Is it worth to outsource IT services to Poland? What about hiring software engineers from Poland? If you’re asking yourself these questions, you’re in the right place. We’ve put together a list of 6 things you need to know about IT recruitment in Poland.

Many IT companies around the world are asking themselves the same question: is outsourcing IT services good for business? More often than not, the reason why business organizations decide to outsource is the low cost of delegating services to an external provider in another country. Tech companies very often choose to outsource their services to Poland or hire Polish developers. They do so because the Polish market is well-known not only for skilled IT specialists but also for boutique agencies specializing in recruiting tech talent as well as excellent technical recruiters.

If you want to tap into Poland’s IT talent pool, you can obviously choose to recruit developers yourself, but this will be definitely harder if you’re not familiar with the market. No matter which option you choose, there are a couple of things that you need to know and consider. We’ve chosen 6 that we believe are crucially important.

1. What makes Polish developers stand out? 

Software developers in Poland are considered to be among the world’s best, and for good reason. According to HackerRank, they currently rank third in the world, right after China and Russia. This is no coincidence because the universities in Poland offer top-notch IT programs, and Polish students are among top performers in international programming competitions (we wrote about famous programmers who graduated from Polish universities in the article 9 Programming Competitions: What Should You Look For in a Resume?). 

2. What is the key to finding and hiring top programmers in Poland? 

Poland has a talent pool of around 400,000 IT specialists (source: Polish Investment & Trade Agency, Export Promotion Portal). Of course, the war for talent in the IT sector is also a reality in Poland. But if you prepare well, you’ll stand a good chance of being successful. We know firsthand how important it is that you offer remuneration that is at least equal to the market average (or preferably slightly higher) and partner with a local recruitment agency. In this way, you will get significant benefits because hiring an IT specialist in Poland is two or three times cheaper than in the United States or in Western Europe.

3. What are the salaries of IT specialists in Poland?

According to Ideed, the annual salary of a front-end developer is around $93,000 in the United States. In Poland, in turn, a front-end developer earns about $48,000 (based on the Inhire Salary Calculator). Of course, this is just the median salary. Therefore, you should keep in mind that the actual pay levels may be somewhat higher, especially in the case of senior developers. If you’re interested in detailed salary ranges in Poland, get in touch and we’ll send you specific requirements for each job.

Read more about recommended salary ranges for IT specialists working in Poland:

4. Do Polish developers have experience in working on international projects?

Polish developers are not only technically very skilled but also experienced in working on international projects for various companies: from start-ups and product companies to multinational corporations. All of such businesses operate in the major IT hubs in Poland: Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Katowice&GZM, Łódź, Poznań, and Tri-City Area. In Kraków alone, the corporate segment comprises such companies as Cisco, Akamai, IBM, and ABB, while the start-up segment includes Zendesk, Brainly, and Estimote. In Warsaw, you can also find Google, Microsoft or Samsung.

A vast majority of Polish developers can speak fluent English (Poland ranks 16th in the EF EPI’s ranking, which is the world’s largest ranking of countries and regions by English skills). In addition, they’re very flexible and can easily adapt to the standards in place in your organization. Also, they often see working in an international team as a benefit.

Moreover, they’re no strangers to working non-standard hours, and this doesn’t always mean that you need to offer them a significantly higher salary. In this respect, you should simply show your human face and work out a compromise on what your company could offer candidates to make working early in the morning or late at night more comfortable. Here, you can suggest different benefits. For example, we know a case in which a company decided to cover the cost of taking a cab home for a developer who worked in the office until 10 p.m.

5. What are the most important things that Polish developers look for in a job?

Aside from money, the most important things that developers look for in a job are stability as well as development and growth opportunities. Developers with advanced programming skills also want to know if they’ll be working on interesting projects that create development opportunities and give them real influence over what they believe in and what has a visible impact on the world. This is confirmed by the findings of a survey taken by Humeo to examine the needs of Polish developers in the times of the pandemic (The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Needs and Employment of Developers in Poland – available in Polish). When asked what factors they consider when changing jobs, programmers, developers, and software engineers from Kraków pointed to the type of the project as the second most important factor after remuneration, while “the stability of the company” ranked third. 

Another thing that matters for candidates is the possibility of learning from experienced specialists, senior managers, and executives. When you recruit developers from Poland, you should therefore describe some of the unique projects you’re working on or include managers in recruitment interviews.

Read also how we were creating a new IT hub in Poland for the Swedish LeoVegas:

6. Should you partner with a Polish IT recruitment agency to help you hire developers?

Why do foreign tech companies enlist the services of IT recruitment agencies in Poland?

By partnering with a local agency, they can better navigate the Polish job market and, by the same token, boost the speed and effectiveness of their recruitment process. A specialized agency employs carefully designed recruitment strategies that respond to the needs of the local IT specialists. In addition, Polish recruiters have top-notch sourcing skills and, just like Polish developers, appreciate the possibility of working on international projects, so you don’t have to worry about a language barrier.

Importantly, many recruitment agencies in Poland can offer to help you with your recruitments on a regular basis and help you to build an entire team or even an entire IT hub. This proves especially important when you need to create a team in a foreign market quickly and without spending too much money.

Summary

Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list of the things that you should know before you start recruiting developers in Poland. For this reason, we recommend that you find trusted partners that will help you to navigate the legal and financial aspects of hiring IT developers and to set up an efficient recruitment process, in addition to offering technical consultancy. If you want to find out more about the services we offer, feel free to contact us. We’re confident we can find the right solutions for you and assist you in your recruitment journey in the IT sector in Poland. 

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