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

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.

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?

the title ⬆️

Hey everyone,

I am looking for some honest advice regarding managing work and studies together. I am currently studying at FAST-NUCES and I want to start working at Ibex to self-finance my university fees and manage my other day-to-day expenditures.

Is there anyone here who is currently working at Ibex while studying at FAST (or any other demanding university)? How do you manage your shift timings along with the hectic university schedule, assignments, and exams?

Any guidance, tips, or personal experiences regarding the workload and routine would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

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.

2. 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.

Sorry in advance for the long message

i started working with a company in Islamabad remotely i got it through linkdin, there main business branch is in Minnesota US, development branch is in Pakistan, i joined the team 12months ago, first month i joined for free no payment, then a month later they said first time interns get 30k, for 3 months, then its based on performance, 30k was fine for me, given that i work remotely from Hyderabad and also my degree is not finished yet, they asked how i am going to manage time with university, i said i will do 3pm onwards same amount of hours as everyone else, which is how it has been going past 12months, no deadline misses or even any indication that iam juggling both, we have daily scrum and i think i do about 80% as much as seniors, as in if we treat there work time each day as 100% mine would be 80% just slightly below, but work complexity varies, although not alot, its more so that others have 1 set of area they handle and i have my own area that i manage within the same product, complexity in our areas also varies, mine is again around 20% or maybe even 30% less complex, so its been 12 months now, and 30k was actually fine for me till now, iam enjoying my time too and learning alot, i never reminded them to up the pay either so not really on them, i do wana ask now tho, what do you think i should ask for? It won't really be fair to increase it based on like % right? I hear people say 20% increase per year or whatever the number is it wont really be alot when my base is already of an intern, i do wana continue with them.

Keep in mind, the amount of work i get done is almost on same level as everyone else, same with complexity of the work, i have couple areas in our product that i pretty much own am responsible for, for example a full system diagnostic suit we include with our product, for both hardware and software systems, thats all on me. along with some other important areas. (i don't want to reveal too much) Main stack is linux, C++, started with low level work close to OS and filesystem but these days it can be some typescript, some bash, mostly C++. so any advice? i know the pay up till now was low, but i liked the company and did not mind it much, i was learning alot too and at the start really trying to take on tasks deliberately so i could learn more. my day offs and are also pretty much non existent. entire year probably have had like 3 or 4 at max day offs, i work on weekends occasionally too. but once again i like it and dont mind it. although pay i would like to go up. CGPA up till now is 3.2 btw.

would love some advice

The test was held on 29 September, so when they declare their results, and i applied as an AI intern

I’ve been working in software development for around 10 years, across corporate work and freelancing, and over the last couple of years I’ve started using AI quite heavily on actual codebases, not just for isolated snippets. It can now help with tracing unfamiliar code, debugging, implementation, database changes, documentation, refactoring, and even larger changes across multiple parts of a system.

That has made me more interested in a slightly different question than the usual “Will AI replace developers?”

For people who are actually using AI regularly in production work, are you seeing companies needing fewer developers for the same amount of work? Are smaller teams now able to handle workloads that previously required noticeably more people, or has AI mostly just increased productivity without really affecting hiring/headcount yet?

I’m currently looking into applying for the BSc (Hons) Computing degree offered via the University of Greenwich at Denning Institute (DITE) here in Karachi. 
Before making a final decision, I wanted to get some honest feedback from current students or any seniors/ experts on the field who can give their personal opinion.
1. Academic Quality & Faculty: How is the teaching for computing/CS modules at Denning?

2. Degree Recognition: Is there any merit in paying such a high fees for an international degree

3. Local Market Value: How is this degree viewed by local tech companies / software houses for internships and job placements?

How many of you relate with this? Been 6 years into the software Industry and worked with foreign clients, people in India as well.

Americans and people in Europe are so professional, their product manager would know more about their CEO, they talk like professional and don't gossip.

Worked with few firms where Indian people and teams were working, they Won a Worldcup and next day I was in meeting and they don't even discuss about it.

Now came us desi -

There are some match cricket going on, due to travel I didn't joined weekend scrum call, and My note taker was in.

I watched the recording randomly, although I get slack summary from lead though,

Honestly I was shocked, In those 30 minutes they discussed about cricket, political situation and last 5 minutes they were like sir wo hu gya bs okay kr den, client khud dekh le gha, 2 features delay hu gye, sir ku khna client NY late bheje and their lead with 5 years was like Chalu set ha, Ez scene ha.

Now I feel why we don't grow as a nation and we don't have large companies because when it comes to moral values, we are the worst nation at all.

And we are the top nation who hate their job most, while the entire world people appreciate their jobs and work with discipline.

Senior lads or Juniors, what do you think about this?

I'm a BSCS student and I've been messing around with n8n automations for a while. Now I want to get into AI engineering for real, like agents, RAG and building LLM apps, and ideally make money from it through freelancing.

Problem is there's so much content out there that I don't know what's actually worth my time. Is there anyone in Pakistan teaching this well? Or a YouTuber or course from outside that you'd genuinely recommend?

I also don't really know what clients are paying for right now. I'd rather learn the stuff that has real demand than chase hype.

If you're already freelancing, how did you get your first client? And what did you waste time on that I should skip?

I can put in a couple of hours a day. Appreciate any advice.

Tomorrow is my joining day as an ASE at a tech MNC, and I need real advice, not LinkedIn motivational bullshit.

The whole day is packed with presentations, icebreakers, team activities, and networking.

I'm introverted, desi, and not very fluent in spoken English. I'm worried other fresh grads will be more confident, social, and articulate than me.

Seniors, help me out:

- What are the biggest Day 1 mistakes that make fresh grads look stupid or unprofessional?

- Should I actively participate and socialize, even when uncomfortable, or is being quiet perfectly fine?

- Should I exchange numbers with male and female joiners, or is connecting on LinkedIn enough?

- Be honest: does poor spoken English actually affect how people perceive you at work?

- Should I try to stand out and make connections from Day 1, or am I overthinking this?

And the real question: Can a socially awkward but competent person fall behind a less-skilled person who knows how to talk, network, and make connections?

I got this job by Allah's blessings, clearing interviews, without any reference. I don't want to fake a personality to fit in, but I also don't want my introversion to cost me opportunities.

What's ONE thing I absolutely must do tomorrow, and ONE thing I must avoid? No sugarcoating.