Employee stories
Meet Bassel, one of our Fullstack Engineers.
Finding My Peace on the Rhine
Looking back, when I moved to Germany in 2021, it didn’t feel like a bold life decision but a natural step on the path of life.
I studied Computer Science in Syria and started my career there. Software and tech were always the stable things in my life, logical, methodical, and yet creative. Code doesn’t care where you are from. It either works or it doesn’t. Through a friend, I heard about an opportunity in Germany, and then I packed my things and moved.
Germany is different from Syria. The culture, the rhythm of daily life, and even the humor land differently. But the city of Cologne has a way of absorbing everyone and everything. Ever since its founding, goods, people, and ideas have been arriving through the road and the River Rhine.
However, it is an unmistakably German city with a serious and tenacious side. You can tell by the cityscape, the Cologne Cathedral, which took 630 years to build, overlooking the Roman road and the Rhine, steady, and yet ever moving. You can feel that history without anyone explaining it to you. It also has a not-so-serious side. Known for its Karneval, turning the city upside down twice a year.
I live a stone’s throw from the river now. It almost feels like it has a certain gravity. There on the riverbank, with just trees, water, cyclists passing by, people with blankets, and speakers playing music that blends into the wind. I sit there and reset. Sometimes I think about the time I happened to randomly see Shaq playing basketball on that court (he was DJing in the city). Sometimes I think about nothing at all.
“I live a stone’s throw from the river now. Sometimes I think about the time I happened to randomly see Shaq playing basketball on that court (he was DJing in the city).”
What Helped Me Feel at Home
Moving countries as an adult means rebuilding parts of your life from scratch. You relearn simple things: how to register an address, how to navigate small talk, how to exist in a new social code. One of the things that made that transition easier was the people at MobiLab.
It’s an international place in a very natural way. People come from different countries, different backgrounds, and different paths into tech. No one really has the exact same story. That makes conversations interesting.
There isn’t a heavy corporate atmosphere. People talk. People share. You’ll overhear discussions about how to make Agentic AI work for complex corporate structures, as well as about travel plans, food from back home, German tips, football, and where to find good shawarma in Cologne.
After work, you’ll often find people on the balcony with a beer, the Dom in the background, the light turning golden over the rooftops. Nothing organized.
It’s in those in-between moments that a place starts to feel familiar.
“MobiLab is an international place in a very natural way. People come from different countries, different backgrounds, and different paths into tech. No one really has the exact same story. That makes conversations interesting.”
Problem Solving at MobiLab and in Life
At MobiLab, we work on complex IT challenges for large enterprises. We solve the kind of problems where systems, data, and processes have grown complicated over the years. As a Team Lead Full Stack Engineer, I learned that the difference here is the emphasis on speed and creating momentum early. It allows our work to be impactful; instead of long theoretical planning phases, we often start by building quick Proofs of Concept that make ideas tangible and test what actually works.
One day, we might be working on how to help a biotech company produce medicines cheaply and quickly with AI. And in two weeks, we could be helping the largest supermarket chain price their produce and reduce waste with data.
This works great for me. It is rewarding to see your ideas and work deliver results almost in real time. As a Team Lead, it’s already rewarding to see other people grow. It is an integral part of the culture here to not only lead the project but to empower others.
I’ve always considered myself a generalist in how I approach things. I like understanding how parts connect. Frontend, backend, users, business context. That mindset fits well with the way we work. It allows us to be creative and think out of the box.
MobiLab has a strong engineering culture. Opinions are backed by reasoning. If something doesn’t make sense, you question it. If there’s a better way to build it, you propose it. There’s an expectation that you think, not just execute. You’re trusted to move things forward. And because people here are deeply technical with expertise across different layers, decisions don’t get stuck in endless abstraction. You can sit down with another engineer, sketch something out, and align on an approach.
At MobiLab, you’re not boxed into a narrow role. You’re expected to think. To question. To improve. That kind of trust forces you to grow. The part of my work I care about most is empathy for users, understanding how something feels to use.
Life Now
Today, my life is layered. I’m originally from Syria. I live in Germany. I work with people from all over the world. My day might involve building a PoC for a global company, and my evening might involve sitting by the Rhine watching the sunset.
Sometimes I think about how unexpected this path was. It started with studying CS back home. Then a friend sent me a message. Then, remote work. Then, a move during a global pandemic. Now, Cologne feels familiar. The island in the river is part of my routine.
And for me, that’s what working and living here has been about: building things, meeting people from everywhere, and slowly creating a life that feels balanced between where I started and where I am now.
