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Dedicated TeamsUkraine’s largest online community of IT professionals, DOU has just released their 2015 profile of the average Ukrainian IT specialist based on the survey of over 3,500 geeks (of whom 55% are developers, 14% - IT managers / tech leads, and 11% - QA and testing engineers).
This year, proportion of developers that work in software development outsourcing companies versus those working in product companies is 60% to 30%, and only 3% of survey participants admit working at a startup. Although mobile internet technologies are improving significantly making it easy to work anytime from anywhere, only 4% of Ukrainian IT specialists choose to freelance (no change from last year). However, 16% provide freelance services as an additional employment.
Regarding Ukrainian startups, 58% are actually home based, 24% have no particular place to work in, 11% rent office space and 7% use co-working space.
Good news is that 73% of the Ukrainian tech specialists polled believe it’s highly important to consider and understand client’s business objectives when working on their software development projects. However, 43% admit having only partial understanding of client’s business goals and processes. Thirty percent say they fully understand their client’s business goals and challenges, while 18% believe it’s their manager’s task to make sure the project is being developed in compliance with client’s business strategy. It’s interesting to note that 9% of survey participants admit their clients don’t require that they understand their business objectives and have a shared product vision.
Top 3 criteria for Ukrainian developers to choose an employer are:
- Salary - 85%
- Professional development - 68%
- Challenging and interesting project - 61%
Only 9% of those surveyed pay attention to the employer’s brand image and reputation.
Regarding their career development, 75% of IT professionals in Ukraine are aiming for tech lead’s positions, 36% are focused on migrating overseas, 30% are planning to become PMs, and only 6% wish they could make a non-IT career.
Bad news is that 69% of Ukrainian software developers are ready to relocate abroad, and only 20% would like to stay in Ukraine in the near future.
Geography wise, 44% of all survey participants live in the capital city of Kyiv.
Also, this year we see growth in the number of women in tech: 14% vs 12% in 2014 vs 7% in 2011.
Prevailing majority of Ukrainian IT specialists - 72% - are aged 22 - 30. Seventy-four percent have higher STEM education, while 8.5% have had Business Management / Economy as a major.
Regarding the English skills, 36% have intermediate level, 30% - upper-intermediate, and 12% have full professional proficiency. In addition, 45% use English actively on a daily basis with colleagues and clients, 33% read and write in English often, and only 6% say they rarely have a chance to practice their English.
Ukrainian developers and testers invest their time, money and efforts into ongoing self education: 81% get additional professional training outside their companies, 36% learn and improve their English, and 16% attend learning courses.
To check out Ukrainian IT salaries, read our previous post on this. Do you want to calculate a ballpark cost of your software development project in Ukraine? Try our free Calculator now!
Source: dou.ua, 2015
