Recently, Poland has emerged as one of the world’s most popular destinations for expanding or outsourcing business operations. Situated in the center of Europe, this country has become a good mix of highly skilled developers, a robust tech ecosystem, and a competitive cost of living, making a software development team Poland an attractive choice for businesses.

6 reasons to hire Polish developers

There are key factors that make Poland the most appealing destination for IT companies. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Poland’s growing tech ecosystem

Over the last decade, the tech ecosystem in Poland and the number of IT hubs have increased dramatically. The IT hubs have grown tremendously in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, and Gdańsk. There are over 400,000 software developers in Poland. Over 260 tech companies operate in Warsaw, as the capital has become the biggest tech hub in the country. In the 2000s, Poland declared its strategy to become a highly developed tech world player. To fulfill this purpose, in 2007, The National Center for Research and Development (NCBR) was founded. Its role is to bridge the gap between science and business by providing co-financing for research and development projects.

2. Highly skilled workforce

According to Statista, Polish IT workers are good at Java, Python, C#, JavaScript, and more. It is worth mentioning that Polish software developers are often winning in software challenges like Google Code Jam and Microsoft Imagine Cup. The most famous among the winners is Marek Cygan. Holding a PhD, Marek became a global champion of the 2007 ACM ICPC and obtained champion status in the 2005 Google Code Jam. Now, having made a career at Google in the United States, he decided to come home and teach the young generation at the University of Warsaw.

3. Brilliant educational background

There are 18 technical universities in Poland, often known as “Polytechnics”. Among them, the biggest and most famous are Warsaw Polytechnic (19 faculties and educates 33 thousand students), AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków (16 faculties and about 30,000 students), Gdańsk University of Technology (10 faculties and 23 thousand students). On average, one in 6 Polish IT students graduates with a master’s degree.

4. Language skills

It frequently catches the eye of the Polish people, especially those who live in big cities like Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław and speak English fluently. The young generation, taught to be highly educated and have proficient language skills to achieve success and be competitive in the labor market, demonstrate great achievements in these goals. Not only developers, engineers, and other IT specialists speak fluent English, so it is easy to communicate all over the country for outsourcers who use English as a communication tool. When it comes to IT workers, they commonly use English for writing code, technical documentation, and daily communication within multinational teams. Moreover, Poland’s educational system emphasizes foreign language skills, and many professionals can speak additional languages like German, French, and Spanish.

5. No cultural barriers

Poland’s proximity to Western Europe means cultural understanding. Sharing the same values as U.S. and European citizens makes Poland suitable for building international teams and setting a communication style between them. While skilled in understanding each other proficiently, Polish developers are good at recognizing jargon patterns and quickly adapting to this communication model as well. Thus, language skills in Polish IT reinforce its tech sector significantly.

6. Taxation politic

For the employee or the business investors, there are two collaboration models to choose between. There are two ways to get a salary in Poland: being self-employed (under the Polish deal) or employment in a Polish company. The income tax for self-employment is 12%, and this payment is determined by the income level. At the same time, the employment in the Polish company pays 12% tax before income of 120k PLN, and 32% after 120k PLN.

How to conduct a hiring process

How do businesses, such as the famous software development company N-iX, for instance, choose a team in Poland to hire? The first step will be launching the meeting to discuss the goals of the new team. It may include the tech stack required, the level of expertise, and the deadlines of the hiring project. Once the requirements are specified, the next step will be collecting appropriate CVs from the qualified candidates. Then, the recruitment consultant should conduct the initial meetings to evaluate the hard and soft skills of the potential candidates. In general, IT workers should have a certain level of proficiency in programming languages like Java, Python, C++, JavaScript, SQL, etc., as well as capacities in problem-solving, adaptability, flexibility, etc. This combination of hard and soft skills is crucial for the team’s success. For example, a highly skilled developer with excellent coding abilities may struggle to explain ideas to clients or delegate some tasks to teammates due to poor communication skills. After the first screening of candidates, a technical interview should be set up. Usually, this level involves some coding test tasks to evaluate technical skills. After the coding tasks, the soft skills should be tested. A lot of companies try not only to identify problem-solving abilities but also to understand the candidate’s personality. This helps to determine how well the employee will integrate into the teamwork or how to create a team based on the personality profiles.

Once all interviews are completed and the teammates are selected, the hiring recruiter, along with the team leads and CEO, reviews all the candidates and approves the most appropriate ones. Those selected receive the offer for salary and collaboration via email and sign the contract. After that, the project is launched and the candidates come to the office to start the onboarding procedures.

To sum up

Poland has become a key player in the Eastern European arena of tech, which is highly developed countries. The national strategic policy to encourage young developers and support their educational abilities enriches the country with more workforce resources. In addition, talented software developers are enthusiastic about taking part in coding competitions, creating an even stronger reputation among highly skilled tech creators. The cities known as the biggest IT hubs of the country are also culturally and historically attractive, providing an affordable cost of living at the same time. In particular, Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław are excellent opportunities for brilliant tech talent and tech companies.