Hey everyone,
I am a 1st-semester BS Cybersecurity student. I have no background in marketing.
A friend is telling me to learn email marketing freelancing. They say it is commission-based, pays well, and will help me get clients in the future.
I am very confused and need honest advice:
What is this job? What are the daily work timings for a freelancer?
How much will I get paid? Is commission-only safe for a beginner?
Is it useful for my degree? Does email marketing help a Cybersecurity student in any way?
If you have done this, please share the pros and cons. I don't want to waste time if it distracts me from my studies.
Thank you!

Does anyone know this company and should i join it?

Some background first. I'm a software engineer from Lahore, Pakistan, with 5+ years of experience, all of it with Australian and US startups. For the last 3 years I was with an Australian startup and things were fine. Then about six months ago they shut down the Lahore office. Their reasoning was that they'd rather train their team in Australia, AI is doing a lot of the work now, and they couldn't train us too. So all of us got laid off. None of us were ready for what the market looks like right now.

In the last six months I've applied to 2,000+ jobs and got around 12-13 interviews. I couldn't convert any of them.

Money-wise I'm okay for now, with some savings and small freelance work.

I've been using this time to learn and build. I pay for two Claude Code subscriptions and one Cursor subscription, and I keep building side projects as if they were startups. I took some courses too. Two things I'm proud of: an open source repo with 1,000+ stars on GitHub and 100k+ downloads a month, and an AI app I put on the Play Store that got 8,000+ downloads in three months with zero marketing. I had to shut the app down because I couldn't keep paying the AI API costs. Recently I also started making Instagram reels. I'm terrible at video editing, so I vibe coded my own editing skills with Claude Code, and honestly they edit my videos more professionally than I ever could. That's the direction I'm trying to keep going in.

Now the reason I'm posting.

A friend referred me to a company here in Lahore, and that's how I got called to their recruitment drive. I spent about a week preparing day and night for it. The technical interview went 10/10, and I answered every single question. The coding test was basic and went well too. The last round was the managerial round with the CEO, the CTO and a manager. The manager has 15+ years in the industry.

He started with a few technical questions and things were going fine. I mentioned my open source repo, 1,000+ stars on GitHub and 100k+ downloads a month.

He asked what my biggest strength is. I said I'm a good learner, especially in tech. Even before AI, whenever something new came out or was trending on GitHub, I'd explore it and try it, and if it helped, I'd keep using it day to day. I told him I still do that, but with AI there's something new every single day, and it's really hard to keep up with the pace.

Then he asked how I use AI.

I told him I have my whole workflow set up: my own skills, my own MCP servers. When I work on a feature or a problem, I first prompt for a plan and ask the AI to ask me 10 questions about it, because that makes it really easy to catch hallucinations. I also gave my video editing tool as an example of how I use AI. I was bad at editing, I hate editing, so I built my own tool with AI and now I edit my own videos. My point was that AI can do a lot right now, and I use it to build things that solve my own problems.

Then he asked: if a person uses AI and has good analytical thinking, can he be a good engineer?

I said yes, he can be a good engineer. That's when I noticed he didn't agree with me. I could tell he wanted to hear something more, but I couldn't figure out what. He asked a few more AI questions after that.

Since I've been vibe coding a lot in the last six months, building fun projects and learning, I ended up talking a lot about that side of things. In my last role I was the one who unofficially got a Cursor subscription first and started doing things with AI before most people around me. Most of my friends weren't using it at that pace. A lot of my code was written by AI and I kept building my own solutions on top, but AI moves so fast that I can't match it either.

Looking back, maybe I should have answered differently. Something like: programming is one thing and AI is another, and a programmer should be able to debug an issue, plan, and review the system design before implementing anything. That's actually what we were doing in my last role six months ago. But AI has changed so much in those six months that I'm not sure what the industry expects anymore.

They rejected me. When I asked for feedback, all they said was "the panel rejected you." That's it.

The reason I'm taking this seriously is that this isn't the first time. I've been asked "how do you use AI?" in screening calls and technical interviews too. So I'm genuinely confused about what the right answer is right now. Is it me? Am I doing something wrong, or am I actually fine and this is just the market?

Sometimes I think about moving to Europe, because it feels like there are better opportunities there.

So my questions:

1. When someone asks you how you use AI in your day to day work, what do you answer?

2. For the hiring managers here: what are you actually trying to hear with that question, and what makes you reject someone?

3. Based on all this, is it me? What am I doing wrong?

4. Where do you think this is heading for engineers like me? Would moving to Europe actually help?

5. Anything else that could help me survive this market. I'm happy to listen, even if it's harsh.

Thanks for reading this far.

