Every career has a defining starting point. For Kasun, it was a career readiness workshop that led to an unexpected opportunity. Less than two years later, he has grown from an intern into a Software Developer II. In his own words, here’s how that journey unfolded.
Curiosity is what got me through the door. It’s also the thing that’s kept me moving ever since. What began as a workshop to learn from industry professionals led to an internship, a full-time role, and less than two years later, a promotion to Software Developer II.
Seizing the Moment
In October 2024, Perituza advertised a career readiness workshop for undergraduates at my university, SLIIT (Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology), with 50 spots available. I decided to register, as I was actively looking for internship opportunities and wanted to sharpen my skills.
The part I was most nervous about, and also most excited for, was the mock interview. I sat across from one of Perituza’s tech leads for what was meant to be a 20-minute session. I asked about interview skills, polishing my CV, what companies actually look for in an intern, and the technologies Perituza used day to day. Twenty minutes turned into forty, and I left that room without a job offer but with far more than I’d expected walking in.
A few days passed without much thought on my part. Then my phone rang. It was Perituza’s HR department, inviting me for an interview.
Being genuinely caught off guard felt strange, since my only intention in that mock session had been to learn, not to be noticed. But that’s the part I keep coming back to when I think about it now: people notice when you show up wanting to learn, even when you’re not trying to impress anyone.
A couple of interview rounds later, I was in, my first real step into the IT industry. My first day started with being pulled straight into my team’s daily stand-up. Sitting there, taking in a rhythm I had never been part of before, felt nothing like university.
Finding My Footing as a Software Developer
University projects had taught me how to write code, but Perituza taught me how software actually gets built inside a real team. Before this, my idea of building software began and ended with writing code and getting it to run before a deadline with a clear scope, a clear finish line, and usually just me at the keyboard.
That changed fast. Sprints, stories, epics, retrospectives, wireframes, stand-ups – a whole vocabulary and process I’d never worked inside before suddenly surrounded me. Coding, it turned out, was only one piece of a much bigger picture, and getting exposed to that early taught me how to actually work with a team, not just alongside one.
Working inside systems other people had already built took a different kind of attention than writing something from scratch. I had to learn to read intent, not just syntax, and my team members kept guiding me back whenever I got stuck, patiently enough that asking “I don’t understand this” stopped feeling like admitting failure and started feeling like part of the job. Over time, I picked up the skill I still rely on most: knowing how to ask a good question, understanding a problem well enough to know exactly what I didn’t know, and whom to ask.
You never really know where one opportunity will lead until you take the first step.
– Kasun H.
From Intern to Software Developer I
By the end of my internship, the parts of software development that had felt unfamiliar at first didn’t feel that way anymore. I wasn’t just picking up technologies. I was learning how to work within a team, communicate when I got stuck, understand what a requirement actually meant, and take real responsibility for the work in front of me. My team’s guidance played a big part in getting me there.
When the internship ended, I was offered the chance to stay on at Perituza as a Software Developer I. It felt like a real milestone, not because I suddenly knew everything, but because I could see how far I’d come since that first stand-up. What had started as an internship had become my first full-time role in software development.
Stepping Into Software Developer II
I started becoming more curious about what sat beyond the task I had been given. If I came across a technical question, I was more willing to investigate it, understand the context, and explore possible approaches before deciding how to move forward.
My conversations with clients became more confident too. I was more comfortable leading discussions, asking questions when something wasn’t clear, and explaining my thinking rather than waiting for someone else to take the lead. Over time, I started trusting my own understanding more, while still knowing when to ask for another perspective.
Without quite noticing when it happened, people started coming to me the way I used to go to my seniors. Being trusted with more responsibility wasn’t something anyone announced. It just kept happening, one project at a time.
About a year and a half after that first workshop changed the direction of my career, I was promoted to Software Developer II. Looking back, I don’t think the promotion came down to technical skills alone. What stood out more was how I communicated, how much ownership I’d taken on without being asked, how far my confidence with clients had come, and how willing I was to dig into something unfamiliar rather than wait to be shown. It didn’t feel like a reward for what I already knew. It felt like recognition for how much I’d grown into the role, one decision at a time.
Becoming a Software Developer II isn’t where this story ends, though. If the last year and a half has taught me anything, it’s that growth doesn’t arrive in one big moment; it shows up in the small ones you don’t notice until you look back. Curiosity opened the first door, and nearly two years later, it’s still the thing pushing me toward the next one.
