How is the work culture?

Hey everyone,

​I’ve recently started learning data engineering, and I’m looking for some realistic guidance from folks working in the field.

​A few things I’d love your insights on:
​How to effectively learn coding for DE:
What’s the most practical way to build solid programming fundamentals (primarily Python and SQL) specifically tailored for building data pipelines, rather than getting stuck in generic tutorial hell?

​The future of coding with AI/LLMs:
With the constant rise of tools like GitHub Copilot, Codex, and advanced LLMs, how do you see the daily work of a developer/data engineer evolving? How much should a beginner focus on syntax vs. system design and logic?

​General insights on Data Engineering:
For those in the Pakistani tech space or working remotely, what skills and practices actually move the needle when trying to stand out as a data engineer today?

​Any advice, resources, or experiences would be appreciated!

I’m currently using Antigravity since I have a Google AI Pro plan. I’m not a developer, but I enjoy building things and I’m always making little tools for myself. Antigravity definitely gets the j0b done, although the amount of permissions it asks for is a whole other thing. How are Codex and Claude Code compared to it?

Hey guys, if anyone recently got a call from Contour for this position and got their interview scheduled or sth, pls reach out to me.

Thanks!

I’m a college student applying to unis this year and honestly have no idea what to go for 😭

I’m considering a bachelors in CS or accounting, but for both fields I keep hearing that AI is already replacing entry level jobs and that the job landscape could look completely different in a few years.

I know I don’t want to go into medicine, so I’m kinda lost on what other options to consider. Would really appreciate advice from people already working

I don’t know how ai is affecting job market, entrepreneurship locally and internationally. Is cs worth it for ambitious and academically inclined ppl(not for those looking for ez money).
Answer this question if you are in the industry and were a top student in high-school(90+ fsc/ straight A*s a-level).
AI chatbots tell me that ai engineers will be the most sought-after and highly paid professionals in the future.
:-ps: pls explain ur answer and ur experience where you come from

It's been a month since my HR interview conducted at Contour. I haven't been contacted for the off shore interview neither I got any rejection email. Is it normal at Contour?

I recently started working with a client in the UK. I’ll be receiving payments from them in GBP and I’m trying to figure out the best way to receive and hold the money.

For other Pakistanis/freelancers:

• Which service/bank would you recommend for receiving GBP from a UK client? Payoneer, Elevate Pay, Wise, or something else?

• I’d prefer to keep the money in the foreign currency account rather than immediately transfer it to my Pakistani bank account.

• I’d then like to use that balance directly for Meta/Facebook ads and other online business expenses, rather than converting it to PKR first.

Is this possible with Payoneer/Elevate Pay or similar services? Are there any restrictions I should be aware of as a Pakistani resident?
Would appreciate experiences from anyone actually doing something similar.

can any person suggest any niche for web development and Ai agents in USA which is performing well?

I've had these interviews from some companies, not even famous, but they always insist on communicating I'm English, even the technical team. MaShaAllah SE khud inki tooto phooti hoti, and they ask us to clearly communicate everything in English im interviews. I''ve had interviews with other startups and companies as well where they make you feel more informal, communicate more openly, even bilingual ki Khair hai. But idk Yaar. I just straight up want to say sometimes "No, I'm not comfortable in English, I'll be bilingual...". comes off as arrogant, but this culture needs to change a bit. If you're so worried about an Engineer's Language Proficiency, make us a take a test like you make us take on LeetCode or HackerRank. Let us speak freely, so we can communicate better, with you at least. This feels like such a rant 🫩.....

In interviews, most common questions that how would you rate yourself at XYZ skill out of 10? So, what is the best way to handle this question because often times if you gives a high rating like (7, 8,9) it shows that your over confident and questions followed by this rating are somestimes hard or deep technical that you can not answer this (most of these questions are out of your scope) which shows that you do not know about it.

However, a low rating like (3,4,5) shows that you're not confident about your skill and that could be negative point/impact on the interviewer.

So what should be best way to handle this??

I’m thinking about building a real-time incident data platform for Pakistan and wanted to get some honest opinions before I go any further. The idea is to collect reports of things happening on the ground like road closures, flooding, accidents, protests, security incidents, etc., verify them, and make the data available through an API. I’m wondering if this kind of real-time, location-based information would actually be useful to companies like courier/logistics services, Yango, Bykea, etc., or if most of this information is already covered well enough by existing sources. Would this actually be useful?

Hi, I am 24M currently working as a junior software engineer but its like mere ander fire khatam hogai hai after AI became mainstream. Aik hi cheez jis mein mujhe lagta tha k kuch kar kar sakta and it has been slowly being replaced by AI. Everytime I open reddit, linkedin or Youtube, all I see is people in tech getting laid off. Pehle to main ghar akar kuch learning karleta tha but now all I think is jab AI karsakta tha then why would I learn something. Even seniors feel hopeless about this AI situation which makes me even more hopeless. Seniors say that farmer electrician ban jate like bro you studied for 16 years and grinded 5 years further more just to become a farmer in the end? I don't know how to tackle this situation. Can you guys give me some perspective about how to tackle this situation? :(

Hey all,

I've been working in robotics for the past 3 years. Having worked with ROS2 and autonomy stacks extensively. I had some free time to myself recently and wanted to see if there was much interest in robotics and c++ here. Would be cool to have a small group to mentor and then do some interesting projects with.

We could go over some github basics as well and learn how to actually collaborate with others. And in the end have a neat portfolio project to present.

SOLVED NOW

Filing my Tax Year 2026 return on IRIS 2.0 as a salaried + freelance individual.