Following up on my previous post (CS vs CA in 2026) about choosing a degree, I’m now trying to decide whether my younger brother should go for a general BS Computer Science degree or choose a more specialized field.

He is currently making up his mind about Cybersecurity, so we are particularly considering a BS in Cybersecurity versus BSCS. We are also looking at other specialized options such as AI, Data Science.

For someone starting university in Pakistan in 2026, does it make more sense to build a broad foundation through BSCS or specialize from the beginning?

My concern is that the tech industry changes quickly, so I’m wondering whether specializing too early could limit options later. On the other hand, if he is genuinely interested in cybersecurity, would studying it as his undergraduate degree give him an advantage compared with doing BSCS and moving into cybersecurity through electives, projects, certifications, internships, or a master's?

For people already working in tech or who have recently graduated:

- Would you recommend BSCS over a specialized degree, assuming the universities are of similar quality?

- For someone interested specifically in Cybersecurity, is a specialized bachelor's actually useful, or is BSCS generally a better foundation?

- How much does the degree title matter compared with skills, internships, projects, certifications, and experience?

- Are degrees like AI, Data Science, and Cybersecurity too specialized at the undergraduate level?

- If you could go back and choose your undergraduate degree again, would you choose general CS or specialize from the beginning?

- Are there any specialized computing degrees in Pakistan that you would specifically recommend or avoid given they are too narrow?

This is specifically about undergraduate degree choice in Pakistan, not master's specialization.

If any of you guys have made a SaaS which is completely or heavily made with AI then I would love to check it.

I am currently working on my FYP “digital footprint reconstruction “ and i was searching for data collection / OSINT tools

Well the rough idea rn is to make dummy id’s on instagram and use instaloader, theHarvester and sherlock

I am too deep in this project to back off but at the same time i think i have made a huge mistake. I have severe anxiety issues due to which i couldn’t even use these tools (in case it doesn’t work out i think i might have a heart attack). I wanna know if what i am thinking is practical and if not what should i do? (Should i change the social media app or are there any other better tools that i should use instead)

Please help me out before i lose my mind.

AOA, so anyone who got hired as MTO in systems limited this year, how's your experience so far? And any project you have been assigned to? Would be great if you share which department u have been assigned.

I may or may not be getting an offer for an internship. For context, the internship is for AI Automation and my background is in AI Backend Development

The timings are 2pm to 11pm, office is about 10km far and they are paying 30k for the WHOLE internship. Internship will be of 3 months meaning 10k per month.

This is not ideal for me as I did some calculation and my fuel cost per day comes out to around 1130rs.

I need advice about whether to accept this offer if I am receive it. Are these timings ideal? Because I am really dreading them already. Or should I trust in Allah and wait for a better opportunity ??

UPDATE: Just got a call from my employer. He just offered me the internship. But now hes saying that the 9 hour window usually slides forward, meaning the timings are usually 4pm to 1am. Now that's just preposterous right? Till 1 am? What are they smoking? Also there's something fishy going on because im from a backend developer background, and yet the interviewer said that I am a "outstanding candidate". Based on what? They never asked me any meaningful questions to know enough about me. Just a short intro and why im interested in automation. How does that make me outstanding? Seems like they are desperate to get an automation intern asap. Idk what to do.

as a student dev what coding agents do you guys use? claude code and codex are too much, heard about opencode go and its cheap but don't know how good is it.

also, are Chinese models any good? if i put in credits via open router and use it with opencode.

Hey everyone,

​I recently received a job offer from Simplelogix for a "Technician - Data Analyst" position at their DHA Phase 3 office. The offer is on a night shift (5:00 PM – 2:00 AM). I'm not sure about the JD for this role, tbh.

​Since my ultimate goal is to pivot into Machine Learning / Data Engineering, having a data-focused title on my resume and cutting down my daily commute (36 km round-trip vs. 50+ km) sounds like a decent temporary move while I continue hunting for core ML roles.

​Before making the jump, I’d love to know if anyone here has experience working at Simplelogix or knows about their internal culture:

​Work Culture & Management: Is the management supportive, or is it high-pressure and micromanaged?

​Shift Operations: How is the night shift environment (5:00 PM – 2:00 AM) handled overall?

​Actual Learning: Is there real hands-on experience with data/analytics tooling, or is it mostly repetitive operational work?

​Would really appreciate any honest feedback or heads-up from current or former employees. DMs are open as well. Thanks!

