For young people to thrive and succeed in a fast-paced environment, traditional higher educational systems need to be complemented by self-taught courses and non-degree pathways. 

No one understands this better than Samwel Kanda, a software engineer within Microsoft ADC, at the Nairobi Hub. His journey and what he has achieved with his career today is far from conventional. He studied Actuarial Science at one of the top universities in Kenya and never once did it cross his mind that he would be writing code to earn a living in just a few years.

“I was always fascinated by numbers since I was young, so specializing in Actuarial Science in college was just a natural move for me.” Samwel says.

Instead of calculating risks which is what professional actuaries are primarily supposed to do, Kanda’s first job after campus was reviewing insurance policy applications given that the job market for Actuarial Science is still very narrow in Kenya.do. 

However, during that time, Insurtech was slowly gaining traction among key stakeholders as many startups within the technology space were getting funding from venture capital firms, helping them explore ways in which they could digitize insurance and give more Kenyans a seamless onboarding process. Kanda found this new ‘category’ of insurance intriguing and more exciting than what he was doing. He began to investigate ways he could build his own app that could rival what’s on the market, as well as benefit from the investments from the venture capitalists. 

It sounded like a good idea were it not for the fact that he knew nothing about building an app, and software engineering in general. But how hard could it be?

He went online and found volumes of material that introduced him to this new world, and as soon as he started perusing through, it dawned on him: “How come I hadn’t thought of this before? Learning software engineering would place me in a position that very few actuaries were in – a prowess in calculating risk, coupled with technical knowledge about the future of the industry. I would have been indispensable! And that kept me going through those late nights, and early mornings.” He says.

After weeks and weeks of self-learning on all there is to know about software engineering, he got another revelation. The best way to succeed in this newfound pursuit would be to get a role with one of the startups that were already doing what he dreamed of, so he can gain experience and explore further his quest. In 2019, he was lucky to get a placement with one of the leading startups but only after a year of app development, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic globally. This brought a lot of anxiety in the investor world, causing the company he was working for to lose all their backers and stakeholders and Kanda had to be sent home before he had even settled in well. 

“It was a very tough period for me, but I remember thinking at least I left with a new skill of software engineering. So even when it came to job hunting, I was now able to apply for roles in both Actuarial Science and Software Engineering and that is how I came across Microsoft.” He quips. “But nothing prepared me for the imposter syndrome that hit me given I felt like I did not have all the qualifications or experience” However, most tech organizations are more concerned about your skills than your papers. Even the interview process was set up in such a way that I could demonstrate what I know and what I can do. At the end of the day, it’s your skill that speaks louder.” He answers.

Kanda’s story is just one of many, where Kenyan youth end-up following career paths they had not thought about, simply by learning a new skill in an area where there’s loads of opportunity. It shows the will for success among young people, the dedication towards learning something new and flexibility to switch careers based on job availability.

“The barriers of entry for software engineering is extremely low. By doing a simple online search, you will get a lot of material that can help you upskill and build your confidence to apply for the roles you really want.” Samwel advises young people looking to get into tech.

 “For the government, courses on software engineering need to be introduced early on in the school system to help build a strong tech pipeline. And finally, more people need to be hired based on skills, rather than degrees and other certificates.” He adds.  

Kanda is currently a software engineer with the Graph Developer Experience (DevEx) team, and he would not change anything about the journey that got him here.

Connect with Samwel on LinkedIn.