My Story

What's up y'all? This is Hussein Nasser from IG Geometry where we discuss software engineering by example. You know guys, uh it's we're we're reaching uh 1,700 subs and plus lots of watch hours and views and uh more than 150 videos up to this date. Uh I think March the 3rd. Today is March the 3rd, 2018. And I just realized that I don't have an intro video for this channel. Uh I think I owe you owe it to you guys to at least tell you my story, who who is Hussein and uh uh why I'm doing this and what is my background and where did I come from, where am I now, and all these kind of things. It's just like in a very short maybe I'm I'm hitting five minutes video. I'll try to summarize uh my story in five minutes. Uh don't want to bore you guys but yeah 1 minute already passed so you have four minutes but yeah guys uh yeah as uh as I told you my name is Hussein uh in Arabic it's Hussein uh Hussein uh that's another pronunca pronunciation but uh yeah uh I was born in Bahrain it's a very small island in the Middle East in the Gulf uh uh the Gulf of Persian Gulf Arabian in Gulf. Yeah. Uh yeah, I was born there, went to university there, went to school there. Uh computer, studied computer science. Uh I learned programming when I was 16 years old. Uh uh growing up, I love I was in love with math in general. I I just fall in love with mathematical uh uh solving and solving mathematical problems. I I just fall in love with that. And I wanted to make more uh just that's that's what I want. I know I I I love solving math and and when I was 16, my uncle introduced me to programming. Uh first book he ever gave me was Visual Basic 5, Learning Visual Basic. And I just fall in love with programming and computers back in 1997, I think, or 1996. Uh that's when we uh 1995 we got our first computer. My dad bought bought me a computer. I just uh you know I just fall in love with these machines. It's just like the power that you can uh tell a machine to do whatever you want, right? Just to build a program, build an application and just feed it to the machine and it will do it. And that the fact to a kid or to a teenager was really really good, you know. And yeah, I started building applications and just random apps. I went to a lot of stuff, building a lot of small and tools, you know. Uh yeah, went to that led me to computer science obviously studied there and then graduated computer science. Um building a lot of apps and just for fun. All right. I wish I can I have some sort of a repository with those house but I don't anymore unfortunately but yeah so uh started working career 2005 my first job was uh at a ESRI uh distributor in Bahrain still in my country I didn't leave it at all right so that you're talking about what 2005 so I was like 20 22 23 years old and yeah like started working on GIS uh move to a lot of jobs uh again just GIS geographic information system building applications on top of this platform right and then uh in 201 uh 2014 2013 uh I got uh I started uh maybe slightly before that I started my blog in 20 2009 uh just writing about technology, writing about things I care about, writing about um a lot of uh things that interest me in my blog and that one of the things is what I was working on which is RGIS technology. I was writing a right I was not getting anything just I want I had always this feeling that uh I like to share my knowledge with people. I love when my knowledge impacts others and that gives me really nice feeling. So I started doing that. I started my blog uh and that uh led me in 2013 uh I got an email from a publisher uh in the UK asking me hey who's saying we saw your blog on this technology posted on this date. My hand hurts. So flinging to the other hand. Yeah. So uh I started uh Yeah. So I got this email from the publisher saying, "Hey, uh are you interested in writing a book with us?" And uh after a little bit of hesitation talking to my wife, I said, "Uh yeah, let's do this." All right. It was a scary, really scary experience for me because like, oh, there's a contract. What if I can't make it? What if the book sucked? What if what if nobody liked me? What if my English is not even my English is literally my second language? Or if if you count Persian, which is my mom's tongue, it's like my third language. So, I know three languages, right? So it's like my Arabic, Persian, little Persian, not that much, but but yeah, it's like literally English was the third language I learned, right? So yeah, I was like, how can I write a book? So I just did it and the the uh the publisher really helped in the editing and I was glad that I took that offer. Uh that exploded and that was good. And after that I wrote more books more and more books after that. But it was really really really interesting this experience this whole experience uh just we're all scared of doing things in general. We're really really scared, you know, it's like from approaching a opportunity and you never know until you try new things that you really good at or not or people. You don't judge, you know, you just put your work out there and people will be the judge of that work, right guys? So that's what I did. I I put my work out there. I got the one stars. I got the five stars on Amazon, but I don't care, you know? So some people will have really good co good reviews and good comments. Some people will not like it. So this is the life. It's just like this uh idea of just you guys this is just a general video not only about myself about you as well. If you