The IT market in Poland in 2021 – what says the research?

Compared to other industries, the IT sector has remained relatively resilient to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. According to a report Software and IT services after a temporary period of project suspension and lower spending by companies seeking savings, the sector experienced recovery and an increase in value in 2021. And the Community Research Report 2022 shows that the IT community is changing and has good prospects. It is estimated that by 2026 the IT market will grow by 4.8%.

In this article, we have selected a few topics from the report prepared by Bulldogjob platform that may be of interest to both current and future IT specialists. We invite you to read the full version of this report: IT Community Research 2022. It's insightful and representative for the IT market due to the relatively large sample of 7382 respondents. What's more, it is the latest research of the Polish IT market – it was released at the end of February 2022. Most of the figures are from the latest report, and opinions from both 2021 and 2022.

The IT market in Poland in 2022 – selected topics from IT community research

1. How the pandemic influenced the IT world

Since 2020, the market and the mode of work have changed significantly. The beginning of a pandemic caused some concerns: “The main channel of negative impact may be the financial condition of companies that are recipients of IT services – the crisis in many sectors is so large that the search for savings leads to lower expenses also in the IT area [...]”.

However, after an uncertain 2020, and smaller spending by companies seeking savings, the sector experienced a recovery in 2021. Why? Because the pandemic also forced the rapid digitalisation of many sectors, thus – accelerating the development of the entire technology industry. As a result, there has been an increase in demand for IT products and services. It was mainly the effect of: 

• switching to remote channels in many areas of professional and private life; 
• increased demand for entertainment – video games, the activity of portals and web channels; 
• further digitisation process – the digital transformation of the economy, companies and citizens; 
• increasing importance of machine learning and artificial intelligence for operations and results of companies.

Moreover, as noted by Łukasz Fido, Head of Engineering at Zooplus, "Until recently, the Polish IT industry was dominated by companies operating in the outsourcing model or software houses producing software on behalf of an external client. Today we notice that this trend is changing, and more and more companies selling software products and creating software for their own needs are appearing on the market [...].

2. Who are IT employees?

IT specialisations

Among IT specialists, the most numerous group are developers (mainly backend developers – 42%), constituting 57% of the total. The list of all positions is as follows:

• Developers – 57%
• QA / Tester – 15% 
• Admin / DevOps – 11% 
• PM / Product Owner – 6% 
• IT analyst – 6% 
• Data Science / ML / AI – 2.9%
• IT architect – 2.6%

Industries developers work in

IT specialists are present in most industries today. The digitisation of the world means that modern technologies are used in every professional area. This suggests the multitude of job offers and the variety of industries in which an IT specialist can be employed. The industries in which work most often are (data from 2021): 

• A software house – 22% 
• Finance / Banking – 14% 
• Internet / e-Commerce / New media – 9.2% 
• Health / Beauty / Recreation – 4.2% 
• Engineering – 3.9% 
• Production – 3.3% 
• IT Administration – 3.2% 
• Transport / Shipping / Logistics – 3.1% 
• Advisory / Consulting – 3.1% 
• Sales – 2.9% 
• Media / Arts / Entertainment – 2.8% 
• Research and development – 2.8% 

Higher education

• 73% graduated from higher studies:
• IT – 55%
• Other technical / science – 30%
• Non-technical – 15%
• 14.3% did not graduated 
• 11% are still studying 

Seniority 

The dominant group are people in the mid position, which can mean that seniors and mid / regulars will soon dominate the market.

• Mid / regular – 42% 
• Senior – 23% 
• Junior – 23% 
• Team / Tech Lead – 8.9%
• Mid-level Manager – 2.5%
• C-level – 1% 

(An example of the "C-level" category may be the position of Chief Technical Officer, i.e. a person with the most important hard skills related to the company's programming or maintenance of IT infrastructure.)

IT specialisations and professional experience (in years)

• IT architect – 12.5
• PM / Product Owner – 7.9
• Admin / DevOps – 7.9
• IT analyst – 5.4
• Developer – 5.3
• QA / Tester – 4.1
• Data Science / ML / AI – 3.6

3. Programmers salary and contracts 

 „Flexibility in choosing the form of employment is a factor that appears to be more and more important for future employees. [...] Statistically, employment contracts are chosen more often by people with rather little work experience. An employment contract is equated with a sense of stability. On the other hand, specialists who have been freelancers in IT for years prefer a B2B contract. Its advantage is most evident when it comes to finances.” (Lidia Sarna, HR Director, Pivotal Polska)

Type of contract

Despite the fact that IT companies are more likely to hire employees for B2B than in other industries, Bulldogjob's research shows that the dominant form of employment in IT is still an employment contract. At the same time, people in senior / C-level positions are more often employed in B2B. 

• employment contract – 57% 
• B2B contract – 34% 
• contract of mandate or contract for specific work – 8.9%

Earnings and seniority 

The survey also found that the most significant jump in earnings is seen when promoted from junior to mid/regular. In the case of these positions and others, depending on the type of contract, wages are as follows:

(employment contract, mandate / specific work contract – amounts in-hand; B2B cooperation – net amount on the invoice)

Earnings depending on IT specialisation

IT Architect is the highest paid profession in the industry. However, as demonstrated earlier, it is the position that requires the longest work experience.

(employment contract, mandate / specific work contract – amounts in-hand; B2B cooperation – net amount on the invoice)

Earnings depending on location

Summarising the earnings: a pandemic, rising inflation, and higher demand for cloud IT services, caused in 2021 the increase of earnings of 79% of IT employees compared to 2020. 

