Meet our interns!
This is the last post in our series about internships at TeQflo. In this entry you’ll get to know our three interns, Nahla, Hiba and Soodeh and what it’s like having an internship at TeQflo.
You can read the previous posts here:
MatchIT - Matching talent with business
To be or not to be - an intern at TeQflo
Almost 8 weeks have passed since the three ladies set their foot in the TeQflo office in Malmö. They only have 2 weeks left of their internship so it’s about time we had a more personal chat with them and figure out who they are and how their experience has been.
They are all a part of MatchIT, a collaboration between Arbetsförmedlingen, Lund University, BTH and Region Skåne funded by the European Social Fund to match immigrants with an IT background with companies in need of talented people.
NAHLA
One of the persons enrolled in the program is Nahla Elamin. She came to Sweden with her little daughter when her husband died in her native home Sudan. The situation was getting really bad in Sudan for them and decided to go to Sweden.
- As soon as I had my citizenship, I said put me in the work market, I want to work! Says, Nahla.
There’s no doubt she is ambitious, before arriving to Sweden she got herself a degree in mechanical engineering and worked for both Mercedes-Benz and Toyota and points out that she has a great interest for cars. She also spent 6 years at LG as a project manager working with air conditioning.
But as thing turn bad in Sudan, she packed her bags and brought her daughter to Malmö and basically had to start over.
- The job market isn’t that different from Sudan, but the language is the biggest barrier I think, but I’m a fast learner.
Her skills led her to getting accepted to the MatchIT program, just 8 months after coming to her new country. Nahla says that the process of immigration is tough, a lot of paper work and a new system to get to know, at the same time learning the language and finding a job.
- But I’m very happy for the opportunity, I need to be open for everything and adjust myself to my new country.
She views her internship at TeQflo as a part of her education, stating that during the weeks spent at the Malmö office she has learned a lot.
Nahlas background as mechanical engineer gave her some sense of programming but it wasn’t an area she had worked with particularly.
- Programming is quit new to me and it can be complexed, but I love that, it’s like solving puzzles. Me and Hubspot are friends now, haha. I feel very confident working with their tools now and I have developed a lot in a short period of time.
TeQflo is a partner agency to Hubspotand Nahla have worked very hard to learn everything there is to know about the platform.
When she’s not programming Nahla enjoys her new life in Malmö, spending time with her daughter, swimming and going out having a coffee with friends. She also enjoys watching a lot of series, which we all experienced (she has installed a Game of Thrones* countdown app, making sure we all know when the last season premieres!).
She says she doesn’t miss Sudan at all, that she escaped from all troubles by leaving, now she looks to a bright future having a stable life.
We are all confident that Nahla will succeed in whatever she chooses to do, she got that ambition.
HIBA
Hiba Arafeh is 1 out 3 IT talents spending her internship as a part of the MatchIT program at TeQflo.
She has no lack of education, originally from Damaskus, Syria, where she got a degree in Information Technology, before getting a scholarship from Lunds University and getting a master’s degree in information systems.
She came to Sweden with her husband as the situation in Syria got worse, they both chose to leave and start a new life in Lund. The student life in Lund contributed to Hiba quickly adjusting to her new environment, with lots of fellow international students in her surroundings. There’s no shortage of tech knowledge in her family, her husband studied wireless communication at the same university.
Hiba enjoys living in Lund and says it’s a nice town, impossible to drive in, but luckily Hiba likes to bike around (although only in the summer!) and Lund is known as biking city.
Although she has two degrees, it’s been difficult landing a job in Sweden.
- Most companies want to have someone with work experience, which I don’t have, so I’m very happy that we get to work on real projects at TeQflo and deliver to customers. Says Hiba.
Hiba has been involved in many of TeQflos projects some of which she’s very familiar with but also says that there are areas totally new to her, that has been challenging.
- Programming is my specialty, both frontend and backend, I really enjoy it, I don’t know why but I do! Also working with databases, creating databases is something I also really like working with.
She says she have enjoyed her weeks at TeQflo and points out the great atmosphere and co-workers being the reason.
The MatchIT program has been a chapter in her journey, taking her this far, what the future holds we don’t know, but Hibas dream is working with programming, the passion she doesn’t know why she loves, but somethings you don’t need to explain, if you enjoy doing it, that’s enough. Her enthusiasm has been a fresh breath of air during her weeks at TeQflo, a bright career is certainly ahead of Hiba.
SOODEH
All three of them have a deep interest in tech and IT but Soodeh also have an interest in design. Something we have experienced during her weeks her, helping us all out editing and creating images in Photoshop. As we worked on developing a new website together, I personally got a glimpse of another talent that overlaps her interest in design, photography. Although she says she’s not a professional, the pictures were amazing, and we decided to use some of them I are new web design.
Before landing in Malmö, she lived in the capital of Iran, Teheran. In Teheran she studied computer science. She also worked on a project which quit clearly shows the paradigm we now live in.
- I worked on a project digitizing the libraries of Teheran, says Soodeh.
Just as her fellow interns, Soodeh also says that her time at TeQflo has been rewarding.
- I like the atmosphere, my co-workers have treated us very well and been very helpful.
Besides her interest in photography she enjoy reading, watching movies, adding “when she has the time”.
- And going to the gym, if I have the time, haha.
She says her internship has provided a lot of new experience and knowledge, now she wants to learn even more on web developing and design, and maybe educate herself in animation.
It’s been a pleasure working side by side with Nahla, Hiba and Soodeh.
*As this blogpost is published 16 days, 12 hours, 33 minutes and 40 seconds remains until the last season of GoT premieres.
Right now we are looking for interns for the following positions:
Internship - People, recruiting and employer branding
Internship - Digital Marketing