r/DevLK

There is no adequate electrical infrastructure in the US to power all these data centers currently. Especially there is no major AI lab has actually made a profit yet, despite all the marketing hype. Based on my research, AI only boosts the efficiency of people who already know what they're doing.

I'm not a SWE, but I'm curious: why are entry-level SWE roles being laid off? Don't they have the skills to outpace AI, or is management just naively following the AI hype—especially in places like Sri Lanka, which don't really have sophisticated software development at scale?

Hey guys, posting this from an alt account for obvious reasons.

I’m 28 and have been working as a Software Engineer here in Sri Lanka for almost ten years now, since I started pretty early in my career. Over the years I’ve worked across a couple of different places, handling both local client work and overseas projects.
A few days ago, a large chunk of our dev team got let go, myself included. Management is heavily pivoting toward AI agents and automation to take over most of the coding and maintenance tasks. I am not going to name the company, but it was a massive shock to see it actually happen overnight.

Right now, I am trying to figure out what my next move should be. Part of me thinks I should stick it out, adjust my skills, and keep applying for senior or lead roles locally and remotely. But the other part of me feels like at 28, maybe this is the right time to step away from pure software development and pivot into something completely different, whether that is product, operations, consulting, or a non-tech business altogether.

I really want to hear from people in the local industry. Are other Colombo tech companies doing this too, or is this just an isolated wave? For anyone who actually left software engineering for another industry, how did that go for you, and do you regret it?
Would appreciate some honest thoughts and ground reality from you all. Thanks.

Title: 28, graduating after 6 years because of health issues — is it too late to start in tech?

I'm 28 and finally about to finish my degree at IIT. Because of some health issues, what should normally have taken around 4 years ended up taking me 6.

As graduation gets closer, I've been getting more anxious about the job market. Seeing how competitive the software industry is right now honestly makes me question whether I'll be able to get my foot in the door.

I'd really like to hear from people who recently managed to land an internship, Associate Software Engineer, or other entry-level role, especially if your journey wasn't straightforward.

How did you get your first opportunity? What actually helped you stand out projects, networking, referrals, open source, internships, something else?

And at 28, am I already at a disadvantage trying to enter the industry as a fresh graduate? Would you recommend continuing to push for software jobs, or should I also seriously consider opportunities in academia/research?

I'm not looking for sugar-coating just some perspective and practical advice from people who have been through the current job market.

I'm 19 and currently in my 2nd year of a Software Engineering BSc (I started my degree early at 17). I'm based in Sri Lanka, and lately, my dad has been heavily pressuring me because he keeps hearing that "IT jobs are hard to find."

​His solution is for me to do something parallel to my SE degree, specifically a commerce qualification like CIMA. The problem is, I absolutely hate commerce subjects. On the flip side, I love coding. I build software projects for fun all the time in my free time (mostly full-stack stuff using PHP, Laravel, Java, etc).

​My dad's comments are starting to get in my head. I have a few questions for those already in the industry:

​Should I actually be worried about landing a job with just my SE degree and a strong portfolio of personal projects?

​Is it worth forcing myself to do a parallel qualification in a completely different field like commerce just for "safety"?

​If I do need to diversify my skills, would it make more sense to finish my BSc first and then do an MSc in a different field, rather than burning myself out with parallel studies right now?

Hey everyone,
I've been working in the IT industry for about 6 years now. The pay was great during the boom, but honestly, I'm dealing with severe burnout and growing anxiety about the long-term stability of the pure-tech sector here. Between the rapid rise of AI coding agents, the tightening of foreign remittances, and the constant LKR volatility affecting contract rates, I feel like I'm sitting on a ticking time bomb.

I’m seriously considering a complete industry pivot to something more "recession-proof" and locally resilient. I have solid transferable skills in project management, data analytics, and process automation, so I don't mind upskilling heavily.

My question is: Which industry actually offers the best job security, decent pay progression, and immunity to layoffs given the current economic trends in Sri Lanka right now?

I'm not looking for a quick pay bump. I just want peace of mind. Would love to hear from anyone who has successfully made this switch or works in these sectors. Thanks!

Career Advice Needed: Mechanical Engineering → IT or Planning Engineer in Dubai?

I’m currently a final-year undergraduate studying Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at a state university in Sri Lanka. I would really appreciate some honest career advice from people who have experience in engineering, software/IT, or working in Dubai/UAE.

To give some context, I would consider myself an average engineering student with relatively weak technical skills. I’m also a beginner in programming and software engineering. However, I have become increasingly interested in the IT/software engineering field and self learning in this and I’m much less interested in pursuing a traditional mechanical engineering career.

