How Courage and Trust got Me to Meta, London.
My name is Ghaid and I’m from Hebron, West Bank, Palestine. I’ll be starting as a software development engineer at Meta in London in a few months. I really didn’t think I would ever leave my country to work abroad, and if someone came to me a few months earlier and told me that I’ll have job offers from 3 different FAANG companies I wouldn’t have believed it. This is an exciting time for me as I only just graduated 6-months ago from Manara, the program that referred me to Meta. I want people to read my story so they feel motivated to try something new. I have to thank all of the people who told me about Marana and who shared their stories.
How I got started
In my final year of high school, I attended a coding summer camp where I was first introduced to coding. I loved solving problems using code and that was where I had the idea to go into that field. I actually started in computer engineering at Palestine Polytechnic University but after 2 years I found myself more interested in algorithms and writing code than electricity and circuits. After speaking to people at my university I decided to change my major to computer science — a move that I’m so happy I made.
I originally found out about Manara through a Facebook group. I started filling out the online form, but I didn’t believe it was real so I didn’t continue. The next year, my final year at university, people from my university shared the application form and said they got jobs through Manara. That motivated me to apply again. I told two of my friends and we all joined and got accepted together. One of my friends, Aseel Arafeh, is my friend from university and she has just accepted a job at noon in Dubai.
How I was supported
During Manara’s program, they pair you with mentors. I loved the time I spent with Elham from Spotify (Sweden) and Laamia from Phantom (Miami). To be able to learn and spend time with such successful and knowledgeable women in tech was inspiring on its own. I would learn the most by hearing about their personal experiences. What helped me the most was some great advice from Laamia. She said that you are interviewing a company as much as they’re interviewing you. This definitely helped ease my nerves and taught me to ask better questions. It switched my mindset during the interviews and helped me ask about the information I needed to decide if a company was a good fit for me.
What I’ve learned from this process is that there are genuinely good people out there who want to help you and see you succeed. It’s sometimes hard to believe as we’re in our own little community bubble. I’m glad I had the courage to apply to Manara and eventually to Meta, and I hope if you’re in a similar situation, you’ll have the courage too!
