Muhammad Nabil Bin Mohd Nizam

I'm from Jitra, Kedah, and I came to software the long way round.

After finishing my diploma in Computer Engineering at UniMAP in 2022, I had no intention of studying further. I wanted to work. I joined Zpeed Solutions in Perak, first as an IT support intern and then as a resident technician, looking after campus network infrastructure, troubleshooting wireless access points, and closing support tickets against SLA targets. I was there for about a year and a half. It was my first real job and it taught me what it feels like when something you're responsible for stops working and someone is waiting on you to fix it.

When I moved back to Kedah, there wasn't much computer engineering work around Jitra. What I found instead was a job as a clinic assistant, and I did it for just over a year. On paper it was registration, medical records, billing and stock. In practice I learned a lot more than that: what the medicines we dispensed were for, how to assist with the procedures that came through, and how to keep records that someone else could rely on later. I also learned how to talk to people who are worried and want a straight answer, which is harder than it sounds.

None of it was software. But it was the first time I was responsible for something where getting it wrong mattered to a real person, and that has stayed with me.

I kept thinking I could be doing more. Not that there was anything wrong with the work. It just wasn't where I wanted to end up, and the longer I stayed the wider that gap felt.

So I applied to study again. This time not computer engineering but software engineering, because the part I'd always liked was building the thing, not maintaining it. I started at UTHM in March 2024.

I'm in my final year now and it finishes soon. Most of what I know I learned by building something that didn't work yet and staying with it until it did. That's still how I work: I pick something slightly beyond what I know how to do, and I don't stop until it runs.