Coding prodigy and self-starter Salif Tankoano was born and raised in Burkina Faso. Studying and living across Europe and NYC, Salif never lost sight of his West African roots by emphasizing a strong work ethic and embracing challenges. In this interview, he shares the story of his life across three continents and how to use competition as an advantage. With confidence and demonstrated capabilities, Salif has embarked on a life-long journey of success in computer science.
Contact Salif and check out his incredible portfolio for your next web project.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Burkina Faso, West Africa. I grew up in Burkina Faso until I was about seven years old. At seven, my parents had the opportunity to go to Belgium so we moved and I studied there in Europe for about 5 years. We left around 2012 when my parents went back to Burkina Faso and decided to send me to France to study and live with my aunt. Initially, I went to Paris and lived there for a year, but I didn’t like Paris at all. People were very different from what I knew in Belgium, so I decided this was not for me and I went back to Burkina Faso. Everybody was like “Oh no, why would you want to come back, you went to Europe, everything is so great,” but there was honestly nothing there for me.
Can you talk about the biggest cultural influences on your upbringing?
I would say Belgium was a big step for me- it changed the way I thought about things. When I first arrived, I had never been on a plane before. When I was young, I was walking around the street and noticed a plane. I thought about what it would actually be like to fly and then a few days later we had a school field trip to the airport. I was able to enter the aircraft, and I was amazed because I had never seen anything like this. I got to talk to the pilots and they explained that they don’t have to do much thanks to the technology that we have. They showed me the screens and I thought it was crazy how the machines are helping them so much. When we exited the plane, we were back on the bus and I noticed that everybody was on their phone. I was thinking about why are people always on their phones, and what is so special about the phone if the phone itself doesn’t do anything. Then I realized it was the apps, that’s what everyone is interested in. I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s what would bring me to actually study computer science later on.
So I think I was influenced by working in France but also by encounters with people, especially because I went to school early on. In Burkina Faso, we don’t have an age requirement to go to school. I think it is the equivalent of pre-K or kindergarten and then you go to first grade. In our case, we don’t have to go to kindergarten to get to first grade. I used to hang out with a bunch of kids who were older than me and one day, the kids said they were going to school so I went home and told my mom I wanted to go but she said I wasn’t old enough. The next day, I followed the kids to school, and for about a month, my mom didn’t know and the teacher didn’t know either. After a month, the teacher noticed and said, “Hey, I haven’t actually seen your name on the list.” I gave my name and he realized I wasn’t on the list so he went to the principal who was a friend of my dad and he was like “Hey little Tankoano, what are you doing here?” I told him I wanted to go to school and he called my dad and they decided that at this point, they may as well enroll me and that’s how I started school earlier. I think I was six which was two years younger than the actual age.
Did you know from a young age what you wanted to do, or did you have other ambitions?
Initially, I didn’t even think about a career path. I didn’t think about being close to technology, the only thing that I saw was my dad maybe. He was working in security as a driver like you see with presidents and officials. When I was a kid, the only thing I knew about his job was that he drove a bunch of black cars and didn’t know where he was going or doing. For example, by the time I would wake up in the morning at four or five am, I would see him driving out and then he would come home with different cars.
Thinking about the person you are today, who would you say influenced you the most?
I would say my dad has to be number one. In some ways, he always looked serious to me because of the job he had and not being able to see him so much. He was mysterious in many ways and I thought it was cool. Even when he wasn’t around much, everything was always cool when he was here. A very funny guy, he could make anybody laugh. That’s something I always admired, and he was always somebody who looked very strong. I was always like, “Yeah, that’s my dad- nobody can mess with him.”
Can you talk about your career journey?
Initially, when I arrived in New York, my first job was as a dishwasher. I moved here when I was 18- I turned 18 in May and moved in August. I worked very hard as a dishwasher and then one of the supervisors noticed and said they appreciated my help and I was grateful. One day, I asked if I could have a raise and they were shocked that I asked for it. I wanted a raise because I worked harder than most of the guys around me and so I said if I work harder than the others and I am very useful, why won’t you give me a raise? They said they couldn’t because I had only worked for 3 months- so they considered time more important than my hard work. I left that job, and I think I did at least 10 different jobs. I started college in 2020 and the first job I got after that was working in the registrar’s office. That was a cool job that I liked because I got to learn from the people who work at the university and understand how things work. I didn’t know much about the work behind the scenes at the university, so I learned a lot.
Most recently, I became a tech instructor for a tech education company that teaches to students grades K through 12. That was very interesting to me to see the way students learn and discover things. There are so many new ways of learning that I didn’t think about and it gave me a lot of suggestions. The students amazed me every day. Now I am working with Headstarter which is an AI company. I’m mostly learning about AI and implementing them into web applications. I’m looking for my next, full-time role. I actually started coding when I was 16 and even built my own company at that time selling website development services. I had a lot of rejections, but I learned a lot.
What would you say has been the biggest lesson that you’ve learned so far?
I think the biggest lesson so far for me has been to always push the boundaries. I think that scares me a little bit sometimes, I think “What if I go too far?” Recently I’ve been thinking about it, and so what? Just push and see what happens because it’s just the fear factor of not knowing exactly what would happen if you did a lot. When I focus on something, I ignore everything around me, which is hard sometimes for people to realize. I know that when I push the boundaries, it not only ends up helping me but also the people around me in ways that they didn’t even think about.
There is a lot of talk about the competition in the field of computer science, can you give some advice on how to not fear the competition?
I grew up in the West African school systems where they just ranked the students initially. For example, everyone is ranked out of 20 and you could have an overall score of 18. It’s not just about competition, everybody wanted to know where they actually stood. Even if you have a 9 out of 20 overall, and somebody else has 18, everyone knows where they stand and you know who is the best. It’s helpful to know that if they are the best, you can ask them for help. A lot of times people don’t look for help or analyze other people’s work to use to their own advantage. I think that a lot of times, I don’t feel the competition simply because I don’t see them as competition, I see them as people to help me become better. If someone is better than me at math, perfect- I go to him when I need help with math problems. For me, I am very skilled at coding so someone else can come to me for help with coding problems. Don’t fear the competition because there will always be people better than you in many ways. When I was younger I had a friend who was a pure genius. At seven years old, he could learn a new language within weeks. He had never spoken a single word of Italian and when we met two Italian guys, he was fluent in Italian in two weeks. I realized at that time that there are always people who are better than you, but being surrounded by them helps you to do your best.
