Why Polish programmers are the best in the world

The European Commission estimates 600,000 programmers are needed in the EU’s ICT sector alone. Demand for these employees has shown no sign of decreasing in recent years. Even though tens of thousands of students graduate from technical universities across Europe every year, there is still an enormous need for specialists in this field. In Europe the recipe for innovation is based on long-term projects related to the future of energy, high-tech laboratories, pharmaceuticals, and industry. The rates of growth in these sectors depend in large part on the number of available, well-educated IT workers who can move and work freely in every EU member state.

BizAge spoke to Bob Poole, CSO of TenderHut, one of the fastest-growing IT companies in Europe, about why Poland is the place to look for your programming needs.

Hi Bob! Let's start by explaining who you and what your experience ICT sector is?

I have been working in software sales for over thirty years and have had the pleasure of collaborating with the world's leading corporations in industries such as pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, food, and forensics. Interestingly, each of them needed a lot of technology and programmers to support them in their daily operations. Today, I am responsible for the development of an international sales network on a global scale at TenderHut Capital Group.

The company you are talking about is based in Poland, how does this fact affect your operations?

Let's start with the fact that Poland, located in Central Europe, has undergone a lot of changes over the past 30 years. Whole sectors of the economy have undergone transformation, not to mention EU membership and extremely dynamic economic growth. One thing that has not changed, however, is the level of education and quality of the workforce in the country’s IT sector. Polish programmers are among the best in the world. There is also one more extremely important factor, namely cultural conditioning. Poles have been working for international corporations for years and fluent English has become the standard. By operating from Poland, the company gains advantages related precisely to these aspects, i.e., quality, time zone, and cultural proximity. These factors are extremely important when customers are deciding whether to recruit specialists for a project based on nearshoring arrangements or turn to support centers in the Far East.

How high is the demand for this kind of support?

Two numbers say a lot. One of them is the total spend on the ICT sector in the EU, annually - and it is not a small amount. According to estimates, ICT-sector expenditures in Europe have reached 1.2 billion USD and are expected to grow at 5.4% per year. That explains the European Commission’s estimate of 6000,000 job openings that must be filled. This sector is huge, and it is going to get even bigger in the years to come. Despite some international confusion caused by layoff at giants like Google, Microsoft, or Meta the situation in Europe is a lot different – with more diversified business models and lower costs than in the US or Japan.

And how do Polish programmers fit into this puzzle?

They are among the world's most sought-after programmers. This is the result of several factors including a highly demanding curriculum at Polish technical universities, years of work in an international environment and being in a European time zone. Polish programmers have been topping international rankings for years. According to the prestigious HackerRank report Polish programing professionals are third-best in the world – behind only Russia and China. The same report also says that Poles are the best in the business when it comes to working with Java technology - which HackerRank reports is the most commonly chosen and desired software language in the world. One more fact is also worth noting. China and Russia, the two countries which surpassed Poland in the ranking, can hardly be referred to as democracies and given current global events, I doubt many European companies will do business with them. The choice is obvious.

So, will nearshoring from Central Europe satisfy demand in European?

There is a good chance it will. I live in the United Kingdom and have observed a definite change in the approach to doing business with Central European. Countries from this region provide extremely professional and high-quality service. When you add to that the fact that Poland has a stable economy, compatible culture, EU-member status, is in a European time zone – and what you get is projects that are worked on and implemented better. From a business point of view, all the things I mentioned are equally important, and often more important than the cost per hour of work done by a programmer from the Far East.