Software Developer, IBM · Dundalk, Ireland · joining full-time Oct 2026
I'm Harjappan - currently finishing a Software Development degree at DkIT, about to start full-time at IBM after an 18-month internship on IBM API Connect. In between, I've wired up parking sensors, built a wearable posture monitor with a Raspberry Pi that catches bad posture before it becomes a habit, and led a team that shipped a pantry app people actually use.
I grew up in Punjab, India, and did all my schooling there. Like most people around me, I was on the standard track - preparing for engineering entrance exams. I actually loved science - but the competitive environment around it wore that down over time. About a month before my 12th grade board exams, I stopped preparing altogether and decided this wasn't for me. COVID hit around the same time, and with everything shut down, I had space to explore other things. I started watching free Python tutorials on YouTube, then took it further with a Udemy course. I never finished it - but by the end I had a much clearer sense of what I actually enjoyed.
That ruled out one path completely: studying in India. Getting into a good college there would have meant losing another year to re-prepare for the entrance exams, and I already knew that wasn't for me. So I decided to study abroad instead, looked at a few countries, and chose Ireland.
I moved to Ireland in September 2022 for a four-year BSc (Hons) in Software Development at Dundalk Institute of Technology. The course covered programming fundamentals, database systems, networking, secure systems, IoT, and an introduction to machine learning and data science. Just as much of it happened outside the modules - leading project teams, working inside other people's code, and learning what actually makes a team ship something on time.
In third year, a work placement was part of the course, but finding one was on me. I applied to IBM myself, interviewed, and got in as a Software Developer Intern on the API Connect team - an enterprise API lifecycle platform used by banks, governments, and large multinationals. Eighteen months in (full-time, then part-time through my final year), I'd shipped production features, triaged security vulnerabilities, and published technical posts on the IBM Developer Blog. And after a 4 month break, I will be joining back IBM in October 2026.
Three projects that between them explain most of how I build.
React · FastAPI · MySQL · Docker
A smart pantry app that scans receipts and recommends recipes to cut food waste. Co-founded with my four teammates for our final year project - it won Best Team Project of the Year at DkIT and was picked as a Top 50 idea by Enterprise Ireland.
Flask · Docker · AWS
Real-time parking sensors feeding a dashboard with role-based access and PayPal subscriptions. My first real project connecting physical sensors to a live system, the hard part was never the sensors, it was making sure the data got there securely and stayed easy for people to actually read.
Raspberry Pi · BNO055 · Flask · PubNub
A wearable that tracks posture with a Raspberry Pi and motion sensor, pushing real-time alerts to a Progressive Web App. Built with a team, this is where I learned that people tune out an alert the moment it feels naggy, so the real problem wasn't detecting bad posture, it was deciding when to actually say something.
A multithreaded client-server system for student records, with a proper DAO/DTO data layer.
Behavioural cloning with an NVIDIA-inspired CNN, predicting steering angle from camera input.
First post is in progress - check back soon.
Happy to talk about any of the above, or about moving to Ireland for university.