are good at something or if you think your work can impact others just go and do it. Really guys, I swear you'll never a lot of people some people f feel shy and I understand I I was shy all my life. I mean even the YouTube channel I started the YouTube channel in 2014 like that that's that's five years after or six years after I started my blog you know just like talk me a lot. I can't talk. It's really the the first video I published is like I don't I don't even I didn't even talk. I I know guys uh the five minutes is up but I'm just going to ramble. So u I apologize if this video is too long for you but uh I'll need to talk about this. So yeah. Yes. So yeah guys just do it right. And if it sucks it sucks. You're going to make another video. You're going to get slightly better. you're gonna make another work that gets slightly better. And that's what I did with all my books. I published four books so far just because I have this momentum. And I got I got lazy after the fourth book. I I studed for two years. But this get this takes me to the uh experience in 2014 when I started my YouTube channel started posting about GIS and arc objects and things that I know right. I was just talking about things that I'm I'm really good at. I'm really I was really good at arc object a lot of a lot of code in arc object. So it says, "Hey, I know this stuff and I know people are paying for this and I and and that means people want to learn about this. Why don't I make something for them for free?" So I made that channel and I was talking about archobic this this channel this very channel. Go and watch my go on my videos and just click on videos first one videos ever sort ascending right older videos first. You'll see the first video is basically the arc objects video. I guess it's guess 16k views or something. But that means people 16,000 people wanted to know this, you know, if I didn't know that, if I didn't post this and I said, "Hey, uh, there are a lot of blogs out there talking about arc objects." That was like in back in 2014, right? Oh, why are you talking about arch object? A lot of people are talking about it. Well, I have 16,000 people that disagree, right? This is the same thing, guys. You might think, you might think that your work doesn't matter, but you might be wrong. You know, just go out there and put your work out there. Okay, let's move to the rest of my story here. 2014, I put all these videos. I started put I think a video a month. I wasn't consistent at all, which is something really bad to do on YouTube. I wasn't doing it right. Right. Uh yeah. So I wasn't doing it really well, but but I was posting uh whenever I had that time, I was posting that, right? And I was in in my older job in Bahrain. That's just 2014. I'm still in Bahrain. I'm still uh I was back then in a government job uh with the utilities building applications for utilities, electric and water. That's my that's my niche and and career-wise. Yeah. So uh 2014, yes, after 2015, uh 2014, I started applying for jobs outside Bahrain because I was really scared and and you can you can see that the uh the anxiety in in me like I was breaking it slowly slowly and and that and that uh that took a lot of courage from just speaking from just writing first 2009. All right. Uh and then after writing I went to uh recording videos and then talking right about videos just to screen share. And then up until can you guess guys up until 2017 late 2017 I had the courage to put my face out there. Go to look at my videos. I never put my face out there. I just like I I always think I'm ugly or I I don't look good or uh I don't want people make fun of me. Hey, why is there your nose like that or why is your eyebrows like that? So, I was like always insecure about that. I'm glad that I broke that and I started posting to it. And guess what? Nobody actually comments on on how how you look. They they care about your content, right? So, all right guys, back. I know I'm jumping left and right but I hope you're staying in course of the story carrier right the carrier so we're 2014 2015 I started applying uh for moving to the other hand it's really man man no stamina I'm telling you all right so yeah 2014 I started applying for other jobs I wanted to move to Dubai I wanted to move to Kuwait really maybe Saudi Arabia or somewhere real this strip right the Gulf strip. I wanted to move there, right? I wanted to be close to family. It's because it's really scared to move in general. But I say like, "Let me do it." Right? 5 minutes. Yeah, guys. 13. You'll always notice this in my videos. Like I will say, "Hey, one minute video." It just turn out to be 20. All right, guys. Yeah. So, uh I wanted to move to this country. So I applied to Dubai and that was a long process guys. I got a lot of rejections, right? Despite all the work that I show, right? I show, hey, I am I wrote four books. I do this. I wrote uh I have this video channel. I talk about I have a vlog. But for some reason uh back in 2013 if you have a blog in the Middle East that wasn't that wasn't something people interested in or companies were interested in YouTube channel who people didn't know even what a YouTube was right some most company a lot of companies didn't know like what YouTube was in 2013 2012 right it's just like what is this video channel for social people so they a lot of companies didn't take it seriously. That's what I'm saying. So, I was and I was like active there, but send me my know replies or you're Oh, you you're