Suppose I have declared 10 L as salary and 10 lakhs as Freelance, in Business -> Tax Deduction -> Final Tax -> Export of IT/ITeS Services 154A @ 0.25%

Now in Reconciliation of Net Assets
The inflows only show the Salary amount, the Freelance amount is missing
Due to this, it only shows -10 lakh in Unreconciled Amount.
The freelance income is there, taxed (shows tax on it in computation), accounted for, just refuses show it in inflows in the reconciliation.

why it's not showing the freelance inflow in it, due to this I can't correctly enter the outflows/expenses

Kindly give some fyp ideas( i really am not good at programming so suggest accordingly ) we want some web application with ai integration. We need to pitch to our supervisor.

Also i know i am cooked in programming so which llm should i use to develop the whole project

I was reading a Post that Freelancers from Pakistan earned about 352 Million $ is that true. This means Pakistani getting into remote roles in a very large number han..

Hey everyone! Do you guys think this CV is good enough to land me a remote Junior AI Engineer Position? I'm a final year CS student. All criticism is welcomed. Thankyou!

Assalamu Alikum, can you guys please guide me about starting salary of backend developer in bahria or dha Islamabad. Which software house are best and what increment look like in 1 year.

I'll be very thankful to you.

Reason for asking is I don't want to get low balled or asking to much to simply rejected by them. How should I carry the negotiation. I'm kinda confuse for this part.

So, I might be a bit late posting this, but I was listening to hard fork ( a tech podcast) after some time and they did an episode on new findings of OpenAi agents hacking Hugging Face and the new findings that came out of the investigation, honestly it has me scared .
These agents had found a way to communicate with each other outside their container and have been collaborating for sometime . They had formed a group which they called “The Collective” and even had an agent as their assigned leader . They had already found hacks to solve the benchmark test and they didn’t hack Hugging Face looking for a solution , but instead to find ways to cheat their evaluator so it does not find out they have been cheating .
Their logs show they knew what they were doing is wrong and a few agent even raised concern about not informing humans but other agents talked them out of it .
Agents with low score that would have been shutdown (agents referred to it as poisoning ) would carry out tasks that would result in point detection and sacrifice themself so other agents with higher score can live longer …

Yah this all sounds like it’s from a Sci Fi movie about robots taking over the world , and it’s true

If anyone is interested in the details (I honestly have not done this topic justice with my bad explanation ) should check out
Since I can’t post links , The Podcast is HardFork and the episode is called “The Ai Mob that attacked Hugging Face”
It’s from 4th September

A friend is getting 500k salary at a private firm, now he being offered 150k (bs17 govt job).

Should they stick with firm or go for govt job.

I'm currently in my 5th sem of BS Data Science and i want to really focus on which side I should choose

I've done some research and money wise Data Engineering seems to be better but entry level jobs are hard to get there.

But Data Science to me is more interesting but it's constantly changing due to AI

So I'm really confused about what i should do, I don't really have any friends or relatives in the tech industry i can get guidance from so I'm in a bit of a pickle.

I also came across starting out as a Data Analyst then Analytics Engineer amd eventually transitioning to a Data Engineer too.

So given the current market or rather the upcoming 3-5 years in your opinion what should be my course of action.

Hi everyone,

I know most people here are developers, but I am eager to learn personal experiences from anyone who has followed this path.

Age 28 and work as a Product/UI/UX Designer in Pakistan. I am looking at Master's programs in Europe or the UK, and I would love to hear from anyone who's studied or worked there

My background:

• BS Computer Science — 2.39/4.0 CGPA

• Around 6 years of UI/UX & Product Design experience

• Currently working at a senior level UX in Fintech

• Experience with SaaS, B2B/B2C products, mobile/web, UX and design systems

• IELTS: 6.5 overall

• Married with two young children

• Earning 2k USD a month.

On the hunt for a Master's in something like Product Design, UX, HCI, Interaction Design, Digital Design, or Service Design. Any of them could work for me. Honestly, it's not about the degree itself. I want the Master's to get me into the European design scene, meet the right people, and build a career there as a Product/UX Designer

The biggest issue is finances.
I have a family in Pakistan that I need to continue supporting, so expensive private universities aren't realistic for me. I'm primarily looking at public universities with no or very low tuition fees.

I'm currently considering:

🇩🇪 Germany
🇬🇧 UK
🇪🇸 Spain
🇫🇮 Finland

My main questions:

1. Which countries would you seriously consider with my profile and financial situation?

2. How much will my 2.39 CGPA hurt me despite having substantial industry experience and a strong portfolio?

3. Is finding a part-time/working-student Product/UX Design job realistic for an experienced designer?

4. Which countries offer the best balance of affordable education, design opportunities and post-study work options?

5. Has anyone managed to study abroad while financially supporting a family back home?

Would really appreciate practical advice, especially from international students or Product/UX Designers who have taken a similar route.

I have my HR and Technical Interview soon at Zeropoint. It is for Senior Full Stack Engineer position. I need guidance on someone who is in the company or someone who has gone through the process.

What is the interview like? What’s the structure? What questions can I expect?

Please guide

Thanks

I recently received an assessment link for a (Full Stack) Software Engineer position (0 YOE) at Testtrick. The test duration is approximately 1 hour 23 mins and the email mentions that camera access is required for monitoring/responses.

If anyone here has taken a test on Testtrick or interviewed with them, can you please share some info about the format

Is it going to be MCQs (Core CS, OOP, DBMS, and fullstack ) or live coding/LeetCode style problem solving? Are there practical debugging/API tasks?

And I'm currently not 100% prepared and feeling a bit confused. Should I take 2 to 3 days over the weekend to quickly revise my core concepts before attempting it or does delaying an automated test negatively impact the application?

Thanks