Ahmed Bashir

Engineering

Approaching each journey with humility

Growing up an expat, an immigrant, and an optimist meant embracing the journey — from one school to another, or perhaps country to country. My life has been about approaching each journey and encounter with curiosity and humility; since childhood, I was drawn to not just doing, but watching intently as others did their life's work, whether it be a car mechanic, a sketch artist, a cook, or a salesperson.

When the journey led you to an apartment with bare necessities and a typewriter, it became a great opportunity to pick up speed typing, develop a love for typography, and begin to put thoughts on paper at any point in the day.

And when the journey took a young adolescent to another hemisphere, it was an opportunity to discover new friendships and passions. For me, this meant discovering berries, papier-mâché, digital library catalogues, and organized sports. And with technology at your fingertips, it also meant tinkering with hex editors, virtual memory, and building PCs.

College offered incredible access — to wonderful teachers and lifelong friends, no doubt — but also intramural sports, art exhibits, and city life. On a free day, I would go door to door to see if local shops wanted a web storefront; there were also short stints as a valet driver, a mobile phone salesperson, an SAT tutor, and a salad-maker at the school cafeteria (sometimes working the back-kitchen prepping catering orders for university events). Not quite the same as my software internships or RA-ships, but each and every one of these experiences ties back into my work in some shape or form, to this day.

After briefly flirting with research and academia, I embarked on an epic journey at Apple, helping launch products that bring surprise and delight to both users and developers worldwide; this coincided with another amazing journey as a parent of two kids discovering their own journeys.

Today, I see myself as a team builder, a life-long learner, a champion for outcome-focused planning, a force multiplier, and, yes, an optimist. As a leader, I believe it takes effort to build an inclusive, empowering culture where folks are secure enough to engage with authenticity. Just as before, I still embrace new beginnings with genuine curiosity and a desire for deeper understanding.

And so begins this journey at DevRev where, hopefully, we can redefine the journeys of developers around the world.