This month, we celebrate the soft-launch of GeeksFarm, a programmer recruitment and training company based in Bandung.
We believe that software is eating the world – as Marc Andreessen famously said. Traditional jobs are being destroyed (they get ‘automated’). Or it can be reduced (people become ‘freelancers’ as opposed to full-time workers). Think about Amazon’s drones and warehouse full of robots. Or Uber that creates ‘freelance driver’ jobs but strips fulltime drivers of their jobs (by killing – slowly – their traditional transportation competitors).
And investors around the world love this trend. Technology is a new growth sector. And money is pouring in to those companies that can / has the potential to ‘eat the world’. Airbnb, a tech startup that eats traditional hotels, is valued more than the century-old, world-famous Hyatt corporation.
Back here in our country, this is happening as well. Go-Jek, a very innovative tech startup, could very well be valued more than Blue-bird. While Blue Bird is the largest taxi company in Indonesia. It can be defeated by Go-Jek in the near future.
I’m telling you this because money is pouring in alright, and some of the money (more than 30%) is allocated towards software product development. Thus, the war on tech talent heats up, and ehem – this is widely known across the tech players – one of the newly launched ecommerce companies is snapping up talent from other companies agressively by pitching 3x salary increase.
All the reason for us to launch GeeksFarm. We believe by becoming a programmer, someone can climb the career ladder faster than most other industries. GeeksFarm is located strategically. Just beside one of the most prestigious universities in Bandung – Maranatha University. We will launch another location in 2016 and will have the capacity to ‘produce’ 1000 tech talents per year.
Training for Better Work Experience
From the years at WGS before GeeksFarm is spun off, the operation thus already have years of training experience, and multiple success stories. Some of our trainees went on to found their own startups. Some work overseas. Companies that employ our trainees can share good words. Some of the overseas companies even setup their own development center operation in Bandung. It is because they become aware of Bandung talent pool.
If Donald Trump wants to make America great again, I’d say we want to make Indonesia proud. We will facilitate knowledge transfer and enable job creation. Furthermore, our network of alumni will eventually make Indonesia proud.