Narenda Wicaksono: Stepping Backward to Go Forward

Last year I was being put between two most difficult choices in my whole career: to go regional and be a Southeast Asian developer relations or get out of reputable MNC without any certainty of income nor career. People will definitely go for the first, as only a mad would buy the second option.

To me, first choice offered me a continuous remuneration that could double or even triple my income back then, and the second one gave me nothing but starting back from zero.

I’d had two children and a wife at that time, which only makes the choices even more complicated. Who would guarantee our financial stability? Would I be able to make my children keep going to school if we lost our monthly routine income?

After judging everything for quite a while, I came to a conclusion that no one can guarantee someone’s life but God. Our job, as a human, is only to give it our best shot; empower every single capital that we have (mind and heart) to reach everything we want.

Then, I asked myself – what was my real reason of living? What could I do to contribute to Indonesia based on my specialties in IT? What did my fellow developers need to push the limit?

Stepping backward to move forward initiates the resurgence of Indonesian IT industry.

After designating myself as Nokia and Microsoft’s developer relations for more than eight years, I was blessed to have the chance of meeting various types of developers. From developers wannabe who were still in college to those seniors who have obtained world-class programming skills. I was involved in their world from the very beginning, slowly understanding their characters and habits, listening to their complaints and feedback, motivating them and always trying to give them my best.

I witnessed myself the potential they possessed. Even though they weren’t that many, they were spread all over Indonesia. And they have unlimited potential! They were spread in all parts of Indonesia, from coast to coast.

However, their business development were challenged by the problem of distance and language. Most of them lived far from the Capital, thus they had serious problem in metting their skills with the demand from the market.

It’s a shame to see these potential developers burying their dream merely because of distance and communication barrier. I myself have proved that they could earn billions and get millions of downloads. Some of them even brought their national pride with them when going abroad.

That being said, I knew for sure that I couldn’t leave my fellow Indonesian developers only to facilitate Southeast Asian developers. My mind and heart said that I can’t leave them, along with their limitless potential, just yet!

My decision was solid

I chose to step out, look back, and bridge local developers to the dynamic market, so that we can collectively grow local IT industry to initiate the resurgence of Indonesian IT century.

Earlier this year, on January 5, 2015, Dicoding was officially born as a platform that bridges the market’s needs and developers who want to showcase their skills. At Dicoding, young developers and professionals can challenge themselves by solving projects available and collect points that can be redeemed to get attractive rewards.

In other words, Dicoding plays a role in facilitating those who want to develop their IT ecosystem to reach out developers all over Indonesia. The developers will also get acknowledged for their works so that a dynamic Indonesian IT ecosystem can be realized.

It’s true that as a microentrepreneur, no one can give me financial certainty as what I got during my career in a giant MNC. However, I now find my days more colorful as I dream bigger. My dream is to turn Indonesian developers into world-class developers. I’m pretty sure that with hard work and strong will, that dream would be achievable through Dicoding Indonesia.

_ This writing was initially published on Dicoding’s Blog [in Indonesian] and re-published with author’s permit.

Narenda Wicaksono is the Co-Founder of Dicoding, Indonesian developers showcase platform. DailySocial invests at Dicoding.