Introduction

My name is Omar Elsayed. I graduated from electrical engineering in August 2023. Right now, I am an iOS Software Engineer II at Klivvr, a fintech company in Egypt. The goal of this story is to tell you my journey from being an electrical engineer dreaming of becoming an iOS software engineer to the point where my dream came true, after so many tears and pain along the way. I’ll be sharing everything I learned during this journey to help you achieve your goal of becoming a software engineer or any other goal you have in mind.

The story will be divided into three parts: “The Decision,” which represents the point in my life where I decided to go all-in on iOS and shift my career. The second part will be called “The Beauty of the Journey” which represents the struggle and pain I had to face to reach the point I am at right now. Last but not least, the third part will be called “Tip of the Mountain is the Beginning of Another” which represents the point in my life where I had to choose between two companies after having none.

So buckle up, because this isn’t just another success story — it’s a raw, honest look at what it really takes to completely reinvent yourself. Whether you’re an engineer dreaming of a different path, or someone with an impossible goal, I promise you’ll find something in my journey that speaks to yours. Through sleepless nights, countless rejections, and moments of doubt that almost broke me, I discovered that the path to becoming who you want to be is never straight — but it’s always worth it. Ready to see how far determination can take you? Let’s begin with the moment that changed everything…

• The Decision
• The Beauty of the Journey
• Tip of the Mountain is the Beginning of Another
• Conclusion

The Decision

The first time I saw swift language was after my graduation from high school, my uncle bought for me iPad Pro which had an app called “Swift Playground” it was preinstalled. One day I was curios about it, so I opened the app and I felt in love with the game. I started learning the swift languge by moving the avatar in the game using my code.

I loved the idea of it so much, so I started to open youtube and read more about swift until I knew that this is the langage apple uses to build apps for all it’s platforms. To be honest this made me love swift more because I was a big fan of Steve Job and apple, I started to download Xcode and build simple apps, then I decided to build an app to help me preform magic to people this was my first app to build, it was amazing I really enjoyed it so much.

For me I liked Engineering so much because it was a dream I had since I was in high school, I used to write “Eng.Omar Elsayed” every where to be able to live it and visulaze it. So insted of choosing computer seince I decide to choose engineering and then study CS after graduating.

After a while I forgot about it and wasn’t able to conintinue learing iOS while I am in Uni. Until the moment that made me release that iOS is the thing for me, this moment was my bachelor thesis in it I wrote algorithm that calculate certain things based on some output and creates some cool animations. I felt happy while writing this code and I enjoyed every moment of it so I decided to shift my career and pursue what I loved iOS engineering.

After I finished my bachelor thesis we had a whole semester to have an internship in it (which is equal to 6 months), I took those 6 months as a chance for me to learn iOS engineering, I never felt more happy and satisfied than the moment I sit and write swift code.

To be honest it was diffcult and challenging as any new skill but I kept going as I always say “Never Give UP”, then on August 2023 I had two things to celebrate my first iOS app on the app store and graduating from uni, I thought that at this point I will be able to find a job as an iOS Engineer after finishing my course and having an app on the appStore But this wasn’t the case.

The next chapter was brutal, difficult, full of pain and tears, this is the “The Beauty of the Journey”.

The Beauty of the Journey

After I released my first iOS app, I started to work on my next one and kept learning new things about iOS Engineering. Then after a while I meat an iOS Engineering called Mohamed who became my friend, this guy helped me a lot and taught me a lot of things about iOS and basically showed me the way, I kept working on my new app until I had my first interview but unfortunately I was rejected (to be honest I am very happy to be rejected now 😂).

This didn’t stop me I kept going and used this to fuel my self with the energy I needed. After two weeks I had the best advice in my life and to be honest this helped me so much.

I was sitting with a friend called Ahmed and he was asking me to build an app for him then he asked me how much time it will take me to build this app so I told him this

“it may take me 3 months or more because I am still junior” — Me

and he replied with this

“Don’t ever say that you are a junior, you are just iOS Engineer” — Ahmed.

I took this advice to heart and from this moment on I never called my self junior or even wrote it on LinkedIn. This changed my mentality 100% and helped me a lot in my coding and how I talk about software engineer.

Then one day I had a message on LinkedIn from Adam, Adam is the co-founder of DopaLearn, he offered me a job with a share of the company instead of money for me this was a golden chance despite the fact that every body told me not to take it. But I didn’t care I just wanted to learn and write some swift code.

So I took it and worked there for 5 months and to be honest I learned a lot working there but it wasn’t enough for me because I still needed money to spend on my self for developing my self. Until one day I had a small argument with Adam and he showed me reality like that he doesn't appreciate me so I decided to leave.

At this point everything started to get more difficult than ever and I had pressure from every where. Now it’s been 8 months after my graduation and I had nothing, my family started to pressure me and telling me to start searching for jobs as electric engineer instead of software engineer, but I didn’t give up I kept writing swift code every day.

I had my doubts and tears, this was the enrgy I needed at this time. At this part of the jourany I built my third iOS app, made three open source project and created my own website.

Now it’s been 11 months since my graduation, I still didn’t have any job and had only 4 interviews. it looked so dark but I had a very strong feeling inside of me that “Tip of the Mountain” is coming…

Tip of the Mountain is the Beginning of Another

One day, I was scrolling through LinkedIn and found a post from Ahmed Ramzy so I decided to connect with him, after that I sent him a message asking him to help me and he did

Then after one month he messaged me for an internship opportunity so I applied, but it took so long to the point I thought that the opportunity is gone. To be honest I was upset but I kept going never lost hope I trusted Allah.

Then couple of days after that I had a message from Mick the co-founder of PaleBlue for an opportunity but this time it’s paid. I was so happy for having this opportunity but this is not all …

The next day Ahmed Ramzy called me to tell me that I was accepted in Klivvr for the internship so I had to make a descision, to take a riske opportunity where I can or can’t be accepted versus paid opportunity. I ended up choosing Klivvr, Don’t know why 🤣 But I had a strong feeling that this is the right choose. Now I am living my best time in Klivvr.

Conclusion

Never ever let anyone stops you from achieving your dreams ever because they don’t know what you have in mind. Trust your self and the process, I would like to leave you with this advice from me to you:

• Never Ever Give up, the road to your dream is more difficult than you think but possible.
• Don’t ever call your self a junior and trust your self.
• Build your own side project.
• Take care of your online presence.
• Keep Going until you make it

That’s all, I hope you all achieve your dreams, thanks for reading.