Coding for a brighter future in Yemen

Atheer began her computer science degree at the University of Sana'a convinced that coding was the future. To her, coding meant a life of greater job stability as the ability to work online would make her less dependent on the strength of the local economy.

However, soon after starting, she realized that it was too theoretical to help her find a job in the future. Though disappointed, she didn't give up and began to search for ways to gain some actual experience with coding and put her theoretical knowledge to practical use.

After stumbling across a Re:Coded ad online, she enrolled in the Sana'a bootcamp, hoping this would be the right stepping stone to find a job in a struggling economy.
Less than a month after graduation, she found a job as a frontend developer.

Job hunting success

The economic situation makes it difficult for anyone to find work in Yemen. Embroiled in conflict since 2015, the socio-economic situation in Yemen has long since been precarious, and 40% of Yemeni households are estimated to have lost their primary source of income. And the precarious socio-economic situation isn’t the only barrier she has faced.

"It’s really difficult to find tech jobs in Yemen at the moment due to the economy. Often, companies will take people with experience and then pay them as though they had no experience at all." This is why many companies are willing to take recent graduates as they can pay them less.

"Therefore, it can be difficult to change jobs as someone with more experience will want a higher salary. This is a big problem right now. If I have experience and I choose to change my job, I will not find a job easily."

The lack of jobs available meant that she had to get creative to get an interview.

"I found the boss of the company on Facebook and I sent him my CV. They knew about Re:Coded bootcamps and after I told them that I had completed a bootcamp, they accepted me immediately."

Spreading her knowledge

Today, Atheer is working as a frontend development team lead at a local software company. With a real shortage of React js developers in Yemen, she's found herself training a team of junior developers since hiring is not an option.

"I'm preparing them to work in React. We're working step by step here."

Atheer is applying some of the same teaching techniques she experienced years ago during her own Re:Coded bootcamp and walking them through the fundamentals, training a few in the next generation of developers in Yemen.