Finding top IT talents for building performant and reliable software equipped with the latest IT innovations can be a rather challenging task. That’s why more and more businesses opt for an effective strategy – staff augmentation. It allows companies to quickly expand their in-house teams with skilled and experienced specialists while staying in charge of their software development projects.
Among the many staff augmentation destinations, Poland stands out for its rapidly developing IT outsourcing market and highly qualified software developers with extensive knowledge in web, mobile, desktop, enterprise, and other types of software development. In this article, we’ll explore why Poland is considered to be a major IT talent provider in Europe and what are the advantages of hiring a software development team in Poland.
Talent Pool and Expertise
Software development teams from Poland are highly valued for their software development skills around the world. In a distant 2016, Poland was already ranked by HackerRank the 3rd among the countries with the strongest software developers in the world. And in 2021 it is placed 10th as the country with the most number of first-place finishers in the TopCoder competition. Meanwhile, Clutch states that “Poland continues to be a source for high-quality business-to-business (B2B) services, based on client satisfaction, services offered, and market presence”.
According to Bulldogjob’s Polish IT Community Report, the most popular programming languages among Polish software developers are JavaScript – 65%, HTML/CSS – 58%, SQL – 58%, Java – 43%, TypeScript – 35%, Python and C# – 31%. These programming languages are commonly used for web, mobile, and desktop development, data analysis, task automation, GameDev, FinTech as well as the implementation of the latest technologies such as Cloud solutions, Blockchain technology, Big Data analytics, IoT, and others.
Polish software developers have much practical experience of working with international companies. According to Statista’s report, in 2018 the IT outsourcing market turnover was projected to be $2,087.6 mln, reaching $2,3117 mln in 2021. Moreover, many world-known IT companies eagerly collaborate with Polish developers, shifting their projects to Poland. For example, in 2019 Uber expanded to Krakow investing over $13,5 mln in the Polish center of excellence, Amazon started its fulfillment centers in Gliwice, Lodz, and Okmiany equipped with AI technology. And in 2020 both Microsoft and Google announced the establishment of Polish Digital Valley and the launch of a Polish data center with an investment of $2 bln.
High-Quality Technical Education
The rise of the IT outsourcing industry in Poland has become possible due to favorable economic conditions and a strong educational system. There are 23 universities of technology in Poland that provide high-quality courses in Computer Science, IT, Math, and other STEM areas that graduate from 60 to 70 thousand ICT students every year.
Polish universities are highly ranked internationally. QS World University Rankings has put 17 Polish universities among the top 1000 strongest around the world with 2 of them ranked among the top 500. The most popular tertiary institutions with world-class ICT and Computer Science studies are:
- University of Warsaw – 308 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 7th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 40,000 students in total and 2,892 international students;
- Jagiellonian University – 309 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 6th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 40,000 students and 2,907 international students;
- Warsaw University of Technology – 501-520 in the World Rank of Best Universities with and 12th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia 30,982 students and 1,839 international students;
- Adam Mickiewicz University – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 54th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 37,630 students and 1,157 international students;
- AGH University of Science and Technology – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 54th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 35,531 students and 483 international students;
- Cracow University of Technology – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 79th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 14,000 students and 284 international students;
- Gdańsk University of Technology – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 89th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 18,000 students and 488 international students;
- Lodz University of Technology – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 91th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 20,000 students and 473 international students;
- Poznan University of Technology – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 124th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 21,000 students and 410 international students;
- Silesian University of Technology – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 97th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 30,000 students and 270 international students;
- Wroclaw University of Science and Technology – 801-1000 in the World Rank of Best Universities and 46th among Emerging Europe and Central Asia with 25,000 students and 1,159 international students.
With this significant number of internationally recognized technical universities in Poland, the Polish IT industry has a high percentage of university graduates. According to Bulldogjob’s Polish IT Community Report, there are around 75% of software developers with higher education, 59% of which have a Master’s degree, 31% studied engineering, 8.8% have a Bachelor’s degree, and 1.3% have a Ph.D.
No Time Zone Differences
Poland is in the Central European Time Zone (UTC+01:00 CET) which makes this country an attractive outsourcing and staff augmentation destination. It has no or one-hour time difference with most Western European countries. That’s why, many companies from the UK, France, Germany, and others outsource their software development or search for IT specialists in Poland.
However, Polish IT outsourcing companies aren’t limited to the partnership only with European countries. The US-based companies also willingly hire Polish software developers, even with the six-hour time difference with the East Coast and the nine-hour difference with the West Coast. This becomes possible due to IT outsourcing vendors’ flexibility. Many of them are ready to adjust their schedules to the working hours in the US and provide high-quality services.
English Proficiency
Most Polish software developers believe that a high level of English is helpful in the IT industry. Bulldogjob’s Polish IT Community Report highlights that 70% of respondents find foreign languages useful for simpler employment and a better understanding of documentation. Moreover, the foreign language factor has become more important during the Covid-19 pandemics as it helps in remote work.
According to the EF English Proficiency Index, Poland is ranked 16th among the countries with an English-speaking population. With all that in mind, 100% of software developers speak English at work, 16% speak German, 7.2% speak Russian, 4.5% speak Spanish.
Reachable Nearshore Location
Besides the convenient time zone, Poland also has an easy-to-reach location. Major Polish tech hubs such as Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Katowice, Gdansk, Lodz, Poznan, and others can be reached by plane from any location in Europe within 1 to 2.5 hours. This proximity makes Poland a viable solution for the companies that operate in major European financial centers such as London, Frankfurt, Paris, and others and would like to augment their in-house teams on-site with Polish software developers.
As to the companies located in the US, they can reach Polish cities by direct flights which usually take from 9 to 12 hours, depending on the point of departure.
Conclusion
Poland is one of the major IT outsourcing hubs in Europe with a convenient location and time zone. Polish IT vendors offer their customers traditional IT outsourcing as well as staff augmentation services. Staff augmentation is becoming a particularly popular option among businesses as it allows companies to effectively enhance their in-house teams’ tech skills, quickly find and hire the needed tech talents, while cutting down on the development costs.
When, hiring software developers businesses obtain highly skilled professionals with practical experience at the international level. Software development teams from Poland know how to do business with the EU and US companies and develop mobile, web, desktop, enterprise-level, and other types of apps of exceptional quality empowered with the latest software features.
