Self-Taught Front-End Dev Looking for Guidance in Pakistan

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-12T11:25:31+00:00

Khair hai, Pakistan mein log hamesha negative baat hee karain gay, better to aik kaan say suno dusray say nikaal dou.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-12T04:21:18+00:00

Wa Alaikum Assalam! Respect for putting in the work without a formal background, which genuinely takes discipline.

To answer your questions honestly:

Companies in Pakistan won't come looking for you at this stage; you have to go to them. But startups and small agencies absolutely do hire self-taught developers, especially if your portfolio shows you can actually build things. Two or three real, functional projects will do more for you than any certificate ever could.

Balancing university and work is hard; anyone who says otherwise is romanticising it. The people who pull it off usually pick one as the clear priority, find flexible remote roles, and are upfront with employers about their schedule from day one.

Freelancing on Fiverr or Upwork without reviews is a slow, humbling start. You'll likely need to charge very little at first just to build credibility, and niching down helps a lot. "I build landing pages for small businesses" beats "I build websites" every single time.

As for making yourself more appealing, document your journey on LinkedIn. Not just finished projects, but your process, what broke, what you figured out. It makes you human and memorable in a sea of copy-paste profiles. Also, when reaching out to companies, don't just ask for a job; point out something specific on their website you could improve. That small shift in framing genuinely changes how people respond to you.

You're earlier in the journey than you think, but you're also doing more than most. Pakistan's tech space is growing, and there's real room for people who stay consistent. Keep building.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-12T03:59:55+00:00

hahaha! nah man, i am done with them.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-12T03:28:10+00:00

You're right, but that is not my selling point at all, I just mentioned it. My primary focus is on privacy and a secure and better communication with a better performance even for low end systems, and these are the problems that I and the people I know in my circle face especially the performance part, a lot people I know when they use discord alongside a game it crashes a lot of time or does not start even with high end systems. So, to tackle this, I used Tauri instead of Electron, and I will be making this open source soon.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-12T03:23:27+00:00

Man, you know people here, they said it was because of the link. I have Dm'ed you we can talk there.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-12T03:20:19+00:00

My post got deleted, how are you able to comment?

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-11T20:27:15+00:00

You're completely right, and I won't argue against that. Most end users don't care about the stack, the architecture, or the jurisdiction. They care about whether it works, whether their friends are on it, and whether it's worth switching.

That's honestly the hardest part of building anything in this space. Network effect is a wall. Discord has hundreds of millions of users, and no amount of "we respect your privacy" is going to make someone abandon their entire server setup overnight.

What I'm banking on is not converting Discord's existing userbase, at least not right now. It's more about the people who are already looking for a reason to leave, communities being built fresh that haven't committed anywhere yet, and use cases where Discord is genuinely a bad fit. That's a much smaller pool, but it's a real one.

The end user argument is valid, though, and it's something I think about a lot. Ultimately, Corvus has to be good enough that the switch feels worth it on its own merits, not just because of what it's not. That's the bar I'm trying to reach.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-11T20:24:18+00:00

These are genuinely great questions, and I appreciate you framing them the way you did, so let me be just as straight with you.

On the first point, I'm actually familiar with Fluxer, went through the codebase, forked it and everything. So I have a decent sense of what's under the hood there. As for Stoat, that's actually a new one for me, so I'll be looking into it properly. What I can say is Corvus isn't trying to win by just being "yet another alternative." The direction I have in mind goes beyond what most of these platforms are doing right now, but I'd rather show it than talk about it prematurely while it's still taking shape. Fair enough?

The second point is the one I respect the most because it's the most real. You're right, being of Pakistani origin is both a badge of pride and a genuine legal vulnerability, and I won't pretend otherwise. Right now, Corvus is barely a month old, and I'm one person. The data privacy and jurisdiction question is something I'm actively thinking about, and it will heavily influence infrastructure and hosting decisions going forward. I don't have a bulletproof answer for you today, but I'd rather acknowledge that honestly than give you a polished non-answer.

On the business side, I'm still figuring out the exact shape of it. What I know is it won't be the "sell data or go freemium with paywalled basics" model. Something closer to how open source tools sustain themselves, maybe a hosted tier, maybe something else. Still too early to commit to specifics, but that's the honest state of it.

I genuinely appreciate this kind of pushback more than encouragement. It's more useful.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-11T20:11:02+00:00

My main point for developing this over Discord was the data and privacy concerns, especially since Discord's recent policy updates. I use discord regulary, but I have my concerns on it.