I currently have three possible career paths:

1. Move into Software/IT

I’m considering starting from the basics and spending around 6–12 months seriously learning programming and software engineering before applying for jobs.

My concern is that the entry-level software engineering market seems quite competitive, especially with AI changing the industry. I’m worried about spending 6–12 months learning and still struggling to get my first job.

At the same time, I genuinely feel more interested in IT than mechanical engineering, so I’m wondering whether it is worth taking the risk.

2. Go to Dubai as a Planning Engineer

I also have an opportunity to potentially go to Dubai/UAE and pursue a Planning Engineer career.

I would need approximately 6 months of preparation/study before applying.

There appear to be a significant number of Planning Engineer vacancies in Dubai/UAE, although many postings also ask for 2–5+ years of experience, particularly for more established positions.

So my question is whether a fresh Mechanical Engineering graduate from Sri Lanka realistically has a good pathway into Planning Engineering in Dubai after 6 months of preparation, or whether the lack of UAE experience would make it difficult.

3. Stay in Sri Lanka and pursue Mechanical Engineering

The third option is to simply start working as a Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineer in Sri Lanka and build my career from there.

However, I’m not very interested in traditional mechanical engineering work. My main concern is that if I choose this path simply because my degree is in Mechanical Engineering, I might eventually regret not trying to move into the field I actually find interesting.

What would you recommend?

If you were in my position, what would you choose?

A. Mechanical Engineering → Planning Engineer → Dubai

B. Mechanical Engineering → Software/IT → potentially international opportunities

C. Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering → build experience in Sri Lanka

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have:

• Transitioned from engineering into software/IT

• Started programming from almost zero

• Worked as Planning Engineers in Dubai/UAE

• Moved from Sri Lanka to the UAE for engineering jobs

• Made a similar career change after university

I’m not looking for a

“follow your passion”

type of answer. I would really appreciate a realistic comparison based on employability, salary potential, career growth, difficulty of entering the field, long-term stability, and opportunities for working abroad.

If you recommend IT, I would also appreciate a including what technologies/skills I should prioritize and what level I should reach before applying for jobs.

What would you choose in my situation, and why?

I’m trying to get a Hetzner Cloud VPS, but all the server options are showing “not available” for me.

I’m based in Sri Lanka and was planning to use the Singapore location since it’s relatively close to Sri Lanka.

Is this a restriction for Sri Lankan users/accounts, or is it just a temporary capacity/availability issue?

Has anyone from Sri Lanka successfully created a Hetzner Cloud VPS recently? What location did you use?

i had many WordPress clients as a freelancer. and i was not in the industry. but WordPress seems everyones go to website for easy to manage and affordable hostings. so i am back to feelance. just need to know what platforms do you usually work with to build website.

I'need a little free time job to save up for a new thinkpad. I can help for developing and designing new projects.I don't need to get paid that much. You can pay me depending on if I helped 😌. Thanks

I am currently learning system engineering and working as a System engineer intern. I feel like most of the enterprise system move to Cloud instead of on prem system. In this kind of situation will it be valuable to learn as a System engineer or should I move to cloud engineering, Is it possible to move to a cloud engineering job for a system engineer?

Mankind deserves a less infuriating SSH Experience...

Edit: People keeps asking what's infuriating in ssh, it's the delay. Typing Delay is infuriating. And yes most of you who are living in developed countries does not experience these but the few who are working from countries like Sri Lanka, will definitely experience this delay.

And yeah, you probably already guessed how: a normal SSH session does a full round trip per keystroke you type, wait for the server to echo it back, watch it appear. FlashSSH does the line editing locally, so typing, history, autosuggestions and tab-completion are all instant. It only touches the network once... when you press Enter.

Even for full-screen stuff (vim, tmux, btop…) where it hands over a real PTY, it does mosh-style predictive echo: your keystrokes show up immediately in grey and turn white the moment the server confirms them same idea as mosh, minus the full terminal emulator. And it decides whether prediction is actually helping at runtime instead of guessing from the program name, so it works in sessions it's never heard of.

Best part: anything that needs a terminal but isn't on the known list just works now. A plain exec that fails with a "needs a terminal" error gets transparently re-run under a PTY (or you force it with a ! prefix). No allowlist editing.

