Eastern European developers can provide high-quality IT services, are located in a time zone that is more amenable to business needs, have a favorable cost-to-quality ratio, and have only slight cultural differences from the USA and Western Europe. When taken together, these advantages make Eastern Europe a great place to outsource software development.
When establishing a development team in Eastern Europe, foreign tech businesses often work with reputable vendors who provide expert recruitment services. E.g., Alcor is an international IT recruiting firm focusing on filling positions for Western product IT companies. They directly connect to over 600,000 qualified individuals across Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and other EE countries.
So, let’s explore the features and advantages of each country and how they hire coders.
Table of Contents
Offshoring Hotspots in Eastern Europe
The digitization of the global economy has opened up new frontiers for innovation. Amidst this sea change, a new breed of tech virtuosos has emerged from an unexpected corner of the world. Eastern Europe, once overlooked, is now a booming offshoring hotspot for tech firms seeking skilled developers.
Poland
Poland is the leading offshore destination in Eastern Europe. The country’s IT sector is developing at a steady pace of 5–10% a year and has over 400 software businesses employing over 500,000 trained workers. The number of students and graduates who study information and communication technologies in Poland is around 70,000 annually. IT initiatives in e-commerce, banking, and consumer goods absorb the lion’s share of the country’s ICT experts.
Romania
The government of Romania provides preferential tax treatment for businesses that engage in software development. This refers to the employment contract paradigm of collaboration between IT companies and developers. Romanian law provides a 10% tax exemption for software developers who work for ICT companies. Companies like Microsoft, Ericsson, HP, and Huawei, which operate on a worldwide scale, have found this expanding market attractive. With an annual increase of 7,000 tech graduates, the number of IT workers in the nation has grown to about 190,000. E-commerce, education, healthcare, and telecommunications are the primary industrial axes for Romanian programmers.
Bulgaria
Sofia is Bulgaria’s sole major IT center. It’s one of the Top 20 Tech Cities of the Future and a major center for out staffing. A formidable force of approximately 110,000 developers in Bulgaria is dynamically shaping the technological landscape. These developers are not mere coders. They are solution providers, primarily focusing on delivering innovative IT solutions for businesses across various sectors. Notably, their expertise spans the industrial, banking, and e-commerce sectors, showcasing the breadth of their abilities and the diversity of their technological influence. According to statistics, more than 2,100 students complete degrees in ICT each year.
The Bulgarian government has put in a lot of work to make the country more appealing to foreign investors. Therefore, several multinational firms, including HP, Oracle, and VMware, have established research and development facilities. By being located in the southeast of Europe, getting to Europe’s major technological capitals only takes a few hours.
Reasons for Contracting Eastern European Programmers
Eastern Europe, long recognized for its rich intellectual capital and cultural aptitude for technology, has emerged as one of the leading offshoring hotspots. This region’s talented, innovative, and driven developers pool is vital in the worldwide digital economy.
Diverse Stack of Technologies
Eastern European developers tend to have excellent technical chops, while Eastern European educational institutions have shifted their emphasis from hardware to software. Eastern European teams have years of expertise in various fields and coding languages, including healthcare, e-commerce, blockchain, AI, and the Internet of Things. As for the coding languages, Eastern European programmers are proficient in JavaScript, Java, Python, TypeScript, PHP, C#, C++, and HTML/CSS.
Fluency in English
Cooperation between Eastern European programmers and foreign IT employers requires English proficiency. So, no wonder most software developer vacancies at multinational corporations hiring in Eastern Europe require fluency in English. In the EF English Proficiency Index, the Eastern European nations perform commendably, with Poland ranking at 13th place, followed by Romania at 17th, and Bulgaria close behind at the 21st spot, illustrating their strong emphasis on English language education.
Educational Profiling
Software developers in Eastern Europe often get bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science. These programs emphasize theoretical computer science, telecommunications, AI, and software engineering. The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and the University of Bucharest are two universities in Romania with courses in applied automation, computer science, information security, and communication networks. Regarding computer science courses in Poland, students may enroll at the Warsaw University of Technology and learn about topics like cutting-edge algorithms, distributed computing, knowledge representation/reasoning, and data mining.
Low Developer Rates
Eastern European coders charge way less than their US and Western European colleagues. It’s common for the cost of developing software in Eastern Europe to be two or even three times cheaper than in the United States. Poland has the highest prices for all categories of developers, ranging from $50 to $99/hour. The hourly wage for mid-level workers in Romania ranges from $35 to $49. In Bulgaria, the coding services are the cheapest – from $10 to $40.
Cultural Norms
Developer culture in these countries may be described as Western and progressive. Younger individuals with more expansive worldviews tend to congregate in development groups. Bulgarian, Romanian, and Polish programmers have extensive expertise working with major international technology firms and leading European software development firms.
Convenient Time Zone & Location
One last factor is how well you can coordinate with your outstaffed developers. Eastern European software engineers, for instance, are just a two-hour time difference away from London, whereas their American colleagues in the east are seven hours behind. Together, they enable a tried-and-true development procedure that works for both in-house and contracted workers. Even considering the time differences, there is still enough overlap for employees to organize meetings and discuss the workflow or any pressing tasks.
Why Choose Alcor as Your Reliable Eastern European Partner?
Alcor provides IT recruiting services to help its customers build up software development teams in Eastern Europe and appoints a professional account manager for each client. Beginning with a search for all competent IT specialists, our team brings in resumes of programmers interested in the opportunities of our customers. They prepare detailed weekly reports on the recruiting process, including screened resumes, completed interviews, and other recommendations for improving IT personnel.
Their team pledges to fill 5 open software development positions within 1 month and 20 programmers in 3 months. At the same time, numbers speak louder than words about the quality of our candidates. 4 out of 5 of our candidates get interview invitations from our clients, while 98% of our applicants make it through the trial phase.
Share Your Thoughts