More and more Romanian companies have started to train developers internally. The country desperately needs thousands of software engineers.
According to the 2016 Talentspotting Survey from Romanian technology recruiter Brainspotting, software engineers are the most sought-after professionals in the country. 55% of firms participating in the survey say they need more software engineers. Testers are coming in second with 9% and developers for mobile apps are third (4%).
The bad news for Romanian companies are that there are not nearly enough software engineers. Firms are experiencing difficulties finding new workers. As a result, this slows down their growth.
“Many companies operating in Romania want to hire skilled programmers, but cannot find them. There is a growing tendency to abandon traditional ways of recruiting and try to acquire talented young people from universities and even from high schools.”, says Marcel Borodi, general director of Romanian IT integrator Brinel to ComputerWorld.
To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, we can take a look at US software firm 3Pillar Global. It currently has 350 employees in Romania and it needs 100 more software engineers to hire by the end of this year alone. The company seeks engineers with at least three years of experience in programing and software testing.
Back to the survey, it points to Java, PHP, NET/C# and C/C++ as the top needed programming skills. For developers of internet services, you can add Python and Ruby on Rails to the list.
Going at it alone
Since the educational system can’t provide the needed specialists fast enough and in enough quantity, the business is looking for alternatives. In February this year Deutsche Bank’s global technology center in Bucharest launched a Java school program. In it 20 participants are paid while they study Java programming. Afterwards they can get offered job positions in the technology center.
Other companies, like Softelligence for example, are also going for new strategies where they recruit new workers based on other talents and interests to grow. Then it invests in them to train them into the needed software engineers. Companies also find it easier to find motivated and willing to learn people than experienced specialists. Of course, the risk is much bigger, since the firm has to spend quite a lot of money and time to train a promising candidate. This person could possibly not live up to the expectations, lose desire, or jump ship as soon as the guaranteed clause in the contract expires.
The last risk is not that bad, though as it means a skillful worker has been created after all and this helps the entire IT ecosystem. Still, it can be disheartening for the company. Even so, these are risks that are not seen that often. In Bulgaria for example, a similar approach has been used by the local IT ecosystem for years now. Companies like Telerik, Imperia Online and others are holding regular training camps for pretty much everyone who want to start a career as a software engineer.
Some firms are also starting to see the benefits of holding internal trainings for current employees too, in order to keep their skills on top form and up-to-date with the latest trends. This also makes the employees happier and more confident in their capabilities. It is also an approach which has created interest in companies like CourseDot as well which helps organizing a training, finding a suitable course and a qualified trainer among all other details.
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