overqualified. Some sometimes I get like this uh two uh extremes, right? Anyway, uh finally I got a reply from uh Ezri Dubai. Good. Hey, Hussein, you have an excellent working portfolio. You have a great resume and not just the CV, but the work that you're doing outside the books, uh, the YouTube channel. They were really excited about that stuff, man. And they said, uh, unfortunately, we're packed in Israel, Dubai, right? But if you're interested, we want you to move to want you to take a shot and uh in the core business in in America is Dubai, which is the core, right? It's the company in Redlands in California. I was freaked out. I was literally freaked out. I got like weak knees and It was really scary, right? told my wife said, "Hey, we have we have a house here in Bahrain. We have we built a life here, right?" And I mean, I got married uh 2011. So, and we had all this uprest in Bahrain and a lot of problems. Guys, I don't know if you know about this, but just was like it was a very stressful uh era in 20 2011 to 200 12 13. Uh, so yeah, like I was telling her, "Are you excited? Do do you want to do this? Do you want to move to the States?" We don't know anything about the States. We didn't We never been there. We've been there to, Funny enough, we've been there to our honeymoon in New York. And I don't think we went to California. We went to New York and Florida for our honeymoon. That's it. Right. We didn't but I don't know anything about the state otherwise just that it's a beautiful country right I was like okay uh this is it I got uh are you interested should I should I send my CV there she said yeah she's like man my wife I mean I'm so lucky that I married her I mean all this anxiety and all this uh uh confidence she gave me just all because of her I'm telling you right seriously she's a great partner. I mean she moved me through phases in my life and she said just do it. I wrote my first book before because of her right. I did uh I moved to my other I started applying for other jobs because of her and I I became who I am because of her you know it's like she has a lot of impact in my life. She's very patient. Moving to the other hand. All right. Yeah. So I applied right and uh got a phone call from uh the solutions team in uh in Israel. So solutions team are are the so there are uh there are inr there is the development team which they which build product that I am now in the development team we build products like the arcjis the argis pro the geo database the actual products and there's the other layer the solutions team which takes these products and builds solutions that are suitable for users right so these are the arcgis utility and electric electric utilities and a lot of use cases. They build a lot of solutions using the SDKs and the APIs. Let me get a better lighting here. Yeah. So, that's the solutions team. And the the the third tier is the professional uh services where they they take even the solutions uh solutions and they deploy them uh at site to the customer and sometimes they build their own solutions. So, so I was applying to Isra Dubai for the professional services job and I worked for them for a while and and and they they get like handtohand with the customers directly right so they know the exact requirement most of the time and so I got interviewed in the professional services first that's the first tier right or the third tier and then I got interviewed by the solutions team that was like took three four maybe interviews uh which they bounced me around until I reached the development team and they interviewed me and they said I think and from the development team I was interviewed uh in different uh different teams until I landed into the geo database team where I got the interview uh my friend uh my colleague Richru interviewed me and I think that what sealed the deal he called me from uh from Colorado and yeah it was pretty late there. So so we we we managed to make a work and he called me and we did an interview. It was it was exciting. And what what we did is uh he said uh yeah so so we we got uh we got was it was a really good interview and then when we moved until I got the email in I would say January 2015. I'm not really sure but it was like I think that about that time with the new year just after the new year I guess I made that wish I threw a penny in a well or something in 2014 end of that wish came true or something but yeah in 2015 20 minutes guys if you're still listening kudos guys yeah if you're still listening just type in in comments I I I reached minute money. So that means that you're not bored yet. All right. Look at this. Superman, right? Okay. Yeah, guys. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Yeah. So, interviews, a lot of interviews until I uh and might I say I was nervous and in all the interviews, right? I was taking Nexium before and every interview because I have acid acid reflex and I was like I can't eat and all these like and I I I need to talk about you guys because you always see that I don't want to paint myself as the perfect guy you know it's not the case it was I was really scared you know these interviews were really really nervous and uh and thank God they like me for some reason and they said I got an email on January He said, "Hey, okay, I got an email generally say, "Hey, Hussein, we like to inter invite you to an on-site interview." I didn't know what what that is, so I Googled it. On-site interview. That means they fly you over and you you do an interview