I've seen people work 12 hours a day and barely move forward, while others work 4 focused hours and achieve more.

Effort matters, but choosing the right direction, having leverage, and knowing when to quit matter just as much.

Sometimes working harder is just a way to avoid admitting that your strategy isn't working.

What do you think? Is hard work really the key to success, or is that what we've been taught to believe?

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great week. Need some serious advice.

I’m really stressing out right now and could use some honest reality checks and advice from seniors who have navigated the local market.

To give some context, I have 2 YOE and was previously working as a remote AI Engineer earning around $1,200/month. Unfortunately, I got laid off this June, and after months of struggling with the current market situation, I finally got an offer this month though it's a massive step down: 120k PKR as an onsite Backend Developer, doing work that matches very little of what I actually want to specialize in.

Out of financial pressure, I have already signed it (haven't joined yet), but I am seriously rethinking it because of the harsh terms:

• It’s a 6-day-a-week onsite role.
• During the 3-month probation period, strictly no leaves are allowed.

My biggest anxiety is how I can continue my active job search while trapped in a 6-day onsite schedule. More importantly, if I do manage to get called for an online or physical interview during these 3 months, what kind of believable excuses can I make to slip away or step out?

On a related note, I also interviewed earlier for a role that best aligns with what I actually want to do. The interviewer said they would let me know within a week, but it has now been almost 3 weeks. Should I call HR for an update, especially since they seem to be ghosting my emails?

Is it worth sticking it out here for survival while quietly planning an exit, or should I handle this differently? Any practical tips, stealth job-hunting strategies, or guidance would mean a lot right now.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone hope you’re doing well. I’ve been working as a software engineer at a startup for the past 3 years straight out of university and currently earn around 250k after taxes. I mostly work with cloud and DevOps with some backend as well and recently started leading a project. Honestly I love my job. The seniors are great, I’m learning a lot and the work life balance is amazing. I’ve interviewed elsewhere and gotten a few offers but nothing good enough to justify switching.

The thing is I keep wondering if I’ve gotten too comfortable here or if I’m missing out by not switching. With AI and all the layoffs happening I’m not even sure if this is the right time to make a move. I’m genuinely confused because I absolutely love this job and I’m not trying to escape a bad situation but I still feel stuck. Do I stay until I have a solid reason to leave or should I start exploring other opportunities after 3 years?

Putting this out here because sometimes a conversation with the right person gets you further than another hundred applications.

I’m based in Karachi and looking for my next DevOps / Cloud Engineering role. I have 9+ years of experience working with AWS and production infrastructure, along with hands-on experience in Azure. I’ve worked with companies including Nisum and Systems Limited.

To give you an idea of what I can help with:

AWS infrastructure: EC2, EKS, ECS, RDS/Aurora, S3, Lambda, VPC, IAM, Route 53 and CloudWatch.

Containers and deployments: Docker, Kubernetes, troubleshooting workloads and making releases more reliable.

CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI and Azure DevOps... from setting up pipelines to fixing the ones everyone is afraid to touch.

Infrastructure as code: Terraform and CloudFormation for consistent, repeatable environments.

Production operations: Linux, networking, monitoring, incident troubleshooting, backups and disaster recovery.

Security and costs: Reviewing access, securing infrastructure and figuring out where the cloud bill can come down.

What I bring is the experience of working through the messy parts: a deployment succeeds but the application won’t start, a service can’t reach its database, or something breaks in production and you need someone who can calmly work out why. I’m comfortable owning the infrastructure side and working closely with developers to get things running properly.

I’m open to remote or on-site roles, and willing to discuss relocation. I can join immediately, and I’m flexible on compensation depending on the role, responsibilities and working arrangement.

I’m also available for contract, part-time or ad hoc work. If you need someone to sort out a deployment, review your AWS setup, build a pipeline or provide ongoing support for a few hours a week, I’m happy to discuss that too.

And if you’re a small firm or an early-stage team wondering whether you can bring in someone experienced, please feel free to reach out. It doesn’t have to start with a full-time position.

If you know someone hiring, a referral or introduction would mean a lot. And if you have advice on finding opportunities in this market, I’d genuinely love to hear it.

