A Job Board Aimed at African Devs and Designers
This week I launched a little side project: JOBS.whiteafrican.com I think of it as a place to connect freelancers and small teams with gigs and project work in the African tech sphere.
I’ve been getting a number of emails lately asking me connect people in the US, Europe or large organizations in Africa with local (as in “in-Africa”) talent. They’re usually interested in finding a knowledgeable designer, a good blogger or editor, and I’ve had quite a few people ask me to put them in touch with programmers.
The White African Job Board
At this time, it’s a simple and free place to post jobs for African technology professionals. So, what I’m really looking forward to seeing are opportunities listed specifically for people in Africa. That last bit is important, it’s for African devs, designers and bloggers.
A lot of these might be for short-term gigs and volunteer opportunities, but who knows… It’s a little bit of an experiment, so no promises on my part. If it proves popular and useful I’ll keep it around. Oh, I have the final say on what jobs go live too, so be forewarned. Think of me as the curator and friendly job board dictator… 
Make sure you grab the news feed, so you don’t have to keep coming back to see what’s new. Take a look at the tips page – think about how you’ll deal with project scope, as well as how to pay, or be paid.
Real Job Boards Around Africa
Unlike my little project solely focused on technologists, there are some real job boards around the continent that are worth keeping in mind. Here are a couple of them (leave links others that I missed in the comments area):
Kazinow
Find a Job in Africa
Job Space – South Africa
Best Jobs - South Africa
Zebra Jobs
Sama Source – Outsourcing to Africa
Further Thoughts on Outsourcing Tech Work to Africa
It’s an encouraging sign that there are a lot of people interested in finding local African talent. What I’ve found in my travels, and in talking to technologists around the continent, is that though there are more devs and designers each year, the number of top quality ones available for work are few.
One cautionary piece of advice though… and it pains me to say this. A few of the African developers that I have come across are not time-conscious and they can come across like their client/project is not as important to them as you would find in their counterparts in the West. Of course, this means if you are timely and fulfill your responsibilities you will find clients lined up 10 deep to get to you – you’re a rare commodity.
African developers are quickly going to learn that they’re on the global stage now, and there’s nothing stopping their clients from switching to someone more reliable, even if it’s a country or continent away.
The good news is that of the many devs I’ve met, many are as good as any you’ll find anywhere else in the world. A few of them are on par with the best I’ve come across anywhere.
A related initiative
There is also an initiative called Coded in Country focused on getting programming work done within the countries that the applications and products are meant for. Keep an eye on it, and pitch in as/where you can.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Erik,
I really love this concept you’ve made reality. We often get inquiries about employment or those employable and its well beyond our capacity to track either. Yet we’re big believers in driving business to Africa.
On that note, one suggestion: can you have a jobseeker profile section? A place where those seeking employment can give a thumbnail sketch about themselves, with links to resumes, completed jobs, and profiles on LinkedIn and the like? I’d love to be able to scan for up-and-coming technologists for our different projects.
Oh and while not a job board in itself, there is the Coded in Country movement, which this ties in with nicely: http://groups.google.com/group/coded-in-country-launch
Any chance this ‘board’ could take on another component? To include an ‘available for hire’ section where Dev & designers can post their work and/or links to their work and advertise themselves?
Good idea Taylor, I’ll see what I can do for that. My main goal is to just create that digital meeting place for these two groups to get started together, so it makes sense to offer something for devs and designers as well.
Hi – have you checked out Japanese Otetsunai – networks – rather interesting mobile service, wher both employees & employers are rated & build reputations … creates trust into short term relationships, see e.g. http://www.psfk.com/2007/10/otetsudai-networks-mobile-jobs-by-gps.html …
Great initiative! Is there anyway that software programmers in Africa can post resume/profiles? It would be very useful to have a searchable pool of interested programmers with skills sets and past projects listed. And to jump off of Minna’s comment, particularly if reputations could be built based on trusted community recommendations!
ec3wd.com is a new and as-yet pretty much unused site which can be used by everyone for everything – i.e. software programmers in africa can post resume/profiles…. welcome
Great idea here! With the spread of internet all over Africa one would not expect job seeking to be as difficult as it is. Having your resume/profile online I think is also important. It’s easier to get all your info out there. I found some people who do a good job at http://www.nickelpro.com
ala CrunchJobs…i like it!
sounds like a great idea will have to take a look at this.
Just to give a plug, African Tech Network (http://www.africantechnetwork.com) is a site I’ve created with Simeon Oriko just for African technologists where they can create profiles to market themselves and their skills. Accounts are free for techies and we currently have users from 12 African countries. Updates are made to the site every week and our plans for expansion are aggressive.
Hoping to launch this week will be profiles for businesses and nonprofits who wish to tell technologists about what they have to offer in addition to a job board very similar to Jobberbase. The overall goal is to connect techies to opportunities.
It seems to be a growing trend that people want to outsource to Africa and I believe this will only grow. Great job Erik!
Hi Hash
You might want to add JobVine Jobs to your list. Its a free job board in South Africa.
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