Why Cameroon’s Tech Talent Is Africa’s Best-Kept Secret

Hello 👋

Welcome to another week — and another opportunity to grow into a strong, confident DevOps, Infrastructure, or Platform Engineer.

Today’s issue is brought to you by The Engineering Ladder — where we share practical, career-shaping lessons in DevOps and Software Engineering to help you level up with clarity and direction.

💡 PS: Before we dive into today’s topic, I want to quickly share something important with you…

If you’ve been following The Engineering Ladder, you already know one thing I believe deeply:

👉 Real tech careers are built on evidence, not just interest.

That belief is exactly why we built CloudOps Academy.

CloudOps Academy is a hands-on training program for DevOps Engineers, Infrastructure Engineers, and Platform Engineers who want more than theory.
We focus on helping engineers build real systems, understand how production environments work, and gain the confidence to perform in real roles — not just pass interviews.

At CloudOps Academy, you don’t just “learn tools.”
You learn how to:
✅ Design and operate real cloud infrastructure
✅ Work with Docker, CI/CD, monitoring, and automation the way teams do in production
✅ Think like a reliability-focused engineer, not just a script writer
✅ Build projects you can confidently explain in interviews
✅ Grow from uncertainty to clarity with structured guidance and mentorship

Our goal is simple:
to help you become job-ready, confident, and credible as an engineer.

If you’re serious about building a strong DevOps or Cloud career — and you want guidance from engineers who are actively working in the field — we’d love to talk.

📞 Phone: +237 653 583 000
📧 Email: [email protected]

No pressure.
Just clarity on whether CloudOps Academy is the right next step for you.

Now, let’s get into today’s lesson 👇

A few years ago, someone asked me a question I still think about today:

It wasn’t meant to be rude.
It was curiosity mixed with an assumption.

The assumption was simple:
real tech careers only happen elsewhere.

But here’s what most people don’t see.

Some of the most disciplined, resourceful, and hungry DevOps engineers I’ve worked with are right here in Cameroon — building, learning, shipping, and supporting global systems from their bedrooms.

And they’re doing it quietly.

Why Cameroon Produces Strong Engineers

When you grow in an environment where:

• resources are limited

• learning is mostly self-driven

• failure is expensive

You don’t learn for certificates.
You learn to survive and adapt.

Many engineers here don’t just “follow tutorials.”
They troubleshoot broken setups.
They improvise when tools fail.
They learn deeply because they have to.

That pressure builds real skill.

How Local Engineers Are Competing Globally

The DevOps engineers succeeding from Cameroon aren’t doing anything magical.

They’re doing a few things consistently:

• They focus on fundamentals (Linux, networking, systems thinking)
• They build real projects, not just labs
• They document their work and outcomes
• They learn how to communicate clearly with global teams
• They stop waiting for permission to be “ready”

Remote work didn’t lower the bar.
It removed geography from the equation.

What Holds Many Back (And How to Fix It)

The biggest blocker isn’t skill.
It’s confidence and positioning.

Too many talented engineers:

• underestimate their ability

• don’t track their impact

• struggle to explain their work

That’s not a talent problem.
That’s a storytelling and exposure problem.

And both can be fixed.

This Week’s Takeaway

If you’re building your career from Cameroon (or anywhere in Africa):

• Don’t apologize for where you’re based
• Invest in strong fundamentals
• Build evidence, not just experience
• Learn to explain your work simply
• Put yourself out there — consistently

The talent is already here.
The opportunity is catching up.