In Pakistan, a small percentage of women get a chance to attain higher education, and among them, even fewer pursue studies in traditionally male-dominated fields like information and technology. Even after graduation, only a handful of Pakistani women opt for a full-time career in the field.
Sakina Abbas, 25, from Karachi, is one of the few women who defied the norms and studied computer sciences at FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, graduating with a degree in the discipline in 2019.
“To be honest, it was neither an “aha!” moment, nor did I have it planned from the very start that I will be pursuing a career in tech,” said Abbas, who is Pakistan’s first female Google Developers Experts for Flutter.
In laymen’s terms, a Google Developers Expert (GDE) is a person recognised by Google as having technical expertise in a Google Developers product (such as Flutter, Android, Machine Learning — to name a few) and for creating an impact on the community by closely engaging with them and sharing their knowledge to help aspiring developers build and launch innovative apps.
Currently, there are about 700 GDEs advocating for more than 18 Google technologies across the world. Of these, 11 are from Pakistan.
How it began
When asked about her choice to pursue a career in programming, Abbas said that there were “multiple factors that contributed to the decision.”
“Growing up, my brother and I always used to play video games together, which first instilled a passion for games in me and later a passion for development,” said Abbas.
The eagerness — that she had since childhood — to learn how to code, pushed the 25-year-old to get enrolled into a four-year degree programme.
Abbas had initially started off as a native Android developer and after creating a handful of market-ready Android apps, she quickly realised that it’s the right technology for her because, despite the development challenges that she faced, she “genuinely enjoyed the entire process”.
Starting a business, transitioning to Flutter
Abbas said her actual career kick-started when she and her classmate, Abdullah, co-founded their software house — ReacTree.
The 25-year-old said the duo had decided to set up their own company for two reasons: they were passionate and wanted to draw in foreign investment in a bid to play their part in strengthening the country’s IT sector.
Abbas said that by the time she started her company, Flutter had matured and gained some popularity and that is when she transitioned to Flutter development from native Android development.
However, before her transition to Flutter, Abbas had to learn quite a lot about her field as “an active Android development community” does not operate in Pakistan.
“I don’t see these things as hurdles, though. They are more like stepping stones — except the stones are far apart from each other and your legs are too short to leap from one stone to another with ease,” she quipped.
When she transitioned to Flutter development, the fear of the unknown haunted her for a while, but she had assistance from a colleague who helped her throughout the journey.
