CSS or Startup in Pakistan?
I’m an Electrical Engineering student at NUST, and my real goal has always been to build a tech startup in Pakistan. I’ve never been very interested in the job route, so my focus has mostly been on entrepreneurship rather than CGPA.
Lately, my father has been strongly pushing me toward CSS. His view is that in Pakistan, no matter how successful a business becomes, it still has less security and value than being in the bureaucracy. He believes weak law enforcement and elite influence can put ordinary business owners at risk, and that bureaucracy offers authority, protection, and long-term family security.
He even says that if I want to do business, it would be safer to first go into CSS because people are less likely to interfere with the business of an assistant commissioner.
This has genuinely confused me because most of my thinking comes from western startup success stories, and I don’t fully know the ground realities of Pakistan’s startup culture.
Is this a realistic concern or an outdated mindset? Would choosing entrepreneurship over CSS be too risky in Pakistan?