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Even if you have no dreams of building your own startup, it's a good idea to follow how the tech startup space is growing, as this gives insights into where the local tech employment is also headed.
One of the major challenges that more than half of the startups noted in the study is the lack of availability of engineers and technical talent. This is very telling, as the CEO of Lista points out, "Compared to other markets, the number of engineers who know how to scale a product from 0 to millions of users is quite rare. Generally, it hasn't been there."
For the longest time, the tech startup ecosystem in the country has been virtually non-existent. But with every success, which then gives back to the community, the ecosystem grows. Still long ways ahead, but we're starting to show signs of life. The more PH tech startups succeed, the more employment opportunities open here. I often refer to the India experience, and how they managed to become a global tech powerhouse as something maybe we can replicate here. If they can, we can.
As mentioned in the previous article, the country has a severe lack of capable tech professionals. There's a lot of opportunity that can open up for you if you start building the skills. So take advantage of upskilling initiatives like this. IT'S FREE via Coursera.
You can get licenses to access material on:
- Data analytics
- User experience (UX) design
- Project Management
- IT support and automation
- Digital marketing and e-commerce
- Cybersecurity
- AI essentials
Slots are limited, so hurry up and grab them.
I've gone through this before. As an engineering student in college in the mid 2000s, we were required to take one programming class, which was taught in C. In our exams, we had to write code on paper, even though there's a fully-functioning computer right in front of each and every student. You had to have perfect syntax or else, even if your logic and code was correct, you were deducted major points.
It made sense back then, since code editors didn't give you hints when it came to syntax, and programming books were expensive and hard to come by. So students would benefit greatly from memorizing the syntax, or else, they'll have a hard time building anything in C. (Even as I write this, I question this rhetoric, since you can create your own cheatsheet anyway but well, let's just say this is true.)
But today, 20 years since I've aced that subject, this archaic practice is nothing short of absurd.
Code editors have come a long way. Google is just a ctrl+tab away. And AI LLMs have found their way into the workplace.
Yes, you still had to be familiar with the syntax, but there's absolutely little to no value in memorizing it. It's one of the things I dislike with traditional teach methods as applied to the modern world, they put too much value on memorization as if that's the only measure of intelligence.
In the comments section, the common the argument for it is, apparently, it makes one a better programmer. I'd argue otherwise, or at the very least, I'd say there's no correlation. I mean, if that were true, then the Philippines must now be known globally as a programmer hotbed! We're not! There's an annual flood of tech graduates here in the country, and yet, most of them don't have the necessary skills that industry needs. I've had my own experiences with it, but don't take my word for it. Just ask the startup founders here in the country (see previous articles above).
Programming and software development is less about memorization, but more about solving problems. Heck, even AI struggles in remembering everything, especially if you throw it in the middle of a very large codebase. That's also why a good documentation policy in a software development team is very important; everyone forgets everything eventually. In our team, for example, we always tell people to NEVER trust their memory, which is the complete opposite of what some IT teachers are still forcing on their students.
Memorization also comes naturally in programming, as you do something repeatedly everyday. Imagine having to do for-loops almost every day for one month at work, you'll surely be able to write it down blindfolded.
There's only one scenario in which writing code on paper creates value for students: pseudocode. That's when the teacher doesn't care about syntax, but emphasizes logic and problem solving instead. I personally tend to do this for problems I get stuck on, like the one time I had to lay out a tree algorithm for adding nested filtering to our search functionality. The brain-to-muscle feedback I get from writing pseudocode and diagrams down on paper accelerate the problem solving process. But that's me, I'm sure this doesn't work for some people either.
I've never heard of anyone who has been considered a great developer just because they memorized the syntax. It's always the great problem solvers who are highly regarded, and often, they still search Google (or ask AI) for even the most mundane things.
Don't get me wrong, it's totally fine to memorize syntax, if one really wants to. But it's harmful to penalize students for it, because it sends the wrong signal.
Tell me what you think. Should we still force students to write code on paper or not?
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