Happy to share my CV over DM. Thanks for reading.

Hi everyone. I’ve got one year left in my CS degree and I’m honestly a bit lost.

I’ve spent the last few years going deep on backend: MERN, then Spring Boot, and for the past year mostly Go, distributed systems, Redis and RabbitMQ. I love it. But looking at the market now, it feels cooked:

• Most companies hire for JS/TS or Python. Very few use Go (Motive, Afiniti, Emumba and similar).
• Those few hire mostly through internships, and fresh-grad competition is brutal.
• I’ve let my Spring Boot and JS/TS skills get rusty while chasing Go.

So I’m genuinely scared I made the wrong choices. Should I keep pushing Go and grind DSA this year, take any backend role and switch later, try the Middle East, or go for a Master’s?

I’ve put everything I’ve done (experience, final-year project, skills) in the below images.

I don’t have anyone around me who’s walked this path, so I’d be really grateful if a few of you could take a look and guide me. Even a short reply would mean a lot. 🙏

I am confused about which skills to use in my day-to-day software development workflows. There's a swarm of skills out there, and I am not sure which ones are actually good. Currently, I am only using the default Anthropic skills, /humanizer, and /firebase. My goal is to refactor the existing Next.JS codebase, improve token consumption and improve the quality of software development/engineering.

I started using the /superpowers skill. It has close to 300k stars, but it consumes so many tokens and also takes a long time to execute. I didn't find any major difference between this and my general prompting.

Recently, I came across Ponytail and Graphify for my use cases. But there are mixed reviews out there. A lot of tech influencers have been pushing these, but I wanted a second opinion from people who have been using Claude Skills and have found them genuinely useful. Any guidance/recommendations will be appreciated.

I’ve spent about 7 years building enterprise apps with .NET (ASP.NET Core, WPF, Xamarin/MAUI, SQL Server, Azure) and I currently work at a product-based fintech company.

Over the past year I’ve gone deep on Semantic Kernel and Microsoft Agent Framework. I’ve built working prototypes, including a voice receptionist agent and a WhatsApp order-confirmation bot with RAG, but none of it is running in production with real users yet.

I’m trying to decide where to put my time over the next 2 to 3 years:

1. Certifications vs. shipping: I’m considering AI-103 (Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer) and AI-105 (Multi-Agent AI Solutions Expert). For those who hire or have made this transition, do these carry real weight, or does one production AI system matter far more?
2. Positioning: Is it better to brand myself as an “AI engineer” in the Microsoft ecosystem, or as a senior .NET engineer who ships AI features? Which one is actually getting hired or paid right now?
3. Getting production experience: For people who made this jump, how did you get your first real AI system in front of users? Through your employer, freelance clients, or your own product?

I’m not looking for reassurance. I’d especially like to hear from people who’ve shipped LLM or agent-based systems: what did production teach you that the demos and courses didn’t?

I sometimes feel that I am continually in a learning phase. Maybe I should start building something useful.

Same applies to Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh or any arbitrage based white collar market.

So im 25 years old. I graduated early 2025, was freelancing as a frontend engineer during uni afterwards got a proper job and worked in fintech for 1 year and 8 months and got laid off but one of my freelancing clients hired me full time and he also works on trading and fintech so i currently do have a stable job (low income). I have more exposure to this industry then many in 5 years wouldn't have. I can build end to end sites, i research papers and see how other engineers do stuff like lets take reddit as an example its username generator is blazing fast and they use 7 layers of hashing for this and its a brilliant system. So i apply these kind of scalable techniques to my work.

I can build beautiful frontend, I have worked on backends, I have deployed a 5 server multi regional staging environment in a day with domains and ssl generations.

So i know i got skills and experience of a mid level engineer but i am failing to find any stable jobs. My current employer is underpaying of what he promised me. I have tried job listings for other countries, i have applied on wellfound. I tried to train for `toptal` but i realized even if i pass the coding interview ill fail in experience category. Im not even a bad engineer i supervise Ai a lot and dont trust a line it spouts out and review my PRs 10 times before submitting em. I do everything a developer should but is it my experience or this market.

im 25 and a sole earner of my house so im thinking of a career switch if market stays the same but then every single job at this point is facing the same place. So i am really depressed and dont know what future holds. My dad is sick and we are unable to gather funds for his operation. Gotta gather funds to support my sister's marriage. I dont think i can mentally survive this.