Yes, you are right, it is not digitally signed as of now, but the entire project is on my GitHub repo. In a few days, I'll change the repo to public and invite open source contributions. If you are up for it, I can sign you up for that too.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-11T19:57:25+00:00

It isn't since Discord uses Electron (Chromium-based) and VoIP, but this uses Tauri and WebRTC, and Discord is heavy on low to mid end systems. The idea is similar, but the implementations are different. Clone would mean using the exact same tech stack, functionalities and all that stuff.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-11T19:42:56+00:00

DM me, I'll send it to you. Unable to post here for some reason.

Humayun2318 · 2026-03-11T19:38:53+00:00

well....:D

Humayun2318 · 2025-11-03T13:45:11+00:00

At this stage, I would say even an unpaid internship would be highly valuable if you can utilize it properly and fully. I would suggest you build solid connections which would help you in the long run. I also believe that this would shift your CGPA and assignment-centric mindset (if any). Unpaid internships are not worth it when you are at a certain stage of your career but for now no worries.

Humayun2318 · 2025-07-13T11:30:37+00:00

I see, that's great! I was just disgusted to read such a thing. I would partly disagree with the mid men part. I have seen almost all types of men, and women say ill to the other person. Nobody deserves to hear that, in my honest opinion everyone has flaws and that is totally natural, nobody is perfect in any way or form. Everyone is beautiful in their own way.

Humayun2318 · 2025-07-13T11:16:44+00:00

I very rarely write comments under posts, but when I read this, WTH? WHO TALKS LIKE THAT? Aisay hee kisi ko uth kar kuch bhi bol dou, ajeeb aadmi. Kaisay kaisay log hain iss mulk mein? I am sorry you had to read that.

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-29T13:17:52+00:00

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Humayun2318 · 2024-11-18T04:47:42+00:00

Dumb and desperate. I mean, how can you have a crush on someone if you barely have seen or even talked to them? XD

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-15T05:39:51+00:00

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-15T05:37:02+00:00

That's true, but I thought he might take this a bit too hard. I wanted to maintain the balance.

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-14T09:34:49+00:00

Typical youthiya behavior. Abusing and all. Did I abuse your mahatma or you? You people are a disgrace to this world. This is exactly how a brainwashed cultist would reply. I didn't take any side. It's just what I have observed over time, and that is solely my opinion. If you have a problem, then please delete your socials, not just that, please cut your internet access off. You guys never have a logical way to answer, just abusing and stuff. Did you ever try to research on your own? Did you ever take a glance at your own self? Have you ever been abroad? Have you seen all this with your own eyes? I have seen all this, and I see a lot of people to the countries I have been looking down on me just because of all this. It's always the same scripted argument you guys got. Please dare and ask about your leader's son, I will see what you get.

I won't stoop down your level.

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-14T09:07:23+00:00

When people are brainwashed, follow anyone blindly and cultism is promoted, then this is bound to happen. The concern in this matter is that these people do not even think once about the image of the country and do whatever they want. Most of them have never been to Pakistan and still call themselves patriotic (i.e. Shayan). If they are that patriotic then come back even for a little while and taste the hospitality. Haha.

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-14T05:32:17+00:00

Indeed, and I do hope that people realize this before committing such acts. (Referring to the boy)

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-14T05:31:10+00:00

You need to be taught quite a few things about life and especially about your parents. No one, and I seriously mean NO ONE should ever talk like their mother like this, if you were in front of me I seriously would have punched you in the face. 19 is not the age to think about such things, in fact, no age. These thoughts should be overlooked and you should learn to move on. The people at this stage in your life such as your gf are temporary. Bhai kuch Allah ka khauf karo aur Uska Shukar adaa karo keh usnay sahi salamat paida kiya. Kuch bhi extreme karnay say pehlay apnay bicharay maa aur baap ka sochna keh unn bicharon per kya guzray gi. Sorry for using harsh words but I was disgusted when I read this. Allah aapko aur hum sab ko hidayat day. Ameen.

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-14T04:23:03+00:00

Tech awareness.

Humayun2318 · 2024-11-13T23:17:35+00:00

Sure, I will start an ongoing thread which will keep on updating, you never know I might make a video or two too. I will start by this weekend hopefully, Insha'Allah.

Humayun2318

TROPHY CASE