shahid-hussain

Shahid Hussain is a .NET developer on the Computan team. He is a key member of the .NET squad and focuses a lot on building custom .NET applications that our whole team uses and relies on to manage tasks and the team’s day-to-day operations. In this installment of Behind The Coding Shahid talks to us about confidence, his rise to become an engineer, and the people who he laughs with the most.


Hi Shahid! Ready to go?
Hi Sajeel. Yes I am!

Ok! What are the last 3 things you Googled?
The first thing was cloud computing and Azure

Nice! What for?
I want to learn more about Azure. Azure functions, applications services.

That’s a great thing for a .NET developer
Yes, it is.

What else is on your mind? Or, in your Google account?
The second last thing I Googled was ‘’Best buffet in Lahore”

Ok, 2 follow-up questions – what is the best buffet, and why are you searching for buffets?

Well, my wife and I are going out for a celebration dinner and I thought we’d do a buffet. The best restaurant depends. For rooftop/service I would say Menal. But for food, I would say Chandni Chowk.

Ok, what else?
I Googled some politics and news sites. To see what’s going on in the world.

Are you a big fan of politics?
These days yes. I never used to be. I like quite a few politicians. Imran Khan (Prime Minister of Pakistan) is my favorite politician.

Why is he your favorite politician?
He seems to genuinely care about the people. He is different than other politicians.

He has a very difficult job. Every politician does!
Yes. Building a nation is a big job and a lot of work. Many answers are not wrong or right.

'When was the last time you worked after hours to solve a hard problem?'
Honestly, I don’t remember. Thankfully we don’t have too many situations come up where we have to sit in our shifts after hours. But these days after hours I am working on learning Angular.

You mean at home right?
Yes. I am trying to do that while balancing my duties as a husband.

How is that going for you?
Hahaha…it is quite difficult!

'Who are 3 people you'd like to have dinner (Davaat) with at the same time and why?" Can be famous
My 2 childhood best friends Ishat and Liaqat.

Why Irshad and Liaqat?
They are hilarious and we have a lot of fun. I’ve known them for years and years!

Who would be the third guest?
Could be anyone really…why don’t you come?

Me!? Why me?
I think you’d get along well with the 3 of us. We’d have a lot of fun!

I’m glad to hear that! When was the last time you cried tears of laughter?
Ishat, or ‘Mr. Jonas’ as I call him…..

Wait, why do you call him Mr. Jonas?
It’s a nickname I have for him. He calls me Jake.

What? Why does he call you Jake?!?
He just does. Actually, he pronounces it Jakey. This is funny because it’s obviously incorrect.

This is all mind-blowing to me. Anyway, what happened with Irshad/Jonas?
Jonas/Irshad – has curly and rough hair. Searching for products for his hair. Do you have a product for hair? The shopkeeper said he had nothing for hair like his. I lay down on the floor and couldn’t stop laughing.

You like to make people laugh, what’s the secret?
Confidence

What do you mean?
I mean the key to making people laugh is believing you can make people laugh. Then, of course, delivery and who you are talking to matter too.

Can you elaborate?
See, for example, I like to play cards. I learned at work actually.

Really? Who taught you how to play?
Danyal Ahmad (junior .NET developer) taught Abdul, me and a few others how to play. But obviously, it is a new experience for me and the more luck, and chance involved the more fun you can have.

'What do you love about coding?'
I like a lot of things about coding. My favorite thing to code is animation.

What do you mean by animation?
Like screen transitions in application screens. Adding nice user interfaces, animated loading screens, and things like that. These are my favorite things to code in my applications.

Where were you when you first saw a laptop/desktop? What was the first thing you did on the computer?
I was probably 10 or 11 years old. The first game I played was Need For Speed.

What is something your teammates don't know about you?
My teammates who know me in the office know quite a lot about me.

What about the teammates who don’t work in the Lahore office or work elsewhere?
Well, most of them don’t know about my struggles during my childhood.

What about them?
I come from a pretty impoverished area in Northern Pakistan. I mean my first few years of life I don’t even remember seeing electricity for 4 years.

Wow. I didn’t know that!
Yes, it’s true. Then while studying I did odd jobs to make ends meet. I worked in restaurants, as an office runner, and tons of other things.

While you were studying full time?
Yeah exactly. I was in school from 8 AM to 4 PM. Then came home, got changed, and worked jobs from 5 PM to 1 AM most days. Had to do that to make ends meet. Nobody in my family has higher education.

That’s quite a sacrifice to get to where you are today!
Yeah. So that’s something my teammates don’t know about me.

That’s an impressive achievement, Shahid. Thanks for sharing that!
You are welcome!