IT CS Career in Pakistan for Struggling Freshers. How and Where to start?

In this article, I want to share a few words of advice with my fellows regarding careers and jobs in Pakistan, especially those linked with IT and CS fields and are actually freshers, just graduated, and are confused about what to do next.

My native language is not English. Kindly ignore any grammar mistakes.

No Jobs in Pakistan? Really?

One common thing I often hear is that there are no jobs in Pakistan. This can be true for certain fields just because of the ongoing pandemic but the IT industry? No, my friend, no, the IT industry is exploding with jobs. Believe me; there are plenty of jobs out there. All it takes the right skill set and the right level of experience for a certain job post.

The Main Issue

First, the important thing to consider is that our education system in Pakistan has failed miserably in training a student for professional life and career. Except for some institutes, they are not teaching you the right skill set and the right level of professionalism. My friend, it is a struggle you have to do yourself. I am sad for the students who are investing a lot of time in those institutes, spending both time and money but still earning nothing. Just remember the system is only providing you a degree in exchange for your investment. The degree is important; please don’t indulge in thinking that a degree does not matter anywhere. It is like a key to the lock on a door. If you have a key, you can open a door, but without the key, you simply cannot. Certain companies require certain degrees for the job post. So a degree is almost as important as having the right skill set. Although sometimes it may not be required, please don’t miss a great opportunity because you did not get an undergrad degree. All of you must at least do Bachelors. It is also necessary for your personal and cultural exposure.

The issue of lack of jobs generally arises with freshers or those who are outdated. Let’s break it down further.

What happens is that when a fresher graduates from an institute, all he/she hopes for a good-paying job in a dream multinational or big IT company. We all make such wishes, and there is nothing bad in dreaming or trying to pursue such opportunities. The reality, on the other hand, is quite disappointing. I am sorry to say, but almost none of you will get a job in those big IT companies except a few ones. We often call them lucky ones, but that’s totally wrong terminology. There is nothing like luck here. We will discuss this later in the article. For now, let’s analyze the ones who won’t get jobs.

The issue is simply a lack of the required skill set. Those tech giants have certain standards to meet. Sadly we don’t meet their standards. The majority of us don’t learn the skills during our stay in the university, and the rest of us don’t know which skill set should we learn as per the industry trends. You see, the issue here is pretty obvious. There is no skill set or irrelevant, outdated skills and zero experience on real practical projects, and zero professional behavior. Yeah, totally this the issue a fresher finds tough to settle right after graduation. Don’t lose all the hope. There is a silver lining here for you, my friend.

Besides fresher, there also exist other individuals who struggle to get a decent job. They are those people who have outdated skill sets. They stick to a skill set too long that it has become obsolete now. IT and CS industry is fast pacing. You can’t just learn 1 skill set and rely heavily on it. Please keep up with the pace. These people must learn various trending skills. Remember two keywords, “various” and “trending”.

What’s the solution?

If you are one of those students with a lack of skill set and experience, this solution will almost guarantee you a head start in your career. Why almost? Why not 100% guarantee? Well, I can say 100% actually, but I know still some of you are gonna ignore certain steps here and then blaming me for guiding you wrong so that 1 or 2% cushion for me ;)

My advice is simple: think and dream big but act small. Don’t just wait forever for the responses from those tech giant companies. Visit your cities, towns and find out small to mid-scale Software houses. Apply there with a well-defined resume/CV relevant to the job post. Your CV must not be generic, and you should not mention irrelevant skills. Don’t clutter your CV with all garbage and irrelevant skills. Mention only relevant and crystal clear skills there. One skill important for a job may not be important for the other job, so think clearly. Please don’t just borrow your friend's CV; edit and submit it. It does not work that way. Please never lie on your resume, never. Never lie in an interview, never. You must be crystal clear about what you know and what you don’t know, and it’s okay not to know many things as a fresher.

Applying to such software houses will benefit you in many ways. First of all, they usually have small teams and there almost always exists a job post. Secondly, due to small teams, one person usually does many tasks. You’ll have to handle an extreme workload there, have to work on multiple things. You will learn many skills along the way. It will be a tough and grinding duration for you there, but you will learn a lot even if you had zero skills before.

Sometimes you may not be able to secure a permanent job even in those software houses initially. Don’t take it to heart. Just ask for an internship, and usually, they give you an internship. You may have to work without pay initially in an internship but consider it a great opportunity. At least someone is training you for free. If you can get a paid internship, then that’s great. Another plus point is that hundreds or even thousands of such software houses across the country exist, unlike those tech giants who are few. You have a larger set of opportunities to explore.

My friend, you will start small in a small software house with a little pay but believe me step by step, day by day, you will climb the ladder to the top, and I guarantee you if you do your best and spend at least a year learning required skills there. You can go wherever you want later in your future. What skills should we pursue right after graduation if we spent all our time partying during the graduation?

Important Skillset for a Head Start

My friend, remember, a skill is a skill. It may be relevant for one job but irrelevant for another. So, don’t just consider learning one skill and heavily rely on it for the rest of your career. It is a hazardous thing to do even if the skill promises you 10 years of success. You never know when new tech comes into play, and your skill becomes obsolete. As of writing this article, the following skills can give you an excellent head start in your initial career hunting. You can learn more trending skills along the way. Always go with the trending skills. The following skills are in no particular order. These are the hottest skills to learn as a fresher and an experienced individual as of 2021.

• Full-stack development
• Data Visualization and Analysis
• Blockchain technology

It may seem to be only three skills, but there is a lot to learn in these three skills. Let’s say each of these three skills is a complete CS field in itself.

Please must learn the following programming languages and frameworks, and by learning, I mean do some projects and have a hands-on experience even if those projects are just a hobby.

• Javascript
• Python
• Nodejs
• MongoDB
• ExpressJS
• Laravel
• PHP
• Angular
• React and React Native
• Vue
• Electron Js
• Numpy and Pandas
• Matplot lib
• Seaborn
• Sklearn
• Scipy
• Flutter

These are just a few among many others. If you can’t just learn all of the above-mentioned ones, at least learn a few of them very well. I am sorry I can’t just go in detailing each of these skills, languages, and frameworks here. You can always google them and know what they are meant for.

You promise me to learn these skills very well, and I promise you an excellent career ahead.

Hey, Who are the lucky ones?

Remember I talked that a few of the lucky ones get jobs in tech giants as a fresher. Who are they? Technically speaking, they are not lucky. They fall into two categories.

The first category of individuals is those who worked really hard during graduation. Who got their aims right even before completing the undergrad. While we were all partying and having fun, they struggled to learn some real skills every day. They sacrificed themselves then and achieved their goals right after graduation.

The other category of individuals is those who got relationships, yeah, the big and strong relationships. They got recommendations from those relationships, and that’s it.

Final Thoughts

I have detailed this article after personal experience. I myself am working as Blockchain Research Assistant on a project involving both Academia RnD and Industry paced software engineering. I have seen many of my colleagues taking this ladder (described in the article) to the top. My friend, there is nothing like one-night success. Please don’t feel unappreciated at the start. Things are not easy, and there will always be a great struggle to build a career. I would suggest starting today, starting small, but yes, dream big for sure because one day you have to fulfill all those wishes for real. I wish you a very successful career and life. May God bless you.

Do let me know your suggestions in the comment section below.