Property Finder Tech Profiles: Fabrice Kabongo, Engineering Lead
Property Finder is an incredibly successful start-up, rapidly becoming a beacon for technology and data applications in the Middle East. We achieve success through our talented and diverse teams, one of whom is interviewed in this article. In this edition of ‘Property Finder Tech Profiles’ we introduce you to Fabrice Kabongo, Engineering Lead.
Hi Fabrice! Thanks for volunteering to tell your life story! Let’s start with you telling us a bit about yourself… What was your journey to joining Property Finder’s Engineering team?
Sure! I’m Fabrice Kabongo, originally from Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s a pretty large city — around 3 million people, and I lived there until I was 22. I studied for my university degree in Software Engineering and Information Systems in Lubumbashi, and I worked there for a year after that. I then decided to move to South Africa for better opportunities and a better tech environment.
I also wanted to move to South Africa to be in an English-speaking environment. My English was so bad when I moved there! I went back to university for my masters, and honestly I struggled so much for the first 5 or 6 months! I had to learn English really fast! I worked as a software engineer whilst studying — it was an intense time.
I guess by then I was corrupted by the excitement of working in a company — being able to build real stuff, for millions of users in the real world. Going from the eye of your mind to something practical and real — it’s so amazing. I think if I didn’t go into IT I would have been an astronaut — my brain is just like that!
For a while I worked in South Africa — for a company called ‘Junk Mail’; no I am not joking. They named it back when classifieds were referred to as ‘junk mail’, you know those letters that came through the door? It’s so funny, because the company became a huge brand and they couldn’t change the name! I worked there for a year or so, which was a great experience. I then moved into a recruitment management software company called Parallel Software, after which I decided to move to Dubai!
Did you always want to move to Dubai?
I was looking for my next adventure outside of Africa and Dubai was one of the cities I wanted to live in. At the same time, I had been contacted by a few companies, in South Africa, North America, Europe and the Middle-East. Fun fact, I interviewed with Property Finder while driving my car, believe it or not! The interviewer was like ‘wow you’re a chilled kind of guy!’ and following that I knew I’d found my next step. For me an interview is just a conversation, and if it’s not and you don’t feel comfortable then it’s probably not the right job for you. I had good vibes about Property Finder. So that’s it for my journey — I hopped on a 9 hour flight to Dubai in July 2017: it was -5 degrees when I took off from Johannesburg and it was +45 degrees when I landed in the infamous Dubai summer!
So… what exactly does an Engineering Lead do?
In short, I solve problems. Or at least try to! The company will have a goal such as ‘increase profitability’, or the VP might give some new direction, or a product manager might have a genius idea. My job is to translate these into things that actually happen, answering the two big questions:
- what needs to change?
- how do we get there?
It’s a mix of project management with the resource allocation side of things, and fixing hard technical problems to make it easy for the team to shine. I also sometimes end up staying up late to solve a challenge— that’s weirdly my favourite thing to do!
So you’re quite hands on then?
Not as much as I used to be, to be honest. Maybe around 10–20% at this point in time. Why? Well because the squads are proactive and independent and they don’t need me to be hands-on. I can give direction when needed but the team is so strong, I don’t need to intervene too much. I still code but I try not to take over.
What advice do you have for those aspiring to be leaders in the tech space?
Firstly, You need to understand what the software industry is all about. You can’t just be like ‘I’m really good at javascript’. You won’t get far that way, of course you should specialise yourself; as humans we have limited bandwidth — you need to have a good understanding of what the entire stack is about but make sure you have your strong area.
Secondly, knowing how the pieces fit together makes you a good problem solver. You have a better awareness of what is possible. You can communicate outside of your scope, because you really ‘get it’ and this makes you good at helping people and solving problems.
Thirdly, take risks, calculated risks but risks nonetheless. Be bold when trying things, put yourself in situations that challenge you, where you can really shine, improve and make an impact.
The result/conclusion of these three things: you’re really knowledgeable, people trust you, you give good solutions, organisations can rely on you to innovate and usually you come through.
What excites you the most about global tech trends?
Electric cars! I love Tesla. The way they innovate and even from a consumer point of view — forget they’re electric, they’re really nice cars! And wow, they really listen and react to their users feedback— I mean, you can tweet an idea at Elon Musk and it’ll probably be a feature after 2 weeks!
I’m also really interested in the developments in autonomous cars and robotics in general. These aren’t just ‘cute’ projects, they can really help improve society. For example there are startups using drones to help farmers in Nigeria or distribute vaccines in Congo right now — to me, that is amazing. Everything is becoming smaller too! It blows my mind. Like my phone here, with 12GB of ram and its 8 core CPU could have landed tens of Saturn 5 on the moon simultaneously. That’s portable power! There’s so much in the world that’s amazing to me.
Oh, I should mention some software trends too… woops! Serverless solutions. 100%. It makes it so easy to build a solution, you can have an idea and just… try something! It used to be hard to experiment and iterate, but not anymore. Power to the people (with ideas) I say!
How about local trends? Is there anything exciting you at the moment?
Recently I went to a Meetup here in Dubai and now I’ve decided to go to as many as I can! It was awesome. People are pushing to build a tech community here and that’s so inspiring.
Another cool local trend is the consumer-oriented services, the convenience of everything! From fuel delivery with Cafu to grocery delivery with InstaShop… it’s so cool. That’s what makes Dubai the best city in the world!
What convenience apps are on your hit-list?
I already said my number one, InstaShop! Also Careem for taxis, Amazon for… everything else! I also rate Uber Eats, and Helpbit for cleaning. I have the Du, Etisalat and DEWA apps too as I pay online. And of course, it goes without saying I found my apartments on Property Finder! I actually have a whole folder on my phone for lifestyle apps!
If there was one thing you could learn more about, what would it be?
Machine learning, for sure. Not for it to become my job, but I will need it one day to solve a problem and if I can ‘get it’, I can use it, you know what I mean? I just want to be more knowledgeable — ML would be a great new tool in my toolbox.
How does your Dubai experience compare to experiences working in other countries?
To be honest I think we work more hours here compared to back home. In South Africa the working day was more like 6 hours. That said, it’s easier to hang out with people here. People are more free, they go out more, there are always lots of outings with colleagues because everyone is an immigrant — we’re all in the same position!
Working with many nationalities is a big culture shock too — it was overwhelming to start with. I had to learn that depending on the person I am talking to I may have to change my accent, or use different words to make sure I communicate optimally. It’s really important to make sure everyone in the room is getting your message.
Overall about working here in Dubai I’d say: It’s great.
What are the most exciting challenges you have on your plate today?
We just did a subdomain consolidation, in the biggest country that we operate. I knew this would have a big impact in SEO and in the end it went smoothly but honestly it was a little stressful! I’ve been working on some new features that we need to deliver really fast. This requires working in a tight dependency web which needs to be navigated carefully.
What makes you feel at home at Property Finder?
The people! There are 200 people in the office here so you’re gonna find people who like the same stuff as you. I figured “OK Fabrice, go meet these folks, there must be someone somewhere who is as crazy as you!”. Just walk with your Iron Man figurine and Displates painting and you’ll find people who like them too.
Well thanks for your time, Fabrice, and for being so open and honest! I really enjoyed interviewing you!
Thanks! Can’t wait to share this with my mum!
That’s it! Thanks for reading!
If you liked this article and want to be part of our brilliant and growing team of engineers, then have a look at our latest vacancies here.
