Egyptian Engineer Becomes Tech VP After Finding Her Path

Nahla Gamil graduated with a Master's in Electrical Engineering in 2020 with no clear career direction. She had taught programming as a research assistant but felt uncertain about translating that experience into a job.

Then the pandemic hit, and a friend at Microsoft gave her advice that changed everything. Tech was thriving despite COVID, and Gamil's teaching background gave her an edge she hadn't recognized.

Within a month of job searching, she landed two interviews. In September 2020, just one week after graduation, she joined Bit68, a small Cairo software company with only 12 employees, as a project manager.

During her three-month probation period, something clicked. "Something clicked with the place, with the position, with what I was actually doing," Gamil recalls.

But her early confidence led to her biggest mistake. She thought project management was so easy that she signed up for animation and French courses on the side, treating the role as simple coordination work.

She quickly learned otherwise. A project can fail even with excellent developers if the project manager doesn't understand both the business goals and the technical challenges, Gamil discovered.

To bridge her knowledge gaps, she dove into learning. She completed courses in product management, agile methodologies, and even earned a full stack web development diploma in 2022, not to become a developer but to speak their language.

That dedication paid off. Gamil went from managing two people in 2021 to becoming Head of Project Management by January 2022. She became Vice President in 2023 and an official partner at Bit68 in September 2025.

Why This Inspires

Gamil's story shows that career clarity doesn't always come during school. She spent years studying electrical engineering while feeling adrift about her future, but her willingness to keep learning and admit what she didn't know transformed uncertainty into leadership.

Her approach challenges the common misconception that project managers just coordinate schedules. She proved that truly understanding both clients and developers creates the foundation for lasting career growth.

Now she leads the team at a company that took a chance on a recent graduate who was still figuring things out. Sometimes the best career paths reveal themselves not in the classroom but in the doing.