Knowledge knows no gender.

I worked at Elm in Saudi Arabia.

The office was gender-segregated. I arrived assuming that meant women were sidelined.

I was wrong.

They were some of the most educated and capable people I have worked with anywhere: engineers, analysts, and leaders. Women in senior roles who fully owned them.

What surprised me most was the respect. It wasn’t just written in a values deck. It was built into how the place actually operated.

Men listened when women spoke. Their opinions carried real weight and shaped decisions.

More than anything, we were judged purely on our knowledge and contributions.

In other workplaces, including back home, I’ve seen women talked over or forced to prove themselves twice. I never witnessed that at Elm.

It dismantled an assumption I didn’t even know I was carrying.

إلى كل زملائي في شركة عِلم: تعلمتُ منكم أكثر مما تتخيلون. شكرًا لكم جميعًا.

(To all my colleagues at Elm: I learned more from you than you can imagine. Thank you all.)

So if you’re weighing up a role in a culture different from your own, here’s my advice:

Take the job.

You will learn more about the world, and about yourself, than any comfortable job ever could.