said, I'm going to do something challenging. And that's how I started doing the Netflix clone, which was my first.
So now we are studying the cloning. Yes. And now the way we are now doing the clones and stuff, could you just get into sorry, just for more context.
Again, you know, we are just assuming people are going to understand what you mean by cloning. Could you just get into what you mean by cloning? A clone is just a replica of of the real existing system. So, like, say, for example, Facebook, which is a chatting application, per se or WhatsApp, and stuff.
So you actually build an app of viewers that would work like Facebook, but you want to build it with the context of putting in mind what kind of technologies does Facebook actually use? Do you think you can actually implement that? Of course, at a smaller scale? Because you can do it. But can you actually implement that? Can you? Beauty. This is doable because of things.
We call them documentations. Just, I believe, like any other career. So documentations, study, document.
Well, it's time intensive. You also need to study. You also need to sit down and study them and stuff.
So for those who follow me on Instagram, they know how I usually write. I try to write it in the layman's language as best as I can to just capture the attention of people because, well, these clones involve a lot of jargon. But you're trying to break it down for people and telling people how this is how it's done.
And I love that free education. First of all, on his platform, you're one of the only people that I know who really are invested in sharing your tech journey, I'd say, and your process of cloning. So could you just name the perfume that you've already successfully tried to clone? I tried the Chpt clone myself, and I absolutely loved it.
I was like, this is you must be seen with the week. We must be done Netflix. I started Twitter and Kwama halfway.
It was a bit challenging, but I'm going to go back into it because I've done Netflix successfully. I've done Spotify, I've done Facebook Messenger, I've done chat GPT. I've done a news app.
It's a live news app, which ideally we have something called an API. So it collects news from around the globe in different regions. So if, for example, CNN posts some news, then it's able to pick news from the CNN source and post it on my app.
So it collects from citizen and stuff and all the kinds of the major news outlets that you know of. It's like I'm trying to combine this news into yeah, and particularly for the languages that maybe do that. I think that would be of interest for some people who don't want to know.
So I use a JavaScript framework called React JS and Next JS. Yeah. So pretty much which is good for just take it's called server side rendering.
But I'm not going to go into details for that. But that's what I love. And then I think I've also done I think I've done so many you can just leave us the links, if you don't mind, for our audience to also test out.
Yeah, for sure. So that this is real life. This is real life.
Yeah. So I would love for other people to also test it out and check it out for yourself. So that to also motivate the other engineers.
Challenge yourself. Do I do them to tell people that I know how to do things? No, I do them. One, to encourage people that these things are actually possible, from not loving coding at all, to actually, let me tell you, even writing a simple, the simplest language is one is called HTML website.
I used to hate that thing. But from writing codes, simple as that, to doing all this, it's first of all, to inspire people like, hey, people, we can do this together, especially in the tech community and stuff. Number two, it's also for self.
It's an informal way of teaching myself and learning, you see, because you have different personal learning curves and growth paths that you don't absolutely. That is mine. That is my preference.
People have very many kinds of preferences. And then of course, number three is the thrill of it. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, actually I did this. This is my work. I have something to show.
Exactly. And I think that's a plus for me. I also put it out there, of course, now, in the world that we are in, by the way, today, be an introvert, but do not be an introvert with your career.
Oh, I love that. Be an introvert, but do not be an introvert about your career. Yes, do not be an introvert about it.
I love it. Not be an introvert about your career. As I mentioned earlier, growth has so many people and so many stakeholders around you.
You can be the most silent person to be usiko instagram. But when it comes to your career, you have to sell yourself. You have to communicate outside there.
Nothing will come on a silver platter. Nothing will come on a silver plate. That one, Ken, is one of the most powerful messages that I have had today or this year about not being an introvert about your career.
I think that's really powerful people always hate on oh, LinkedIn. People are always just bragging about their accomplishments. Yes, absolutely.
Why are you in this earth? Why? For you to make a mark, for you to create a career path that, you know, a career is not something you are deciding today. And then it's the rest of your life. It is the rest of your life.
