Bloom: Nadya Essebbar
Nadya Essebbar is a Full Stack Developer and team lead at Narato. That was not an obvious path to take, after a long quest in study choices and 10 years of working in the hospitality industry. Nadya is an example of reinventing yourself, not sitting still and daring to persevere. She learned that from her mother and grandmother. 👇🏽
10 years in the catering business
Let's get straight to the point: how did you end up in the world of technology?
"I have to go back in history. It started when I finished secondary school and had no idea what I wanted to do next. I had studied ASO Science-Mathematics, and my best grade on my report card was biology. That made me enrol, without thinking too much, for Biology at the VUB. That did not last long because after one year I already felt that it was not my thing and I stopped. In the meantime, I had started working in the catering industry to finance my studies, and I stayed there for the next 10 years. That was a very pleasant time and over the years I developed into a manager of a room. When I reached my late 20s, I reached a point where I could not really grow any further unless I opened my own business. I did not like that, so I started looking around for what I wanted to do.
I then started following all kinds of courses, again thinking that I had to choose something with sciences. I really tried everything: nursing, pharmacy assistant, construction engineer, ... Looking back, this is partly because I never had anyone around me who could give me advice or with whom I could spar. I did not even consider career guidance as a possibility.
The first time I really came into contact with IT was through a friend. She was a teacher of digital media and made websites in Wordpress with HTML, CSS, ... Something clicked in me. Coincidentally, it was also the first year that Karel De Grote University College offered the bachelor Applied Computer Sciences in 'micro degree' via distance learning. So I enrolled straight away.
It took me 4 years of blood, sweat and tears because I was still working. There was little framework from the school at the time because it was a new direction for them. Finally, of the 55 starters in the training, only 5 remained: 2 women and 3 men. Afterwards, KDG decided to spread the bachelor's from 4 to 5 years."
What in coding and development attracted you so much?
"From day one, I was totally hooked. The fact that you can build an entire application with lines of code was fascinating. But towards the end of my first year, I had an 'aha' experience when I finally really understood what object-oriented programming was. That was a moment that made me weep for joy. The feeling of "I really get it!" was completely overwhelming to me. I had never had anything like that with all those previous studies, and there is nothing I can compare to that feeling. Not everything was perfect, of course; especially accounting and French were difficult subjects for me. But coding allowed me to focus on the whole picture and I got through those subjects as well."
Learned from mother and grandmother
"As a child, I saw how much my mother suffered to work, study and take care of a family. But in our society you really need that diploma to get on. Because what I also saw was how my mother blossomed after she finished her education."
In 2017, you graduated Cum Laude! How did that come across to your family?
"The path of the previous generations in my family has not always been easy. My grandmother came to Belgium in the 50s with 3 children. When she arrived in Belgium, my grandfather remarried someone else. As a single mother with 3 children in a new country, she really struggled. She was a cleaning lady by profession. From the age of 14, my mother had to go with my grandmother to do the cleaning and she did not even manage to get a high school diploma during her childhood. At a later age, she still went to school and first got her secondary diploma through adult education and then, through the city of Antwerp, she trained as a child carer. Finally, through this last training, my mother ended up at the town hall. The whole story means that from a very young age, she has been pushing me to get a diploma. So she was really happy when I graduated after all.
I think both my grandmother and my mother were examples of perseverance. Each in their own way, but if they had something in their minds, they went for it full force. As a child, I saw how much my mother had to suffer to work, study and take care of a family. But in our society you really need that diploma to get on. Because what I also saw was how my mother blossomed after she finished her education."
So how did you end up at Narato and what is your role?
"During my final year of training at KDG I met Erik Avonts, the Managing Partner of Narato, on a 'business meets student' day. This was followed by an internship at Narato and I soon realised that I wanted to stay here. Fortunately, Narato thought the same and half a year later I signed my contract! Another half year later, I was offered to become team leader. That was of course a risk considering my short experience in IT. I am very grateful for the trust they put in me to give me that responsibility and opportunity. It also seems to have worked out well, as I am still teamleader of 2 teams at the moment.
Of course, I also work as a developer. I am currently working on a project at Engie as a DevOps engineer for the automatic deployment of infrastructure and applications. Another customer is FIT (Flanders Investment & Trade) where I am working as a Data Architect. So I wear different hats in my job, but I like the variety!
