---
title: About
description: "The longer version: Aleppo to Amsterdam, and what happened in between."
author: Omar Albeik
language: en
canonical_url: "https://albeik.dev/en/about"
translation_url: "https://albeik.dev/ar/about"
source_url: "https://albeik.dev/en/about.md"
---

# About

I was born in [Aleppo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo), spent part of
my childhood in the UAE, and moved back in 2008 to study mechatronics. In
2012 the war took me to Egypt, and a year later to Istanbul, to study
software engineering. Amsterdam since 2019. Arabic and English came with me.
Turkish and Dutch I picked up by staying long enough, and Spanish is going
slowly.

The work started in 2008, while I was still studying in Aleppo: consulting
for ABKeys on moving a business onto the internet, and then getting people to
use it. In Egypt I ran a restaurant, which was as much fun as it sounds.
Since Istanbul it has been Udacity, some of it in California, and software
architecture at Teknasyon. Then research and development at Backbase once I
reached Amsterdam, and engineering at Spotify and Booking.com.

Written out like that it looks scattered. What holds it together is the seam
between the technical and the organizational: what to build, how it should be
shaped, and why something that works in a demo comes apart inside a real
company.

I run [Harf Labs](https://harflabs.com), where most of my open source lives.
I started [Unblock Syria](https://unblocksyria.com), though it stands on its
volunteers. It works to restore digital access for Syrians, and brings my own
work back to the country I had to leave.

Away from work I'm learning [Arabic calligraphy](/en/calligraphy), and still
chasing the best espresso in town.