Real Ruby professionals are rare birds on the market. Ruby is not the most popular technology, so companies often struggle with the problem of finding developers who have both high-level skills and deep experience; oh, and by the way... do not cost an arm and a leg. I have a small hint for you – check out Poland!
The IT market is demanding around the world. IT services are expensive, and there are not many qualified professionals, at least not as many as needed. Let's take a look at the report "E-skills for job in Europe" by the European Commission to verify this claim. It shows that the European IT market has up to 500,000 vacancies. What is even worse, this indicator will be growing and may reach one million vacancies in 2020.
These statistics speak about IT services in general, but if we consider only Ruby, we will quickly realize that the situation is even worse. The shortage of Ruby professionals is particularly evident on many markets. For example, in the US, outsourcing software services to Europe is a popular trend.
However, this problem is also noticeable in Europe. At one of the conferences, I heard that Ruby is in great demand in Spain. How so? Companies have to choose other technologies to develop their products because there are no Ruby programmers available on the market. Of course, these examples that say one thing – finding a real professional is not easy.
According to current data, there are around 250,000 programmers in Poland. This is the highest result in the entire CEE. Ukraine is coming second, followed by Romania. The average experience of a Polish developer is as much as 7.6 years. Moreover, in terms of skills, developers in Poland are ranked third in the world. The first place is still held by China and the second by Russia. These results may be found in a report published by HackerRank.
It’s a clear trend among young people and students in Poland to choose the programmer’s career. This choice is justified by attractive earnings and the prospect of a dynamic development of the industry.
I mentioned that the IT industry in Poland is drawing more and more interest. It’s true – researches show that every fourth programmer in CEE lives in Poland. Currently, the IT services market in Poland is valued at USD 6.8 million by 2020, with a growth rate of 5.9% CAGR. The software sector is expected to grow by 7.4% per year. This market is supported by foreign investments into software development.
An important fact is that Poland is perceived as a stable and credible country within the European Union. Poland is, in geographic terms, the "heart" of Europe. It is easy to reach by plane from most main cities in the world, which facilitates cooperation with foreign clients.
One of the factors that might concern the US market when cooperating with European companies is the time difference. Most software houses in Poland have flexible hours, so, in terms of communication, the time zones are not really a problem.
If we compare developers' earnings in Poland and other countries, we may notice a big difference. The earnings of a developer in Poland are even five times lower than in the US. These statistics look slightly better in the context of Europe. For instance, it is estimated that specialists in France earn twice as much as in Poland.
All this translates into the costs of implemented projects. If we look at the comparison between Poland and the US, we may easily understand why start-ups from Silicon Valley are looking for software houses in Europe, especially in Poland.
In general, one of the lowest hourly rates can be found in the CEE. The amounts reach around $ 40-60 per hour of work. In Western Europe, this amount can reach up to $ 100. It is even more expensive in the USA.
Speaking English is a standard. Therefore, more and more international clients are searching for IT services here. By the way, do you know of the list “The world’s largest ranking of countries and regions by English skills”? The leader is Sweden with an EF EPI score of 70.72. It also holds the first place in Europe. Poland was ranked at the 13th position in a total of 88 (!) countries.
What's more, developing products using the Agile method is a common practice in Poland. Also, the Scrum methodology allows for an effective development of projects. They make the works fully transparent for the client, who knows exactly which functionalities are currently being developed.
Just open the Clutch portal, which is used to verify IT services in the industry. When you choose software houses that work with Ruby, you will notice that there is really a lot of them. Next, look at customer reviews and how they assess the skills of Polish programmers. To cut a long story short, the highest level of their qualifications is confirmed by independent companies.
It is simple – Poland is an attractive market with Ruby developers, certainly worth observing. This fact is confirmed by specific numbers and facts that I presented in this article. In my final sentence and message of the article, I urge you to consider this location.
Read more:
