Meet a Ukrainian Software Developer!

What does come to your mind when you hear about Ukraine? Let us guess: Ukrainian Crimea, Ukrainian borsch, and… Ukrainian software developers. IT is one of the most rapidly growing industries in this country — and it continues to scale. Now Ukrainian IT has the 2nd most significant revenue among all sectors, competing with steel and agro-industry.

Ukraine as a Software Outsourcing Destination: Major Facts

Probably every second Ukrainian considers an opportunity to become an IT specialist at least once in a lifetime. Many people who are not satisfied with their current occupation will very likely switch to IT.

There are over 150,000 software developers in Ukraine. This number increases by 20% every year. The popularity is so high due to decent salaries in the industry: about 61% of developers have chosen IT being influenced by this factor. Still, an average wage are lower than the salary of the IT specialists, let’s say, in the USA. In Ukraine, it varies from $350 to $4000, while an average for the USA specialist comprises at least twice more. Because of this, some Europeans and Americans prefer hiring Ukrainians over specialists from the countries of their residence.

However, the price is not the main reason why you would enjoy working with the Ukrainian developers. Let’s find out what more they are hiding in their skill set.

The Portrait of a Ukrainian IT Specialist in Numbers

Even though the Ukrainian IT industry binds a quite ragtag group of the individuals, we can draw the portrait of the typical software developer you will likely deal with.

A Ukrainian software developer is usually a 21-29-year-old (64%) man (77%) who lives in a major Ukrainian city such as Kiyv, Kharkiv or Lviv and works as an outsource specialist (36%). Almost the same share works in the software product companies – 35%, while the rest of them are freelancers.

The most common occupation is a software developer — about 52% are employed as such in 2018. However, the share of developers dropped by 3% in comparison to 2016 when it comprised 55%. 12% of specialists work as quality assurance specialists — it’s worth mentioning that this job is more popular among women (24% of total employment). 6% are managers or occupy other non-technical positions.

The majority of respondents (30%) has from 3 to 5 years of experience and define themselves as middles (36%). Front-end developers have fewer years of experience than back-end developers — front-end and design jobs are often considered an “entrance” to the IT industry. The most experienced are top managers and system administrators. More than 40% of these specialists have over 10 years of experience.

As we mentioned above, the most common title is middle followed by junior (26%), senior (19%), and lead (11%). The share of senior software developers in Kiyv is much higher than in other Ukrainian cities and comprises 21%.

The lower is the title, the higher is the interest in salaries. 69% of juniors and 65% of middles consider high wages as the main influential factor in the choice of their current occupation. However, only 51% of senior software developers and 49% of leads mentioned high salaries as a reason why they stay in the industry. More experienced specialists value technologies and prefer working with products they are interested in. Some of the developers also give such reasons as a possibility to move abroad, flexible schedule, career opportunities, and open-minded teams.

Keep in mind that the majority of IT specialists choose the companies in which they can expect high salary and bonuses (78%), attractive assignments (65%), and career opportunities (57%). Some of them would like to have comfortable working conditions (29%), flexible schedule (22%), and the possibility to work remotely (13%).

About 51% are more likely satisfied with their salary than not when 52% assess their job as more likely interesting than not. 63% are private entrepreneurs, 80% — in the office. 47% are fully satisfied with their workplace.

Also, an average workload you can give your Ukrainian employee is around 40-60 hours per week in 55% of all cases. You can expect he or she is busy on the own project with 45% chance. Ukrainian developers don’t belong to that group of people that want to do nothing and just having a rest all the time. If 76% of them had enough money for living, they would continue working in the IT industry. 45% would take less working hours, while 31% would do their job just for fun.

As you can see, an average Ukrainian developer pursue high income being passionate about what he or she is doing at the same time. It’s a good sign: an outsourcing specialist you choose puts not only efforts but the soul in your project.

Educational Background

87% of IT professionals in Ukraine have at least one bachelor or more advanced diploma. Top-3 establishments which prepare IT specialists in Ukraine are the National Technical University of Ukraine ”Kyiv Polytechnic Institute,” Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, and National University ”Lviv Polytechnic.” 56% of specialists obtained a degree in the IT or related field of study when the rest graduated from non-technical faculties.

Most of the Ukrainian software developers know English and can communicate with foreign clients. Only 20% of all respondents assess their language level as elementary or pre-intermediate. 67% of developers have intermediate or upper intermediate English. 12% can boast of the advanced or even proficient language level. Significantly enough, women demonstrate the better knowledge of the language: 54% of them against 43% of male respondents know English at the upper-intermediate or higher level.

Besides having the main educational background, 89% of them continue to hone their skills by reading professional literature (70%), visiting IT events (29%), and attending courses and seminars.

Attitude to Work and Mentality

A typical software developer in Ukraine accords higher priority to his or her job than to social contacts. Ukrainian IT specialists are introverted and very hardworking (as you could understand it even before when we mentioned an average number of hours Ukrainian specialists dedicate to their work!) They don’t seem afraid of complicated tasks: on the contrary, they find them very entertaining. An average tech-savvy person keeps pace with trends, timely adjusts to the volatile market conditions and shares European values.

Ukrainian developers grow fast: the average age of senior software developer is 27-29 years. That happens primarily because of the large gap in junior and middle developer’s salaries.