Sakina Abbas, 25, from Karachi, is one of the few women in Pakistan who defied norms and studied computer sciences, and is now the country’s first female Google Developers Experts for Flutter.

In 2019, Abbas graduated with a degree in the discipline from FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences,

"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.

In laymen's terms, a Google Developers Expert (GDE) is a person recognized 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, about 700 GDEs are advocating for more than 18 Google technologies across the world. Of these, 11 are from Pakistan, according to Geo Tv.

Abbas said that there were multiple factors that contributed to  her decision to take up computer programming as a career.

"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.

Abbas had initially started as a native Android developer and after creating a handful of market-ready Android apps, she quickly realized that it’s the right technology for her because despite the development challenges that she faced, she "genuinely enjoyed the entire process".

However, before she transitioned to Flutter, Abbas had to learn quite a lot about her field as "an active Android development community" does not operate in Pakistan.

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.

What started with a single talk a month and quickly progressed to three to four talks a month, with some of them being scheduled as early as 5 am due to varying time zones the participants were located in.

Speaking about one of her motivations to become a GDE, Abbas said she wanted to help women pursue IT domains that they’re passionate about.

The young developer said women were capable of achieving the same feats as their male counterparts in the IT industry if they put their minds to it.

Advising young aspiring women, she said if they genuinely enjoy working with technology and are curious to try their hand at its associated domains, be it development, network security, or artificial intelligence, they should "just dive in, period!"

(SAM)