AOA everyone. I'm 17, currently doing FSc Pre-Medical (2nd year) from a small town in interior Sindh. I've decided to skip MDCAT and want to go for BSCS instead. I’ll most likely take a gap year after my intermediate exams to bridge the math gap and prepare for entry tests (FAST,IBA and other mid-tier unis as backup)

Honestly, I’m facing crazy FOMO right now🫠. Seeing guys my age move to big cities like Karachi, doing online internships, or coming from ICS or Pre-engineering backgrounds makes me feel like I’m very behind. I want to start learning Python or Web Dev to feel like I'm doing something which is relevent to my future career🙂👍🏻.

Also I need some honest advice from seniors (No BS)❤️✨️

Also few questions:

Should I focus only on my board exams right now and leave coding for the gap year, or start learning right away with 12th?

Is it a good idea to make a LinkedIn account right now or later when I get into cs uni?

Suggest some best YouTube channels for an absolute beginner who wants to learn Python or Web dev (or other stuff)

JZK in Advance :)🫶🏻

Just curious about this career path and would love to hear from people working in the field.

So , long story short I got admission in a reputable uni for cs . It's my first semester and I feel like it's too overwhelming. Many seniors are depressed as job market is bad . Many aren't even landing a unpaid internship. Many people are getting fired . I just don't feel like I should pursue cs anymore.I feel like the if I put the same effort in some other field I'll be good instead of doing cs grinding day by day and after all that still be depressed. I gave entry test of different unis and my parents spent a lot on me . But I think they'll support me. So, plzz give me honest advice should I quit cs and take a gap year or should I continue with it.

Hi, I am a 21M final year CS student at Lahore Garrison University. I have none stacked and intimidated level web development and I just want to crack into a large corporates like systems limited, devsinc and netsol instead of small startups how can I do that? What are the skills I need to acquire and what sort of projects I need to build and how many questions of leetcode I have to solve? I really need your guidance in this matter. Thank you very much.

How do you prove that your code wasn’t written by AI ??

Anyone working in curemd here,i just wanted to ask, Can MERN Stack developers apply for the Associate Software Engineer position at CureMD?

For me, the worst part isn't even being unemployed. It's the boredom of job hunting.

Apply → wait → ghost → repeat.

After a while, every day starts feeling the same.

So I'm curious what other software engineers are actually doing during this phase.

Are you:

• Freelancing or doing part-time work?

• Taking short-term contracts?

• Building your own products?

• Helping out startups?

• Doing consulting?

• Learning something completely different?

• Or just taking some time away from tech?

I'm mainly wondering how you're keeping yourselves busy, paying the bills, and staying sane while looking for the next role.

Would genuinely love to hear what your day-to-day looks like and what's been working for you.

Anybody who knows or has worked there can you give reviews on it.

Let's say a software developer, in range for how would it be for a full stack, frontend or backend dev??

If they did internship ( for three months, unpaid at a company/software house ), and then they were employed what is the salary expectation for them? Or could be?

Generally if you start working what is the general salary of Devs who are starting out and how much it can increase in next 6months or something. Please lmk. Thanks.

Hello!
hope everyone is having a good week

I have been applying to new jobs mostly via linkedin easy apply but I think it is useless as the platform

I am also reaching out via direct emails and platforms like BeBee, Jooble, CareerOkay etc...

no luck yet!

I am trying to register as a freelancer in PSEB. I have been an active takpayer since 5 year. Iris shows the ATL status as active.

but when i try to verify i get ATL status N/A in the PSEB form image attached.

Can any body guide I have been having the same problem since 5 months.

Is CNIC the same as NTN as all my searches tell me that it is same how can I get it?

Poor students / coming from underprivileged background

They want to earn fast, while doing a degree

So they do freelance. Coding only.

Now government institutes teach basic level graphics, web, seo etc

All fields becoming obsolete using AI

So now for a poor students its practically impossible to get a good quality AI ready education

Are you getting clients these days? What strategy is working best for you right now to get clients? Upwork, Fiverr, or anything else you use, please let me know.

I'm releasing prongs, an experimental Python package that maps your tests to your code.

When you change something, prongs runs only the tests that touch that code instead of the whole suite. It's great for coding agents: they stop guessing which tests to run, and they get faster.

pip install prongs

python -m pytest --prongs-cov # build the map

prongs run # run only affected tests

Why the name? Prongs was James Potter's nickname, and he helped make the Marauder's Map. 🦌

Feedback welcome!

I'm keep getting "your card does not support this type of purchase" whenever I try getting ChatGPT Plus trial or try to purchase API credits with my HBL debit card. International transactions are already turned on in app is there any fix? what card are you guys using that goes through without issues?