Coaching Leadership Transformation

A few years ago, something unexpected happened.

I started getting bored.Not because my work lacked meaning.

As co-founder of CodeLn and head of recruitment for over 4 years, I had the privilege of connecting exceptional engineers with companies that truly needed them.

But something was missing.

A question kept coming back, more and more insistently:

Who actually helps these young engineers start their careers?

Who teaches them how to:

1. write a CV that reflects who they are
2. understand how companies think
3. position themselves, not just apply

Most of the time, the answer was simple: No one.

The turning point

That’s when I received a call from Raïssa Banhoro, Director of Simplon Côte d’Ivoire.

She invited me to evaluate candidates for an ambitious program:

Training 100 young Ivorians on AWS certifications, funded by GIZ Côte d’Ivoire, with a clear objective:

Build a new generation of cloud engineers.

My role was not just to assess them.

It was to help them:

1. understand the professional world
2. navigate its expectations
3. take ownership of their careers

I said yes Of course.

What I discovered

Very quickly, something became clear.

The problem was never talent.

Côte d’Ivoire is full of it.

What’s missing is structure. Guidance. Exposure.

Cohort after cohort, I met a new generation of IT professionals:

1. curious
2. driven
3. incredibly capable

Young talents who, with the right support, reveal their full potential.

Names like Christian Junior Braffo, Arnold Okaingne, Lagama Coulibaly, and many others I still follow today.

The outcome

The results spoke for themselves.

More than 90% of the cohort secured a job within 2 months after the program.

Not luck.

Not coincidence.

The result of:

1. strong training
2. the right environment
3. and most importantly, their own commitment

What this changed for me

This experience reshaped how I see recruitment.

Recruitment does not start when you source candidates.

It starts much earlier.

When you help someone:

1. understand their value
2. find their direction
3. believe in their potential

That’s where real impact begins.

A broader mission

This became part of my mission.

Not just connecting talent to opportunities.

But helping talent become ready for those opportunities.

Because in markets like ours:

Talent is not the problem.

Access and preparation are.

What comes next

And this was just the beginning.

Another mission followed, the training of 100 more young people in digital creations.

A different challenge.

Same conviction.

I’ll share that story very soon.