What Employers Should Look for When Hiring Early-Career Tech Talent in Africa

01 Sep 2026

TL;DR

The strongest early-career tech candidates may not have years of experience behind them. Employers should look for a combination of technical ability, problem-solving, adaptability, communication and evidence that a candidate can apply what they know.

Africa's technology workforce is changing, and so is what employers need from the people entering it.

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 identifies AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy among the fastest-growing skills through 2030. At the same time, analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, creative thinking and curiosity remain important core skills.

For employers hiring early-career talent, this creates a more useful question than “How much experience does this person have?” Instead, they are asking, “Can this person do the work, learn what they don't know, and contribute to the team?”

What Should Employers Look for when Hiring Early-Career Tech Talent in Africa?

Employers should look for technical foundations alongside problem-solving, adaptability, communication, and evidence of practical application.

Technical ability still matters. A data role requires data skills. A software role requires technical knowledge. An AI role requires an understanding of the relevant tools and concepts.

Technical knowledge , however, is only part of what makes a strong hire.

The World Economic Forum ranks analytical thinking as the most important core skill among employers surveyed, while resilience, flexibility and agility, leadership and social influence, creative thinking, and motivation and self-awareness also rank highly. That combination matters particularly for early-career hires.

Someone entering their first technology role may not know every tool an organisation uses. What matters is whether they can learn a new one, work through an unfamiliar problem, and communicate when they need support.

Why Should Employers Look Beyond Degrees and Years of Experience?

Because qualifications and experience can tell you where someone has been, but practical evidence can show you what they can do.

Degrees still matter, but they shouldn't be treated as the only proof of capability.

Consider Emmanuel Quansah, an ALX graduate who had spent years teaching himself programming before entering structured training. He had developed technical skills independently, but lacked a traditional academic pathway and needed to strengthen his fundamentals.

When Emmanuel eventually applied for roles, his ability was tested directly. At Zedulo, he passed written and programming assessments and was selected for an Embedded Systems and Silicon Validation Engineer role.

His story offers a useful lesson for hiring teams: A non-traditional pathway doesn't mean a candidate has less to offer, so give them the opportunity to prove it. Skills-based hiring can make that possible.

What Counts as Practical Experience for an Early-Career Tech Candidate?

Practical experience is any credible evidence that a candidate has applied their skills to solve a problem or produce something.

That could include:

Personal or academic projects
Freelance work
Internships
Technical assessments
Portfolio projects
Community contributions
Open-source work
Hackathons or competitions

For a hiring manager, "What have they actually had to figure out?" is a more useful question than “Has this person worked before?” A candidate who can walk you through a project, explain a decision they made, identify what went wrong and describe how they improved the result is giving you information that a job title alone cannot provide.

How Can Employers Assess Potential When Hiring Junior Tech Talent?

Employers can assess potential by creating opportunities for candidates to demonstrate how they think, learn and work.

A practical hiring process could include:

1. A relevant technical assessment: Test the skills the candidate would actually use in the role.

2. A problem-solving exercise: Give candidates an unfamiliar but realistic problem and look at their approach, not just the final answer.

3. A project discussion: Ask candidates to explain something they have worked on, including their decisions, challenges and lessons.

4. A collaboration exercise: Observe how they communicate, listen, ask questions and work through disagreement.

5. A learning test: Introduce an unfamiliar concept or tool and see how the candidate approaches learning it.

This approach gives employers more information about a candidate's potential than relying entirely on previous job titles.

Hays' research similarly highlights communication, teamwork, critical thinking, adaptability and problem-solving among the skills hiring managers value alongside technical capability. Its 2025 Skills Report found that 84% of hiring managers surveyed prioritised communication, teamwork and collaboration, with critical thinking, adaptability and problem-solving also highly valued.

What Should Employers Change About Entry-Level Tech Hiring?

Employers should make entry-level hiring more focused on demonstrated capability and the skills the role actually requires.

That starts with a few practical changes:

Define the essentials: Separate skills someone needs on day one from skills they can learn on the job.
Assess the work, not just the CV: Use relevant tasks, portfolios and work samples.
Keep alternative pathways open: Self-directed learning, professional programmes and freelance work can all produce valuable skills.
Assess how candidates learn: A junior hire will inevitably encounter things they don't know.
Look at the whole candidate: Technical ability matters, but so do communication, collaboration and adaptability.

The World Economic Forum's findings reinforce this shift: technological skills are rising rapidly, but human capabilities such as analytical thinking, creative thinking, resilience and curiosity are rising alongside them.

For employers, the implication is straightforward: The best early-career technology hire is the candidate who can demonstrate they can learn and solve problems, not necessarily the one who already knows everything.

What does this mean for Africa's technology workforce?

It means employers have an opportunity to widen the pool of talent they can identify and develop.

Africa's technology workforce will need people who can work with emerging technologies while also thinking critically, collaborating effectively and continuing to learn. That requires employers to rethink what “job ready” looks like.

It also requires training providers to prepare people for more than technical assessments. Current ALX programmes, for example, combine digital skills with practical projects, workplace capabilities and career preparation.

For an early-career professional, that distinction matters. They may not have five years of experience or a conventional route into technology, but they may well have spent hundreds of hours building projects and solving real problems.

A good hiring process should be able to see that.

Where Employers Can Find Job-Ready Talent

ALX prepares early-career tech talent through practical, skills-based programmes, exactly the kind of evidence this article points to. If you're hiring and want to connect with job-ready graduates, explore ALX's talent programmes to see how our approach to skills development lines up with what you're looking for.

Frequently Asked Questions

What skills should employers look for in entry-level tech talent?

Employers should assess the technical skills required for the role alongside analytical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, adaptability and curiosity.

Should employers hire tech candidates without a university degree?

Where appropriate for the role, yes. Employers can use practical assessments, projects and portfolios to evaluate capability rather than using a degree as the sole measure of readiness.

How can companies assess junior tech talent?

Technical assessments, project reviews, problem-solving exercises, portfolio discussions and collaborative tasks can help employers see how candidates actually work.

What makes a good early-career technology candidate?

A strong candidate can demonstrate relevant technical skills, explain their thinking, learn from feedback, work with others and approach unfamiliar problems with curiosity.

How can African employers improve technology hiring?

Employers can improve hiring by defining skills clearly, assessing candidates through relevant practical tasks, considering alternative learning pathways and evaluating potential alongside existing experience.