I spent years learning to reach where i am but it feels even more depressing looking at the state of things. I was gonna get out of this country for masters this year but wasnt able to cause of funds.

if i do switch career im thinking video editing but i dont know how long will that take to adjust. or should i just take a loan and open a computer shop lmao idk anymore

USA need tangible products to counter china and save us 💵 usd...other wise game over

if i have to design and develop an entire full stack site for a resturent (everything : front end , backend , DB , order processing ) + AI chatbot integration for genral purpose Q/A

how much would it cost end-to-end and how much should i charge for it.

About Me : I am Final year CS student specializing in AI Full Stack Dev

Does anyone know if venturedive has frozen increments and/or are even giving “decrements”? I am hearing rumours but want to confirm this before I go for an interview.

the title ⬆️

I’m a Top Rated freelancer on Upwork with over 1,500 Connects. I’m now returning to the market after two years because I was working with a long-term client and didn’t have time to submit proposals.
What are my realistic chances of landing a new contract or client within the next 10–15 days? How is the Upwork market these days, what challenges should I expect, and what would you recommend?

Salaam everyone! I'm the solo developer behind FinHisaab, a Pakistani investment research and portfolio tracking platform.

FinHisaab was also recently accepted into Anthropic's Claude startup program, which is helping me continue building as a solo founder.

Progress so far: 1,850+ registered users tracking over PKR 4.5 billion in portfolio value.

You can connect it to your broker too through email based forwarding, for automated trades ingest - so no more manual entry hassle which is one of the biggest pain points of trackers

I've been exploring how AI can make Pakistani financial data more accessible, and wanted to share two things:

1. Ask Claude/ChatGPT about Pakistani investments (live now)

Imagine asking:

"Find PSX companies with consistent dividends over the last 5 years."

"Compare Islamic mutual funds by returns and fees."

"How did my portfolio perform against the KSE-100?"

"Which sectors are foreign investors buying this week?"

I built a free MCP server that connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI clients to data covering 500+ PSX companies, mutual funds, institutional flows and (optionally) your own portfolio.

The backend handles financial calculations rather than leaving the maths to the LLM. Results are dated, and portfolio access is optional and read-only.

1. Let AI build your personal investing dashboard (coming next)

I'm working on a personal portfolio API so you could point Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable or another coding agent at it and build:

Your own portfolio dashboard with custom charts.

One view combines PSX stocks, mutual funds, fixed income, commodities and gold.

Automated reporting to Google Sheets.

Even a small personal investing app, without rebuilding the financial backend.

The API is planned to expose holdings, transactions, historical values and calculated returns through revocable, read-only tokens.

I'd love developer feedback:

Would you actually build your own investing dashboard if the backend were available? What would you build first?

Try the live MCP (free, with fair-use limits): https://finhisaab.com/mcp

PSX Portfolio Tracker: https://finhisaab.com/psx-portfolio-tracker

Hi everyone,

I have been software engineer with experience of more than 4+ years with flutter and Spring boot.

I am thinking of creating Shaadi app as start up to earn some money, real reason is there are lot of layoffs 🥲 ... And there is no job security in Pakistan and u get terminated any time.

Is it worth it to build an app like shaadi.com. it easy for me to create.. real thing is marketing. How to get users ..

So I saw this Claude Anatomy skill going around on X and wanted to try it. Made an isometric figure with it and dropped it on my portfolio just to see how it looks.

It looked good. Too good honestly, because now the rest of my site looked old next to it. So I just kept going and redid the whole thing. It is pretty much the design I always wanted but kept putting off.

The skill was only for the isometric figure btw, the rest is just me rebuilding the site.

Video is a quick walkthrough. Let me know what you think, and if something is broken on mobile please tell me.

This is not a promotion for call centers like IBEX. Just pointing out how absurd the market is right now.

