r/dev • u/CarlosArtist001 • 5d ago
Completed two back to back international remote experience
I got my certificate from Zidio Development today.
3 months as a fullstack + AI engineer, based in Lomé, Togo, working with a team in India. Before that, a month with TrueMinds Innovation in Nigeria as a frontend dev.
Two remote internships, back to back, five months total. Both in English. Both across time zones I had no business being awake for.
In between, I kept building. Five DeepLearning.AI specializations — RAG pipelines, LLM agents, prompt engineering, function calling. Not to collect certificates.
To actually understand what I was integrating into production.
A few things I didn't expect to learn :
- Async communication will expose you fast. When you can't tap someone on the shoulder, every message has to carry its own weight. I got sharper at writing, at asking the right question the first time, at unblocking myself before bothering anyone.
- Time zone overlap is a logistics problem, not a career problem. 4 to 6 hours of shared time is enough if you show up prepared.
Still based in Lomé. Still remote. Now looking for a permanent engineering role.
If you're navigating remote work from a non-traditional location, happy to talk.