Talks Tech #59: Flutter, Mobile, and a Job Relocation From Kenya to Germany
Written by Maureen Josephine
This article has been adapted from the audio recording of Talks Tech #59.
Kimberly Jacobs, communications specialist, sits down with Maureen Josephine, Flutter Engineer at Monta. They discuss Flutter, Mobile, and Job Relocation From Kenya to Germany.
What drew you to working in technology?
Growing up in Kenya, I was intrigued by computers. It was a rare machine back in the village, and you had to go to the cyber cafe to do everything. I remember my first email; I had to go to a cyber cafe and pay to register for an email for 300 Kenyan shillings. I often asked myself why creating an email was so expensive. This made me more interested in learning about computers. I wanted to learn about this rare machine in my village. That’s when I decided to take computer science as a course for the university.
When did you first get started and interested in mobile and then learning technologies like Flutter and Elixir?
I started learning technologies like Flutter and Elixir immediately after my university studies. I was looking for internship opportunities. I attended a conference back in Nairobi, and one of the speakers introduced us to Flutter. I was initially doing mobile development with Android Java. He mentioned Flutter and said it’s cross-platform; you just write one code and deploy it on platforms like Android or iOS. I wanted to learn about this technology.
Can you tell us about that decision to move from Kenya to Germany and how the transition was for you?
It was a really interesting transition for me. After having the experience of a full remote role during the pandemic, I asked myself, what’s next? I was thinking about moving beyond Kenya. I felt open to trying out new opportunities, new technologies, and all that. I was searching for Flutter jobs outside Kenya, provided they’re not in Nairobi. I wasn’t really keen on which exact location I wanted to go. I was looking for US and Flutter jobs in Germany and Europe. I got my first response from my current company. They were offering relocation and all the relocation support. I decided to give it a try, but I was scared about moving to a new country alone with no one at all.
What have you found to be the difference in the tech industry between Kenya and Germany?
The major difference I faced was how we did things and work culture. I’m the only black girl on the team, so I felt less confident about how my opinions would be taken. I had a colleague who joined around the same time I joined, and we had a one-on-one. It gave me a little bit of confidence, not just staying in my shell. If I needed something, I had someone to reach out to. The tech is the same. The only difference is how each company does their stuff.
Were there any other things that helped you overcome your imposter syndrome during that time?
Yeah, within the Flutter community, I have a mentor who told me what I felt was normal. She told me to stay connected to the communities. She wanted me to look for Women in Tech communities in Berlin. She also told me not to lose touch with my friends back home. That made me confident and reminded me of who I am and all the things that I have achieved. I attended some of the events in Berlin and met other awesome women just like me who had relocated to Berlin. I even volunteered to give a talk in Hamburg last year, which was a really great opportunity to connect to the community and share my technical knowledge.
How did your work in Kenya prepare you for where you are now?
My career has these step-by-step procedures where one step leads me to another, and another step leads me to another. My previous career, especially working in an international company in the health tech industry, prepared me to work in an international setup.
Please tell us about Flutter and what drew you to it.
I was recognized as a Google Developer Expert GDE in 2021 when I was still in Nairobi. I’m recognized as a GDE, the first female Flutter GDE in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the first GDE in Kenya. I loved Flutter from the start because of its flexibility on how you could crank up basic apps from scratch really fast. If you have a background in object-oriented programming, like Java and JavaScript, it’s easy to start with Flutter. Flutter uses that as its main programming language. It allows you to create beautiful applications. You could add animations. People play around with the hot reload feature on Flutter that allows you to see any changes you do without doing a full restart.
In your transition from Kenya to Germany, what are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve overcome?
One of the challenges I faced, especially when I came to work from Kenya to Germany, was the language barrier. We have more international speakers, but you need to know some of the basics to help you navigate. In my country, you just have your ID, and then you apply for a tax ID. Here, it’s a totally different process from what I was used to. Going through these government offices was hell. I had a relocation coach from my company who took me through the offices, and most of the time, they were speaking German. I appreciated that; I couldn’t imagine going alone with no help. Another challenge during this transition was bureaucracy. You need to have specific documents, especially when transitioning. I did computer science, but they had to check if my computer science degree allowed me to work in Germany. That process took longer, and it delayed my relocation a bit.
What are some exciting things happening in the world of Flutter right now?
Flutter is getting more advanced daily because of the functionalities and features they release here and there. With the Flutter features, it’s even more stable compared to 2018 when Flutter was still beta. It allows users to enhance the applications by checking on scrollable apps. There’s been an improvement on that and also checking on accessibilities. The semantic libraries have been updated. Other than that, there’s this cool thing that people are talking about augmented reality or AR. Currently, there are lots of conversations around that within not just the Flutter community, but I have seen people trying to integrate AR into Flutter apps within the Flutter community. There are lots of packages currently doing speech recognition with Flutter as well. Currently, I’m working with Flutter Web to build apps. A lot is really going on within the Flutter community. One of our Flutter Google Developer experts is soon releasing a Flutter engineering book, which would also be interesting, especially for people who want to go beyond basics, like trying to go deeper into the architectural bit of Flutter and how it actually works.
Are there any new things you’re starting to implement in your work or in personal projects you’re working on?
I started checking out the speech recognition bit of Flutter. I’m interested in Natural Language Processing. I really want to know how it works. I want to learn the process of what happens in between the transitions. How does the speech production process work? How does the speech mechanism work? With the NLP, there’s a subset of linguistics, which I’m also interested in.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to follow your path and gain proficiency in Flutter or learn more about mobile development?
It should start from within. First of all, try to identify your passion. Understand what you really love and follow it. Right now, there’s so much information that it’s easy to get distracted along the way. If you have your passion, then you won’t lose focus. Identify your niche. Identify your mentors. I mean someone who is doing great, who you know is approachable. You could ask for mentorship. Don’t be the person who tries to get pushed. Be the one who is following your mentor and trying to look for answers to your questions. Join communities. Participate in open-source communities, especially if you’re a developer. Try to create open-source projects that would help you grow your skills. At the same time, try to help other people who are doing the same thing.
What pro tips do you have for women in tech, whether they’re technical, career-wise, or anything else?
I founded a platform to give women in tech shoutouts. It’s called TambuaWomenInTech, which is mostly derived from the Swahili word Tambua. Tambua means to recognize. We forget about clapping for those people who have done well. A pro tip that I would give to Women in Tech, having had this platform, is to learn from other people’s journeys. Be open-minded to learn about what other people are doing. Find time to connect with other women in tech who are doing great things. Always ask questions. Finally, stay true to your dreams. If your dream is to become an engineer or a scientist, you will meet all your dreams if you have the focus.