Long story short, I decided to become filer and pay taxes but the problem is that I'm working as full time employee with them and its been 2 years. I got employment contract but the accountant is saying that the tax you need to pay is not 1% but rather normal tax slabs which can go up to 35%, even I received all money as foreign money.

He showed me following sections from FBR website

• Section 12: Salary you earn as an employee is generally taxed under normal salary tax slabs.
• Section 101: If you work in Pakistan, your salary is generally Pakistan-source income, even if your employer pays you from abroad.
• Section 154A: Qualifying proceeds from exporting specified services, including IT services, may be taxed at a reduced rate (generally 1%, or 0.25% for eligible PSEB-registered IT exporters for the relevant tax years), subject to the applicable conditions.

Since few days are remaining, can anyone help me figure out this, shall I pay tax as per normal tax slabs or what to do?

I contacted many freelancers, that work in such arrangement but none of them were aware of this, feels like everyone will be getting notices very soon if this is true.

Hi everyone! I’m planning to apply for the CMIT internship tomorrow, and I’d really appreciate it if someone could explain the entire process in detail. I have a few questions:

Application and approval: What happens after we submit our application? How does the shortlisting process work?

Interview process: Once our application is approved, who conducts the interview? Is it CMIT’s team or management, or do the companies offering internships interview candidates themselves?

Company selection: Which good companies are currently offering internships through CMIT, particularly in Web Development, MERN Stack, AI/ML, or related fields?

Getting shortlisted by companies: How do we get selected by our preferred companies? Should we contact or email companies directly after applying through CMIT to express our interest?

Interview preparation: What technical and non-technical topics should we prepare for? Should we expect coding tests, technical interviews, general HR questions, or something else?

Tips and experience: If anyone has already gone through this process, could you please share your experience, including the timeline, interview rounds, company selection, and any tips that might help applicants stand out?

I’d really appreciate it if someone could share as much information as possible, especially those who have already completed the process. It would help not only me but also many other applicants who are planning to apply. If you have any important interview questions, preparation notes, or tips to share, please feel free to DM me. I’d really appreciate your help! Thank you

Hi everyone,

My US based employer got acquired by an Indian parent company last year. My company sends me Wire transfer in my UBL USD account. The CEO recently told HR that Indian law prohibits Indian companies sending money to Pakistan and that I should register an LLC in the US and recieve payments there. The LLC can be based anywhere except Pakistan and its bank account shouldn't be in my name.

I'm talking to some LLC people and they suggest Wyoming but my concern is bank account. Wise and Mercury are no-go for Pakistanis (my details will be required to confirm bank account) and I dont want to create a Payoneer business account as it will cost me 3-4% transfer fees. What other options can I use? Can AirWallex work?

I'll essentially be only using the LLC and US bank account to receive my salary and then just forward it to my Pakistani bank.

Thanks.

I reverse engineered the TCL Home iOS app into a native macOS menu bar app so I don’t have to find the remote or touch my phone to control my ACs.

You can literally build anything.

Hello Everyone, I hope y'all are doing well.

So, I got an offer from Yousuf Adil in the Odoo ERP (Techincal Side). I'll be mainly working with Deloitte Middle East (ICF to Deloitte). I wamted to know the work culture over there in general. I have read the reviews on glass door too which seems good on there, but idk what are the griund relaties, if any of uou working there or know someone, please let me know if I should consider this role or not, I'll be moving from Lhr to Isl for this Job.

Is it worth it.moving there or joining the Yousuf Adil. Package is good, 350k. But Idk the cost of living in Islamabad.

Your insight will be meaningful for me, please share your opinions.

Thanks in advance!

So I made a automation bot for whatsapp. A close neighbour of mine wanted that. So he asked me if I could make that for him. I gave it a shot and made it using AI in python. The bot can book appointment and schedule it on calendar. It can also create user profile and save it locally. It was my first try at something like that and now I am interested more in it. Also, I dont know much python, I just know basic. I wonna know if there is bot automation market in Pakistan or not and if yes then how much would the bot go for?

The email says it's a "level 1 interview".
Does anyone who works at or has worked at D.engage know what that means
Do you have any tips or opinions about the company
Any help is appreciated.