So you really need to teach it like a baby. Grow it. I mean, nurture it.
Nurture your skills every day. You need every day. We talk about things called generational wealth.
It doesn't not just come we have to build it on our own selves so that the stakeholders around us can actually hold us. Because I'd love like at the points that I'm doing, I'm trying to crush an idea. But at the end of the day, probably we'll have to seek for funding from Alice.
And that's how things grow and that's how companies have grown. Community and being loud. Speaking of community loudly of your accomplishments.
Yes. What do you mean speaking of community? We also have dev communities. Yes.
Right. And yeah, I'm in the safaricom dev community, which I joined juicy, not Juicy as such, but I think towards the end of last year, the other one is Andela, which is commonly known by guys and yeah, it's more or less of online. And you also learn through communities by the let me tell you, whatever, you know, probably someone can do it better.
And so when you come together, it becomes easy. And especially because we're trying to scale in the African tech community, it's very essential for all of us to grow together. And if this is happening, we all know that this is happening, and we all know how to help each other to get to where we all essentially want to.
Essentially. Exactly. Ken so what would you say before we wrap up this episode with the final questions that we're going to ask you? I just wanted to wrap up this conversation by asking you, so where are you today and how does it all tie in together? Well, I think first of all, if you say where in the context of growing, I think I'm still learning.
First of all, as of the time of this interview, I'm freelancing. So transitioning to some very good place. Shere shere yosiku date unknown.
Just tell her I'm just around in the country. So pretty much I think I'm learning. It's still a growing I think I still consider myself a starter because, I mean, every day I get to see so many different things in as much as you cannot really saturate yourself with so much knowledge and things like that.
So I think nipole pole. So I think I'm learning. I'm on the learning season, which is absolutely okay.
Ken I cannot wait to see how your journey keeps going. I think just with the trajectory that this year is going, I think the sky is not even the limit, it's beyond it. And I am so happy to just hear how far you even come and how your story is very different from most stories that I hear from people who do dev work.
Just because normally it's like, I loved coding from when I was a kid. I was playing a game and this but for you, your story is from hit to love, basically. And I mean it's more or less I'm just trying to make my career sort of have like a multiply effect outside there in that it will inspire someone.
At the same time, it will even push those who want to shift their careers and things. I can promise guys, tech is there to stay. I think we have four items that are currently being talked about in the world and number one, the highest one that scored, according to some McKinsey research, was AI electric vehicles, I think climate change.
That's true. Yes. And I think I've forgotten the fourth one, but I think those are the three main ones.
And quantum computing, I think something of sort, but those are the four ones that I know. And just to tell people why tech is ruling the world, let's just revisit our history briefly and look at the world we used to. Some of the Forbes magazine kitambo, it used to be the oil tycoons and the real estate guys leading the top ten richest that is true.
If you look at the top ten biggest companies right now, we are talking of the likes of Microsoft, Google, even the richest people in the world. The richest people in the world right now are tech people, honestly. And you know what, if you're looking to get into tech, all right, now is the time.
Now is the time. This is me making my mark in the industry. Guys have like three jobs, guys working from home and stuff.
It's true. Six figure salary, not putting those subaru spoilers and whatnot. That's always the first sign, especially men the subaru.
And now you are. Thank you so much, though, for sharing that. I think I'm just going to start closing off the episode with our final four questions.
The first one I have for you is what is one word to describe the journey that your tech journey has been? To get to where you are and why? Resilience, adaptability and perseverance. You gave us three why. Every day is a challenge.
You have to adapt to that challenge. You have to redefine your problem solving skills each and every day that you wake up and things like that. If you find a problem, try and break it down to the smallest component that you can.
Wow. Yeah, that's true. Yes.
Because when you look at things on a bigger scale, they become so intimidating and exactly. You make it seem so not feasible. But when you actually break down the steps of what it will take to get to the bigger goal, it makes it more in your mind.
At least you can reimagine how you can actually get to where you want to be. So 100%. I agree.
