In 2013 Shahed was forced to leave her home country of Syria, just two months before her final baccalaureate exams. With the hope of coming back, all that she gathered were her preparation books and some family photographs.
A year later, she returned alone, hoping to take her exams, only to experience war again as ISIS took over her home city.
Back then, Shahed thought it was impossible to finish any degree. She was finally able to enrol in a public university in the south-east of Turkey, where she studied computer science. In 2018, she got the opportunity to start learning mobile app development when she entered Re:Coded’s inaugural bootcamp.
The spark
The program opened Shahed’s eyes to the possibilities of a career in technology. She got her first taste of machine learning when a guest lecturer from the Netherlands came to deliver a week-long module on deep learning and AI. It was the spark she needed to keep pursuing her dream.
Soon after graduation, Shahed secured a role as one of the first female machine learning engineers at Turkcell. She has since gone on to win a Chevening scholarship to study for a Master’s in Machine Learning in the UK and, after graduating, secured a Global Talent visa.
Shahed now works in London for Virgin Media O2 as a Machine Learning Engineer.
The community and bootcamp changed my life. Re:Coded is and will always be my north star.
Our bootcamps have closed, but the next step is still free. Source Code Accelerator is open to developers in Iraq, and anyone can start a self-paced Digital Futures course today.
