Tech Support Engineer, Belyse Uwambayinema, Discusses Career Growth at Tek Experts Rwanda

Tek Experts -

7 min read

tech support Engineer

Belyse Uwambayinema, Tek Experts L2 Technical Support Engineer, shared this about her work at Tek Experts in Rwanda during a Technology & Services Industry Association webinar sponsored by Tek Experts on January 26, 2023, about Building the Tech Workforce of Tomorrow: Where, Why and How. The session included talent experts from around the world discussing the talent challenges tech companies are facing today, as we’ve seen with the recent layoffs and hiring freezes, and how they can overcome these obstacles now while also preparing for the future. 

Watch the webinar on demand now. 

Africa as a Key Tech Talent Location  

The key focus of this session was emphasizing that the future of the tech workforce is in Africa. The continent boasts impressive talent pools with strong language capabilities, robust IT infrastructure, convenient time zones, and other key attributes of an IT talent sourcing and outsourcing location.  

Sourcing and outsourcing tech talent in Africa has proven positive impacts on not just business performance, but also the individuals and communities that these tech companies operate in. 

This is possible because of investments from governments, digital skilling companies, and employability programs. One particular organization, Harambee, works closely with Tek Experts in Rwanda, and Belyse is a graduate of their program. 
 
“I joined Harambe in 2019 where I was really looking for an opportunity and that is what Harambee was providing for the youth of Rwanda. My first job I was linked with through the Harambee program. That is when I got my first job in the tech world.  

Sharmi Surianarain, Chief Impact Officer of Harambee, spoke during the webinar about how their organization is providing individuals with tools for career readiness, and empowering younger generations with the confidence they need to succeed in their roles. 

“It takes a village. We are part of that village and couldn’t do that without our partners like Tek.” 

  • Sharmi Surianarain, Chief Impact Officer at Harambee 

Belyse spoke at the webinar about how impact sourcing in Rwanda has positively contributed to her impressive career growth, and how she’s spreading that growth to her community. 

To watch the Q&A with Belyse Uwambayinema and Gary Bennett, the Rwanda Country Manager for Tek Experts, watch our webinar

We’ve also outlined the Q&A below. Check it out.  

Q&A with Belyse Uwambayinema and Gary Bennett 

Tell us about how your career journey began in the tech industry. 

After Harambee placed Belyse in her first tech job, they stayed with her to make sure she was happy. “I really liked the fact that Harambe did a follow up,” Belyse explained 

“What they do is always follow up to make sure that you are in the right place and you are in a happy place. I was contacted by Harambee with the opportunity to join Tek Experts. This is where my journey began.”  

“I applied and got accepted to Tek Experts. The onboarding process included investing in me with both the technical skills and the soft skills that I needed to be successful in my tech journey.” 

Now that you’ve joined, what does your growth look like and what’s happened for you over the last 18 months? 

“Well, a lot. I’ll be honest, that is a lot. I’ve seen so much growth throughout the past few years I’ve been with Tek Experts, not actually even a lot of years. And I’m so grateful for after the onboarding process, getting equipped with the soft skills, getting equipped with their technical skills. What followed was going live, picking cases, helping customers and making sure that we provide the best customer service that we can.” 

Belyse excelled right away, taking on technology that was entirely new to her and mastering it in a matter of months. “Part of what I’m so proud of is with all the investment Tek invested in me, having zero knowledge of the product that I was going to support, I was able to get promoted in less than a year.” 

“Moreover, since what Tek Experts does normally is seeing what potential you have, I was introduced to the T4 program which prepared me to be the future trainer of whoever.” 

The T4 program is a Tek Experts program designed for people with the potential to train others. When participants are nominated, they gain additional skills in basic training concepts and learn different facilitation techniques, how to analyze learning styles and how to transfer knowledge to others. 

“It’s either the technical trainer or the soft trainer and that is the potential I never saw in myself, but my company saw in me and invested in me.”  

“That and I’ve seen so much growth getting involved in giving back to the community, making sure that what I do also reflects outside to the community. That is all the growth I’ve seen and experienced while working with Tek Experts.” 

The work that you’ve done and how you’ve worked with the team over the last 18 months has been brilliant and you’ve been part of that first group that joined Tek Experts in Rwanda and it’s been stunning. And along with the growth you had the development piece.  

What’s your day-to-day like? How do you feel about the role day-to-day? 

“Being in Technical Support involves learning every day. Either the product of support, either different customers that you’re dealing with, specifically learning more about your product, but also getting to expand your knowledge, getting to create different networks with your customers. And our daily work or my daily work from morning to evening involves learning because you pick a case, you don’t know what you’re going to do that day and you close the case, but you don’t know what you’re going to do tomorrow.”  

“So, this involves preparation of your mind. Getting ready for any challenge that might come up in another day and making sure that we will provide the best support that we can. And with that we value customers’ feedback. That is something we’ve seen in so much growth here whereby you receive feedback, and you feel like you’ve really done a good job.” 

“We value so much our customers, and we value their comments with their feedback. This also helps our team to better know what we are going to do in the future, what we can correct and what we did well that we must proceed to do.” 

Marvelous and I see that. I’m blessed to have the team upstairs that work with our clients. So yes, I see that day in day out from you guys. It’s amazing.  

And what are you looking forward to this year? What’s the plan for ‘23? 

“I’m looking forward to expanding my network as Tek Experts is not only limited to Rwanda. I’m so lucky to get the connection from different sites of Tek Experts, but also getting to get connected to different future leaders, future tech leaders, different people that are in our tech field.”  

“I’m looking forward to expanding that network, I’m looking forward to making a change in the tech field whereby this is a field that we still see, I’ll be honest, we still see few females in this field. So, I’m looking forward to making that impact in the tech field, having a lot of ladies joining that field.”  

“But more specifically getting connected to the tech leaders and getting to learn from them and getting to know what we can do for the future. That’s what I’m looking forward to in the future. But most of all I’m looking forward to continually providing the best support that I can and making sure that our customers get fully satisfied with the services that we offer.” 

For the full interview, you can watch the webinar on demand now

Interested in more information on how companies are digitally skilling tech talent in Africa? Check out this article about Microsoft Leap, a program designed to transform the lives of people previously overlooked by the technology industry both because of their backgrounds and locations, making them empowered participants in the industry. Read now. 

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