Entelect

Pretoria's own Google Developer Groups (GDG) DevFest is coming up on 4 October, and we're chuffed to have Johan Van Rooyen from Entelect on the speaker line-up. His talk: taking Google's smaller open-weight models and squeezing them to see how much performance they'll actually give up. The real question he's putting to the test: can you run an agent on a bottom-of-the-line potato phone? Come find out, and pick up a few things about agent construction along the way. Catch Johan at Tshwane North TVET College on the day. RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/erQvYCgu

And the winners are… 🎉 Congratulations to Mpho Khoza, Tlakusani S. S and Dokotela Raps, our three winners of the Comic Con Africa giveaway! The correct answer was 4 public-facing hackathons this year, and you all got it spot on. Enjoy your 4-Day Passes and the weekend at NASREC, we hope it's an unforgettable one. Thanks to everyone who entered.

As you've progressed in your career, which has actually driven your growth more? Have you stayed hands-on because coding is where you thrive? Have you found your energy in communication and influence instead? Or are you stubbornly refusing to choose, finding ways to do both?

Growth at Entelect doesn't mean having to trade your craft for a calendar full of 1:1s. Stay technical, keep going deeper, and let your seniority show in the impact of your skill. Explore some of our technical roles here: https://lnkd.in/d_dUu7rR

2001: dial-up internet, the Game Boy Advance, and a handful of engineers at Wits starting Entelect. 25 years and over 2500 people later and we're still levelling up.

Win your way into Comic Con Africa! 🎮 We're sending three lucky winners to Comic Con Africa Johannesburg with a free 4-Day Pass: 24 to 27 September at NASREC. Whether you're there for the gaming, the cosplay, the anime or just the atmosphere, it's a proper weekend out (travel and accommodation are for the winner's own account). To enter, comment the answer to this question: how many public-facing hackathons have we run this year? While you're there, swing past the Main Stage on Saturday 26 September from 11:30 to 12:30, where our Hackathons team will be watching the Hack<IT> Top 5 go head-to-head for a R70,000 prize pool! Entelectuals will be around all weekend if you want to say hello. Winners drawn on Monday, 21 September.

Most consultancies wait for a project, then go shopping for five Java devs and a couple of BAs. Entelect doesn't work that way. At this week's Entelect Engage, Daniel Manyemwe (CCO) and Tomislav Ravić Ravic (GM) sat down with Clive Makume to talk through what actually drives growth here: hiring for fit over ticking boxes, building trust with customers through capability rather than sales pitches, and keeping culture intact while going global. "No job is not my job" was the line of the day, a fair summary of how the leadership team operates.

At a lot of consultancies, "bum in a seat" is the reality. Junaid Jamie, a Team Lead who's been at Entelect for almost seven years, says that's not the experience here. Things change constantly and sometimes you do get thrown in the deep end, but you've got an entire company doing the same work around you, with the experience to lean on when you need it. Watch the full conversation to hear more from Junaid on what consulting life at Entelect is really like: https://lnkd.in/ecqbwMrH

There's an unspoken rule in many teams: don't touch what's working. But is that really about stability, or is it about authority? New developers often hold back from refactoring not because the code is broken, but because they're anxious about challenging or appearing to outshine their seniors. Yet technical debt is real. It slows delivery, makes onboarding harder, and increases risk. The question becomes: should juniors need permission to improve code, or is that permission already implicit in their role? What's your take on when refactoring is fair game?

Consultancy life gets a bad rap: parachuted onto a project, left to fend for yourself, nobody checking in. That's not how we work. Our people go in as teams, backed by a lead and the people team who stay involved. Temporary solo placements rarely happen, but "solo" never means “on your own”. See more about work life at Entelect: https://lnkd.in/eM3-iyxX