And what advice would you give to someone who is looking to get to where you are. Or maybe that would aspire to get to where you are today. Maybe someone who's in uni right now looking at, man, maybe I'm looking to get into this thing.
I don't know where my career is. What advice would you give? I think have peace with the level of skill set that you have. Have peace with the level of skill set that you have.
Then from there, you can be able to learn. Do not compare yourself to people. Right.
That's the reason I said have peace with the level of skill sets that you have. As a junior developer, just as a starter and learn daily. Everyone started from there.
No one started as an expert. Oh, wow. I'm actually writing that.
Wow. I don't know. That was personal to me personally, but I love that.
My third question would be, do you have any regrets or what would you have done better, differently in your journey? Probably started early. And just to relate, that is I teach kids coding, by the way. Wow.
Yeah, I teach kids coding. And that's now the thing. It's to help people start early.
And kids I'm talking of if I mentioned kids, these are not people in high school. I don't know how CBC describes them, but people between the ranges of class five to eight. Wow.
So, yeah, start watch yourself. Why? The Indians and the Asians are good at what they do. It's because they start early.
Those things get grilled expressway on honors in a jungle and everything. The engineering projects that you see, these people started early and nurture them. So that's the thing.
I love that. So it's more of a social impact. I love that initiative, honestly.
After we finish this podcast, I am definitely going to ask you more and more about that because I love that. The last question that I have for you to close off this episode is can give us a powerful parting shot. How do you want to end your episode? What do you want to say to wrap this up? It could be a quote.
It could be fine. Closing remarks. Right.
To summarize everything I think just from what I've actually seen is, one, first of all, I'd like to appreciate you for what you're doing. Oh, wow. It's beyond just a word of thank you and stuff.
And it's an encouragement to people. One, it's to the tech industry, and two, it's for the people who do podcasts and things like this. I mean, Alice, you've grown.
Wow. I think it's crazy because these are the channels currently that are going to inspire people. We are going digital and there's a book called Crushing It.
Yes. I don't know whether you've read it. No, I have not.
I'm going to refer that to send it to me. When is your birthday? Just the date. September 14.
September 14? Yes. I think I'll have to mark that and get you that book. I am willing to receive it with open arms.
So I think is embrace knowledge, embrace knowledge, embrace three things. Embrace knowledge, embrace peace with yourself and your level of skill set, and always learn every day. Every day is a learning dance.
And always redefine your problem solving skills. That is what define your problem solving skills. I love that Ken so much and thank you so much for the kind words.
I only hope to have some level of impact with this platform in the best way that I can to put the word out there about the amazing things that people are doing and for people to feel inspired to grow in their own craft or just do it. Because I think the messaging that I get back to back whenever I have guests on this platform is that the end goal is for you to just get to start doing what you really want to start doing, especially career wise. And really, the message I'm going to take forward from this episode is for you not to be an introvert about your career.
That one. We are making it a T shirt and I'm telling you, if there's an app, I'd tell people, you can avoid all apps that you want, but LinkedIn is really powerful and to also keep track of your achievements honestly. Oh, just to encourage people.
But they have gotten side gigs just from posting my works on Instagram. Instagram guys come to me and I'm like, there's someone who has a project, so and so on, stuff like that. Do not be an introvert about your career.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Ken, for gracing this podcast. It has been such a pleasure to have you here with me.
Guys, I absolutely enjoyed this episode as much as I did recording it, and I really hope you do, too. And if you did, if you picked up one or two things here, make sure you show some love by leaving us a comment or giving us feedback on this episode, or just following up on Ken's work, which we're going to put some links in the episode description for you to follow up on his journey as we go. And yes, you can support also by subscribing from wherever you're listening to or follow.
If you're watching on, please, please just subscribe it's free or whatever you're listening from. Anyway, moving on swiftly, my name is Alice Kanjejo and I shall see you next week for the next episode. And yes, enjoy your time.
I don't know how to close this clip and the episode here, but yes, thank you. I'll see you guys next week.