One-line install, C on libssh, MIT. Still early tell me what breaks:

Direct Install:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/z3r0n3br4instorm/FlashSSH/main/install.sh | sh

My name is Dinidu de Alwis and I do some journalistic work (you can see on u/dinidu on X). I want to more know about the series of tech-related layoffs that have recently being going on in Sri Lanka, some of which appear to be illegal. If anyone would like to give me a bit of background that'd be great. I really think there's a story here to be told.

I don't record phone calls or use screenshots of messages I receive, without explicit consent from the other party, and I guarantee absolute confidentiality.

Hi i have 1.5yr of experience with MS Sql server DB first method, now for a new project i am working with postgressql with Code first method so i have some issues about that, some time when i alter columns from code side and migrate it wont apply and give error like it already in db or somthing like that, when i give it to chat gpt he was suggesting to drop db and create, this not in a live yet but whennit is in live cant drop the table so how you guys handle situations like that?

Hey guys,

Context:

I am a 1st yr ug at science fac UoP. I am taking maths, physics and CS as my primary subjects.I have previous experience in software development. I have pretty good projects under my belt and volunteering in AI research as well. Currently building a B2I platform as a product. Have open source contributions in wso2 and LSFLK.Had a 6 month internship pre uni (full stack).

Questions:

I am pretty comfortable in Cs. I can get A- or A with a 1/2 days of study. I am thinking of the job market itself and wanna plan from now. Planning to do special on CS.

First class with decent projects (same as now) or badass projects with second upper or lower.

I am targeting top companies like 99x , wso2.

Do drop ur honest opinions.

I was affected by the recent layoffs, and I'm having a really hard time dealing with it.

I know my situation could be much worse. I don't have a spouse, kids, or major responsibilities like that. But what is really getting to me is seeing how this has affected my parents and the people closest to me.

My family is normally very happy and lively. We joke around, have fun, and genuinely enjoy being together every day. Ever since I lost my job, though things at home have completely changed. Seeing my parents worried and upset because of me is probably the hardest part of all of this. It's honestly breaking me.

And then there’s my partner. I know she’s having a hard time with this too, even though she tries not to show it and acts like she’s okay for me. I can tell she’s struggling, and seeing her try to hide it so I don’t worry about her really hurts me.

I've been applying like crazy, hundreds of applications at this point. Sometimes I don't even properly read the JD anymore or check whether the tech stack matches my experience.

So far nothing. Just rejections or complete ghosting.

At this point I feel lost. I don't know whether I should keep mass applying, slow down and focus on jobs that actually match my skills, learn something new, work on projects, reach out to people directly, or do something completely different.

For anyone who has been through a layoff, what did you do that actually helped?

And if you were in my position right now, what would you focus on?

I'm going through a pretty rough time mentally, so I'd genuinely appreciate any advice, encouragement, or even stories from people who went through something similar and eventually came out the other side.

Thanks for reading.

Heyo Devs

My partner and I have been working on a project called wodle for qute a while now, and we're finally getting close to our first release We will be launching the v1 relese in a few weeks.

Its a form builder with a visual drag & drop editor (like figma or framer), builtin analytics, and a few other things we've always wanted from tools like this.

Before we launch it publicly, we'd love to get some honest feedback from other LK devs. If you have a few moments, we'd really appreciate it if you could take a look and let us know what you think.

We are interested in pretty much anything and dont worry about being to critical and thank you soo much for anyone that take some time to check it out ❤️

App Link: https://wodle.space

Feedback: Link

Do any of you want to create a start up? Looking for people w development experience to do a project.

Project idea isn’t finalized yet, you can suggest too.

Please dm me.

Note: This isn’t a paid job opportunity just want to find people to build something and attempt to make money out of it.

Solo dev here. Did a project converting an overseas client's WordPress site into iOS + Android apps and want a sanity check on what I charged, from people who know local rates.

Scope:

• Capacitor wrapper, both platforms, loading their live site
• Native push notifications (OneSignal) with deep-linking
• Splash/icon/offline/pull-to-refresh
• Full store setup + submission on both stores (org verification, DUNS, Apple enrolment, certs, builds)
• Two small custom WordPress plugins to fix push-related bugs

Charged LKR 200,000 (~$600) one-time, client pays store fees + owns accounts, small monthly retainer on top.

Is that reasonable for the scope from an SL freelancer's POV, or did I underprice? And what would you set the monthly maintenance retainer at? Foreign client, so I could arguably charge in USD rates — unsure how much of that to lean into.

I have completed a HND level in CS and since then I got almost 3 years of experience as a developer.. with how the industry moving.. well I'm a person who loves to learn things so I can have alot of options in my career. but is it worth it to compete my degree since I have some experience or should I keep doing some certs that can help me learn.