for a whole day. So, yeah. And I thank God I got a visa, right? Because I I was in my honeymoon, so I had a valid visa to travel. So, I was able to travel otherwise uh that would be really weird, you know, I had to get the visa and all that stuff. But yeah, I had the visa. Moving on, I had a visa uh B1 visa, visitor visa. So, I went to the states and I flew and I think my flight got delayed because of a fog in in um in Dubai or I don't remember. And yeah, I got delayed in Abu Dhabi and it was a mess. But I emailed them uh the HR and they just scheduled me to for the next day. So I went there and I had two days. Can you imagine? Imagine guys traveling for 17 hours or 18 hours and just to do just three days of two days maybe just go back. Man, that was painful. But I did it. We did the interview again. was very nervous day but uh I was able to make it. So the interviews basically is like from 8 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. continuous right continuous one hour uh two people interviewing you was like the loveliest people I ever met you know guys this was like uh there wasn't actually challen challenging question nobody nobody asked me like some technical deep questions most of the most of the questions like why do you want to work with why are you leaving your country and traveling 8,000 miles to be here right And my answer was I wanted to seek new opportunities. I want to I want to learn from the people who built this cool technology, right? How does it feel like? And that was like my my main answer. And I met a lot of smart people there. Just people I met people who actually built the geometric networks which something I was working on for 10 years. It's really weird to talk about talk with someone who actually built the technology. It felt really really odd and just like wow do did you actually build that? That is cool, you know. It's just like it's it's amazing guys. I don't know how you if you feel that not but in general, right? Yeah. So went to the interview, went back, got an offer, accepted it, approoted my life literally from Bahrain and flew to the United States. I was in the States October 20, 2005. So that's more than two years now. I'm applying for my green card. That's like a H-1B visa, right? So I wasn't under H1B visa. I'm still in under H1B visa in the states. Really grateful to be here. That was like a brief 24 minutes introduction about my life. Uh I started doubling down my YouTube channel this year and last year as I told you like I started to make more more videos more consistently just because I want to talk about these stuff, right? uh things that I I I like to talk about in general. All right. Yeah, guys. Uh what else? I talked about my career, my hobbies uh in general. If you if you follow me on Instagram, you'll you'll know that I'm a big uh fan of coffee in general. I like to try new coffee shops, coffee blends, coffee beans, and California. There is a lot of stuff to try, man. There's a lot of stuff to try here, man. I'm loving it. So, that's one. Another thing is video games. Uh PlayStation. I have PlayStation 4. I play video games a lot. Not uh not as much in this year because I was I'll focus more on my YouTube channel. But yeah, guys, 30 minutes. I think it's a brief introduction to this channel. That's a lot. I don't think new subscribers will subscribe to this channel just after they're watching these videos. Like, man, this guy talk a lot. So, I'm not going to talk. I'm not going to sub. But yeah, sub or not sub, guys. I hope you uh enjoy the content that I put. And I really really if you reach the end of the comment, just leave a like, leave a comment. Uh if you what do you think uh what do you think of this journey in general? What do you want to take this channel to? I don't know what the future holds, but I know that I'll just keep creating for you guys and and I know I want to just build cool stuff. So I whatever my knowledge is, I want to put it out there. And I I I like to extend this advice for you guys too. If you are good at something, don't hold it then. Don't hold it in. Just put it out there. You will never know if if you're good into I don't know if you if you're if you're really good at fishing. I know nothing about fishing, right? Just do and make a video about how to fish, right? Right. It's just like in general if if you're good in video games like and you're really excellent in a specific genre like roleplay games or firsterson shooter, put videos about that or put content about that. Just do what you like. I watch people play video games, believe it or not. I I find the time I have the I find the 30 to 25 minutes to watch people my that I really enjoy their content like Lobos Jr. in on YouTube was like they they his content is like he play video games but in a challenging so for example if if the game is Dark Souls he played it fist only right he doesn't use swords which is crazy because this game is crazy hard as is not to mention just remove the weapons altogether so that's kind of things that just excite me in general all right guys I'm going to sign out uh five minutes turn into 30 Right, guys. Uh, this was an introduction for the channel. I'm not I'm not sure if I'm going to put it as a channel banner or not, but it's out there, guys. You guys stay awesome. I am now uh in Timicola. I live here now. Uh we bought a house and really beautiful city. Look at this lake, guys. This is Hussein Neler signing out. You guys stay awesome. Going to see you on the next one.