If your business is based in Europe and you plan to hire developers from foreign shores, probably the first thing to pop up in your mind is Northern California’s Silicon Valley. Apart from the U.S., you may even consider China and India as these countries play host to excellent talent in software development. But did you know you can find talented software developers in Eastern European countries too? You might not have given it much thought, but it’s true!
Eastern European developers appear to be everywhere these days. Do you know about Kiwi.com, the online travel tech company? You can trace its origin to the Czech Republic. Have you heard of Grammarly, founded primarily to help people communicate more effectively? It was founded and developed in Ukraine. Ever heard of Prezi, the presentation software? It owes its origin to Hungary. These are just a few examples of the competence of East European developers. If you want to hire some of the world’s best IT developers without splurging a lot, Eastern European countries could be just where you need to focus upon. Established tech giants like Google, IBM, Deloitte, and Microsoft have already shifted their recruitment spotlight to recruiting developers from Eastern Europe, and you too could follow suit.
If you are still unsure why this is a prudent decision, here are the top three reasons why hiring Eastern European developers will benefit you a lot.
1. Large Tech Talent Pool
According to the ABSL, the region plays home to over a million tech specialists. Eastern European countries scored high positions in various skill evaluation rankings. In the Topcoder research that evaluates the developers’ technology acquisition, Ukraine bagged the 6th rank. Its closest neighbour, Poland, was ranked by SkillValue amongst the top three countries offering IT services of the best quality.
Compared to India, the Polish IT market grew three times faster and has arguably the region’s largest number of software developers employed in companies that offer global business or shared services. Ukraine has close to 2 lakh tech specialists. Moldova, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Bulgaria are some other Eastern European countries home to high-quality software developers. According to Pentalog’s Top 10 countries with the best developers in the world, Moldova sits at the top, with Romania and Ukraine coming in a close third and fourth. But this isn’t the end. There’s more.
East European countries have many developers with expertise in popular languages like JavaScript and Python, but if you need rarer expertise like C++, you will find them too. You may not know that Ukraine has the world’s second-largest Scala, JavaScript, and Magento communities and is home to a large number of Unity 3D and C++ developers as well. In Poland, developer expertise covers popular languages like JavaScript and Java, along with Kotlin, Elixir, and React Native stacks that several Polish mobile programmers use.
Another proof of the region’s skillful and experienced coders is the 7-year winning streak of a Belarusian developer, Gennady Korotkevich, who won Google Code Jam consecutively from 2014 to 2020. All these factors indicate why recruiting from this hotbed of talent is a wise decision.
2. High-Quality Technical Education
One of the significant aspects contributing to a flourishing IT industry in the Eastern European countries is their strong technical education. The region has some of the best tech universities worldwide, such as the National Technical University of Ukraine, Poland’s AGH UST, Warsaw University of Technology, and the Politehnica University of Bucharest, to name a few.
About 1300-2200 software development graduates pass out from these educational institutions annually. Additionally, Eastern European programmers can attend several international and tech digital masterclasses, such as the IT Arena and Wolves Summit, to update their knowledge and learn more from industry experts, their peers, and via networking.
3. Cost-Effectiveness and Language Proficiency
According to Glassdoor, a senior developer in Ukraine earns $4,500 per month, while his counterpart in New York City makes $11,247 per month (or $1,34,969 per year). The difference is obvious. Despite lower costs, you don’t need to compromise on quality. Instead, you are likely to get better quality with Eastern European developers. Still not convinced?
Let’s share some more data. The EF language proficiency index shows Eastern European countries finding their place among the top 30 regions with high language proficiency. Romania ranks #15, followed by Poland and Hungary at ranks #16 and #17, respectively.
Since the region’s developers know that excellent English will bring more career opportunities their way, they invest a lot of time to study and master the language.. Thus, you won’t need to use a translator or describe your requirements twice. Instead, you can look forward to seamless communication and efficient results with Eastern European developers.
Final Words
Apart from a large talent pool with top-notch technical expertise and significant savings, cultural compatibility and convenient time zones are other crucial factors that make hiring Eastern European developers an excellent decision. What other factors do you think encourage such hiring?
If you are convinced, go ahead and hire Eastern European developers. If you require any help with your recruitment process, you can contact us.
This article was written by Sonali