Disparity Between Devs In Developing Nations And Devs In Developed Nations

The perception of software engineers in developing nations is vastly different from that of software engineers in more developed nations. Software engineers in developing nations have to contend with poor electricity, expensive internet facilities, sociocultural perceptions and the usual challenges of developers in developed nations. In terms of talking about what we do, software engineers in developing nations are very selective about our job description; saying "I write code" leaves people puzzled, most time we lead with something more relatable like plain engineering and talk about websites or apps.

PERCEPTION OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERS IN DEVELOPING NATIONS IS COMPROMISED

When I started learning how to code, my mom called me a typer 😂 and her reason was that I was always typing and my screen was always looking dark. It took a bit of time to explain software engineering in a way that is relatable. Software engineers in my country also have to be careful with law enforcement agencies who can't exactly tell the difference between a software engineer and an internet fraudster and just assume that anyone using a laptop extensively is probably committing online fraud.

POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT ALSO AFFECTS DEVELOPERS IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

In Nigeria, the president decided to ban the use of Twitter shortly after his tweet was deleted and his account temporarily restricted owing to an inflammatory tweet from him. That ban had a ripple effect on software development in Nigeria as a lot of developers had to refactor software solutions that made use of Twitter APIs as network providers restricted access to Twitter. Software development using Twitter API has become harder in Nigeria because of that policy.

In Eritrea there is currently experiencing a bit of civil unrest as a result of the political climate, developers in Eritrea especially those learning will have to find a way to learn and work under these very trying conditions and it can have an effect on their productivity.

This post isn't meant to be a sob story, it, however, should emphasize the differences between professionals depending on their proximity to the equator, this status quo is also why I write about the esoteric terms within software engineering because I believe that regardless of where you live, reducing the difficulty of comprehending lots of fancy terms can be quite beneficial in learning.