Factors influencing the willingness to change a job  

Although 35% of the respondents declare that they could consider relocation (change of city or country) due to finances or an exciting project, the majority (60%) do not want to change their place of residence. The question asked in the survey: “What would make you consider a job change” gave the answer “Better money” a decisive advantage, as much as 91%. All factors are as follows:

• Better money – 91% 
• Possibility to learn and develop – 30% 
• Possibility of promotion – 25%
• Flexibility of a job – 23%  
• Good atmosphere / friends – 21%
• Used technologies – 20% 
• Employer prestige / brand – 12%  
• Non-wage benefits – 11% 
• The culture of the company – 7.8% 
• Localisation – 7.2%
• Free choice of tools and technologies – 6.1%
• Type of contract – 5.4% 

“In the first place, specialists pay attention to the salary range. The mere term "attractive earnings" does not encourage candidates to apply. In this respect, the IT industry is one of the most transparent. More and more companies are convinced of disclosing wages and, as statistics show, it brings positive results. The future employees require specific details, and before submitting a CV, they want to know what technologies they will work with and what systems and equipment they will be using. [...]” (Aleksandra Sarnowska, Customer Success Team Leader, Bulldogjob)

4. Programming languages ​​and technologies 

"The results of the study are not surprising as the most popular programming languages have remained unchanged for years. [...] The only thing that may surprise is the low position of Python, which is gaining more and more importance and popularity all over the world [...]" – notes Wojciech Dreja, Head of Recruitment from Sii.

Most popular technologies

• SQL – 46%
• JavaScript – 41% 
• HTML /CSS – 39% 
• Python – 31% 
• Java – 30% 
• TypeScript – 23% 
• C# – 19% 
• C++ – 11% 
• PHP – 13% 
• C – 6.1% 
• Kotlin – 5.4% 
• Go – 2.8% 
• Ruby – 2.1% 
• Swift – 1.7%  
• Scala – 1.7% 
• Rust – 1%

Operating systems used 

Although Linux wins in global research (56%), in Poland the constant trend is the popularity of Windows (54%). The order in Poland is as follows (data from 01.2021): 

• Windows – 54% 
• Linux – 24% 
• OSX – 21% 

5. What IT employees expect from work

Prefered work models

The survey of IT market in Poland shows that as many as 84% of respondents have the possibility of remote work. This means that 11% more employers allowed their employees to work remotely in 2021. The interesting thing is that in last year's report, commentators were predicting that the most popular work model will be hybrid. However, 2022 research showed that more employees prefer remote work – their number increased from 35 to 49%.

• remote – 49% 
• hybrid – 39% 
• in the office – 12% 

“[...] the office has changed its traditional role and from a place of daily work, it has become a co-working space, a meeting place for teams, as well as an administrative center,” notes George Kremenetsky, CEO of DataArt Kraków.

Most important factors at work

• money – 26% 
• people – 25% 
• development – 24% 
• peaceful work – 10% 
• possibility of remote work – 6.2% 
• stability of work – 5.2%
• possibility to reconcile work and private life – 4%

When comparing the data from 2022 and 2021, an interesting trend is the decline in the importance of development at work. In 2021, 34% of respondents mentioned development as the most crucial factor, while in 2022, it lost its position in favour of money and people.

Most attractive benefits 

• private healthcare – 64% 
• professional courses and vocational training – 50% 
• car for private use – 32% 
• language courses – 32% 
• life insurance – 20%
• gym membership – 20%
• a computer for private use – 18% 
• cafeteria system (cinema tickets, shopping vouchers, discounts in shops) – 16% 
• Christmas gift vouchers – 9.7% 
• mobile phone for private use – 3.5% 
• company sports teams – 3.4% 

Factors motivating to develop and learn 

The development directions of employees are their own individual choices. And the choice of the working environment depends on many factors. When IT specialists were asked: “What motivates you to learn new things at work?”, it turned out that it is not earnings that play the most crucial role, but:

• willingness to develop and self-improve, regardless of the workplace – 68%
• changing labour market, the need to be up to date – 15%
• a project they work in – 14%

Prefered sources of knowledge at work

The report shows that every year more and more specialists share and gain their knowledge through websites and blogs. It turns out that IT firms that run blogs and websites create the main content from which IT specialists gain knowledge.

• blogs and thematic websites – 77% 
• online courses / Youtube – 69%
• coworkers – 63%
• internet forums – 46% 
• books – 38% 
• paid courses and training – 35% 
• conferences / meetups – 22% 
• postgraduate studies – 3.9% 

Professional aspirations of IT specialists

The last year's research of IT market in Poland showed that in each IT specialisation, there is a willingness to develop towards being an expert in the field. But only IT analysts and Project Managers would like to combine this development with managing people. Most IT professionals do not want to manage a team.

2022 report focused on the willingness to maintain or change the position. It showed that Data science specialists are the most sure of their specialisation decision, as only 10% of them want to change it.

The IT market in Poland in 2022 – summary

The image of the IT market in Poland is shaped by the growing number of jobs in the IT sector and a wide choice of workplaces. So, the potential employees have the possibility to look for companies that will understand and satisfy their needs. So, “What to look for when choosing a new employer? For financing development by the employer, the culture of knowledge exchange between teams, as well as the ability to implement new solutions and autonomy in decision making,” advises Adam Jakubowski, Development Lab Lead, Dynatrace.