Success is not left behind
In 2018, you were among the 10 nominees for DataNews' 'Young ICT Lady Of The Year Award'.. Besides Nadine Khouzam, the Founder & CEO of Code&Play (Inspiring Fifty Belgium), Ellen Sano, the Managing Director of Yuki (Inspiring Fifty Belgium) and also the final winner Laurence Schuurman, Executive Program Manager of Capgemini. What was it like?
"That was really nice; an acknowledgement of my education and confirmation of my knowledge and skills. Narato had registered me for 2018, but I didn't think I would get through at all. I had just become a team leader at Digipolis from Narato. In the second round, you need a lot of public votes and I was still very new within the Cronos Group. So my network wasn't that big yet to get through. But all in all I got 6th place which was a huge honour as a newcomer in IT."
What are you most proud of out of all that you have achieved?
"From the beginning at Narato I worked with Patrick (one of the Managing Partners of Narato nvdr.) on a project that I am now very proud of. We had noticed that customers are less willing to have large applications developed from scratch. Companies see more value in using SaaS applications and registering their data in them, and interconnecting those applications so that the data flows. The difficulty is that they often end up in a very distributed landscape, with blocks of data a bit everywhere. And then there are issues of security, structure and duplication of data.
We then started thinking from within Narato about how we could solve this phenomenon. This is where the idea of the DataHub came from. A kind of orchestration solution; the heart of your distributed landscape that will manage the data flows. An example is data that goes from Salesforce to the DataHub, is registered there and can easily be configured to send data to another application. The nice thing is that the DataHub is built in AZURE and with a cybernetic integration. We have written the solution almost entirely in low code. This means that we used as little development as possible and as much configuration as possible. This makes it possible to link systems very quickly and to ensure that the data ends up in the right place. Meanwhile, the first customers have started working with our tool, and that is what I am most proud of. We have built a strong solution that really helps customers.
Nadya's future
What challenges do you still have ahead of you?
"I've had many discussions with Patrick about this; I can't let go of developing completely. As team leader, I don't really have much time to write code and I should put more time into that role. But I find that really hard because I like it so much. You talk to customers a lot, you think and then you have to write the code. So with that code you take care of the real result, that's the real work for me. Just thinking out the architecture and then having to hand it off to other developers is still a challenge every day, and that makes me struggle. I still don't know why that is. Is it my passion or is it perhaps about keeping control? Maybe it's also about trusting others to bring an idea that comes out of my head to a successful conclusion? Probably a combination of all those reasons. All in all, I think there is still a growth path for me in learning to delegate."
What do you still dream of?
"One of my ambitions is to be able to develop a branch within Narato. I am very keen to set up a subsidiary around the DataHub. Voilà, I have said it! I should get together with our Managing Partners and present this. As a person, I also want to grow further to be able to take on a managerial role and develop leadership skills."
Inspiring and inspiring
"Hopefully, I am proof that with a non-stereotypical background, even if you don't yet know where your passion lies when you are 18 years old, even if you have built a career in a different sector and even if it has not always been easy for your family, you can still achieve success and fulfilment and chase dreams. Thanks to my mother and grandmother, I have learned not to let that hold me back."
Who inspires you and would you like to meet?
"If I could dream really big, I would love to meet Michelle Obama. She is a huge inspiration to me. I look up to all the energy she puts into women and especially encouraging minorities to stay in school and study. From her position, she chooses to inspire others, both in the past in the White House and now, and she doesn't let anything stop her. One of her statements that touches me is: 'Success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives'.
If I extend that to myself, being a woman in tech, multicultural background and I am for women too; I do fit the bill of minorities and underrepresentation. So maybe one day I can be an inspiration to young girls or women who can relate to my story. Hopefully, I am proof that with a non-stereotypical background, even if you don't know where your passion lies when you are 18 years old, even if you have built a career in a different sector and even if it has not always been easy for your family, you can still achieve success and fulfilment and chase dreams. Thanks to my mother and grandmother, I have learned not to let that hold me back."
To us, Nadya is already an inspiration and role model in perseverance and in daring to change course in your life. She has been able to transform the hard work of the previous generations in her family into a life and career to be proud of. We keep our fingers crossed for that DataHub subsidiary and look forward with great curiosity to what her future will bring! Follow Nadya on Linkedin if you want to stay up to date. 😊