An old desktop, a missed scholarship, and the curiosity that led me to programming and software.
Growing up, I spent hours playing games on an old computer, just having fun without thinking much about how things were built. Especially during the days of playing 'Medal of Honor' at local gaming cafes where I could play with friends, but we couldn't easily do that on our home computers. Gradually, I grew curious to know how these systems and games actually worked under the hood.
After high school (part of the new digital exam cohort), I entered Ain Shams University Engineering. Soon after, I was nominated for a scholarship sponsored by the Egyptian Refining Company (ERC) in our area (El-Matareya). One requirement was knowing basic programming, so I went to YouTube and learned programming fundamentals and C. I did well in the interview, but placed 4th when they only accepted the top 3. Looking back, God's plan was best: the scholarship required maintaining a high GPA every semester under risk of cancellation. Not getting it gave me the time to learn web development and pursue what I genuinely enjoy.
During my freshman year, the Ministry of Communications launched the FWD scholarship with Udacity. I applied for data analytics because it was trending at the time, but between probability, statistics, and technical English alongside engineering coursework, it was tough and I couldn't complete it. In the second semester, I applied for the Web Development track with the same scholarship. I fell in love with the field, earned 3 certifications, and completed the Advanced Web track.
I kept practicing, building projects, and applying until I landed an internship at Across The Globe (ATG) in India—my first remote experience working in English for 3 months. During college and my early freelance days, my mother supported me and bought me a laptop to replace my old desktop PC. That made a huge difference and helped me work on real client projects. Freelancing opened the door to my first full-time role with Softigital in Egypt. During that period, I decided to explore Embedded systems and really liked it, especially dealing with memory bits, and took an Embedded Systems diploma alongside web development, but ultimately decided to focus on web development and give it my full time.
I went through a significant period of hesitation: whether to focus on my university studies in Electrical Power or commit to web development where I had already started working. I sought advice from experienced people in both fields, prayed Istikhara, and decided to continue in the path where I had already covered substantial ground—web development. And here I am now, continuing my passion and learning. With the rise of AI, we look at how to leverage it, which pushed us to study and learn even more, and that's why I started moving towards Full-Stack development.
Thanks for taking the time to read my journey.