Hey there!  Picture this: a guy from Pakistan, born and raised, suddenly finds himself working with people from all over the world. Sounds exciting, right? Well, it was, but also a bit of a rollercoaster!

Imagine walking into a meeting and being expected to call your boss by their first name. In Pakistan, that’s like calling your school principal "dude." Total cultural shock! But guess what? I’ve learned to roll with these quirks, and they’ve made me a better professional and a more adaptable person.

Wondering how I found myself at Moniepoint? Let’s take it back a bit. 

Growing up in Pakistan 

I was born in a city near Lahore in Pakistan, but I have been working from Lahore for the last 10 years. Lahore is a major city in Pakistan but not the capital. It stands tall in the education and IT sector. 

I started my career in engineering in high school and then moved to computer science. In 2010, I started my Bachelor of Science (BS) in software engineering. This career path was not trendy then, but after a couple of years, tech-related courses became common. Although I got into this path by chance, it has proved to be a good choice. 

In Pakistan, we have a joint family culture where elders influence the children's career and education choices. I’m happy that my family agreed with my choices back then. This culture also extends to respecting elders and being obedient, and this applies to our professional careers. Whenever we call someone by their first or last name, we have to add words that show respect. 

It was a culture shock for me when I started working with multinational companies, and we called people by their first names. So, I would rather use words like sir or the boss. But it’s been about nine years in this industry, and I have worked with many international clients in the US and Canada, and now I’m working with a mix of nationalities. I had to adjust over time, but now I’m comfortable with others calling me Abdul.

Currently in Pakistan, the culture of calling people by their first names has gradually become adopted, at least in the tech sector. 

Getting started in the tech industry

I started my career as a software developer in 2015. I worked as a Java developer with a Canada-based software company, for about six years. While there, I got a feel for what it felt like to work with an international company in a different time zone. Working hours are usually from 9 am to 5 pm, but as someone living in Pakistan, this meant I was to work from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. It was quite weird at first, but I got used to it after a few months. 

Then, I moved to another company, a Pakistani company with headquarters in the US. So again, I had to work with different clients that were mostly US-based. For this company, I worked from 12 noon to 9 pm Pakistan time. Here, I worked on projects in the e-commerce and fintech industries. I spent about seven years with these companies. 

Getting into Moniepoint 

While I was working with my last company, I received a message from a Moniepoint recruiter on LinkedIn. I initially ignored the message, but it was when it came the second time that I decided to give it a try. 

You must be wondering why I initially ignored the message from the recruiter…

At the time the message came, I was not looking for a new role or opportunity as I was quite happy with my current role and organisation. Also, I had never heard about Moniepoint (then TeamApt). However, when the recruiter reached out again, I had to do my research and look into the company’s profile.

I was a bit hesitant as I didn’t know any Pakistani who was working for Moniepoint then. There is also the fact that I had worked for US and European regions and clients, but never African. This was going to be new waters, and I was not sure about the time zone as well.  By the second message, I said to myself, let’s give it a try. And here I am.

In the time since I joined, we’ve had a lot of people from India, Pakistan, and other parts of the world join the team, and it’s been interesting getting to interact with all these different people.

What I love about Moniepoint 

When I joined Moniepoint, I realised that I was wrong about It. I was expecting that it would be a strict culture without compromises and that there would be a huge cultural difference. But the contrary was the case.

The onboarding process was very smooth, and the HR team was very receptive. My entire team was also welcoming. In a month, I became a super fan of Moniepoint because of its culture, flexibility, and respect for its employees. 

I love that there is No Ego at all within Moniepoint. As I mentioned earlier, I come from a culture where we used to give respect to elders, and we would call our superiors boss or sir. But here, respect was from top to bottom as well. Line managers never gave us a situation where we had to make them feel like bosses. You can enjoy working with a good team where everyone has a great sense of humour, and mutual respect for one another.

Work-Life Balance 

Remember when I talked about flexibility? It is something I really enjoy about working at Moniepoint. At Moniepoint, I work as a senior backend engineer. In my role, I design and develop APIs based on requirements, write database migration scripts, and perform code reviews whenever required. I also write unit tests for the code, and update API collections and assist QA in testing. 

My typical day starts at noon in Pakistan, allowing me to do personal stuff in the morning. I start my day by looking at ema

ils for meetings and messages. I also look at my sticky notes to see if anything is pending from the previous work day that I didn’t achieve. I then attend standup with my team and do lots of follow-ups and testing. If anything comes up, I could also have a couple of sync-ups. I sign out at 9 pm, but I would also stay available on work chat in case anything comes up. 

I love that there is the flexibility of having some free hours in the morning before I get to work. I also enjoy the perks of working with a supportive team where the workload is shared and everyone lends support when needed. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate my job satisfaction at Moniepoint at a 9 just so there would be room for improvement. But seriously, it’s 10/10.

When I’m off work.. 

Pakistan has all types of weather: plain fields, deserts, mountains, rivers, and seas. But for most of it, it’s usually hot weather throughout the year.  When off work, I recommend spending time in the mountain areas. Fun fact: 30% of Pakistan's areas are covered with mountains. These areas are beautiful and a sight for the eyes! 

We have Kashmir, Naran Kagan, Babusar Top, Gilgit, Chitral, Sawat, etc. These are hilly areas full of nature, trees, snow, and beauty. 

I enjoy working at Moniepoint, and I bet you would too! Looking for a new opportunity? Don’t be shy. Put your best foot into applying to the roles on our careers page. Moniepoint is a great company with the latest tech stack and the best of the best work culture.