Poland's Booming IT Market: What Are the Prospects for Java Juniors?

Poland is rapidly making its mark as a powerhouse of innovation and growth in the global IT sector. And if you're seeking to leverage the opportunities in Poland's vibrant IT market, we can help you stay informed about the latest insights and trends in the industry. In this article, we delve into the state of the IT market in Poland, exploring its remarkable growth and the increasing demand for Java developers. Read on.

Overview of IT Industry in Poland: The Seventh Most Successful Tech Sector in Europe

With a dynamic landscape and great economic potential, Poland has emerged as a leading country in the world of IT. Poland currently boasts one of the most progressive IT sectors among 23 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, attracting global technology giants like Microsoft, Intel, Google, Oracle, and IBM, who have already heavily invested in the country's development. Having said that, the Polish IT market is saturated with local companies and startups as well (66% of tech specialists work in foreign organizations, 34% work in companies with Polish capital). With a population of 38 million people, Poland employs about 430,000 IT talents including 250,000 programmers. Nowadays, Poland is the seventh most successful IT sector in Europe with an impressive network of 50,000 software development companies – 800 of them focused on international markets. In 2022 alone, Poland's IT sector achieved a staggering $9.3 billion in income, representing about 8% of the country's GDP. And it's expected that by the end of 2025, the IT market in Poland will reach and even exceed $13.00 billion.

Success Stories of Polish-born Tech Giants

To showcase to you the dynamic and innovative transformation of Poland's tech ecosystem, we've come up with a few success stories of Polish-born tech giants: DocPlanner, Brainly, and Booksy. DocPlanner, founded in Warsaw in 2011, has become a leading healthcare booking platform. Through seven successful funding rounds, it has accumulated $140.5 million of investments, which helped the company to increase its value to an impressive range of $300-500 million. Offering a seamless platform for patients to book medical appointments, DocPlanner has revolutionized the healthcare industry, making it easier for individuals to access quality care. Another Polish platform making waves is Brainly, the world's largest peer-to-peer learning community. Established in Krakow in 2009, Brainly has grown exponentially and now it covers nearly 40 countries worldwide. With a valuation between $100-200 million, Brainly has become a go-to platform for students looking for collaborative learning. Meanwhile, Booksy, originally established in Poland and now headquartered in San Francisco, has transformed the beauty industry with its innovative booking application. Booksy handles over 3.5 million bookings per month and it’s valued at about $100-200 million. Just like DocPlanner, the company got $92.2 million from international investors across seven funding rounds.

Developer Pool in Poland

Right off the bat, it's worth mentioning that Poland ranks as one of the top three countries with the world's best programmers. The developer pool in Poland consists of approximately 250,000 specialists. It's worth noting that Poland has five major IT hubs that are distributed throughout the country. The cities with the highest concentration of R&D professionals are Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Katowice, and Poznan. Not surprisingly, the backbone of the talent pool in all these cities is made up of senior developers with 10+ years of experience. However, young specialists are also in high demand in Poland, and many companies eagerly hire juniors to work on new projects.

Developer Salaries in Poland

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of software developers makes $3140 per month in 2023. Junior developers earn from $1500 to $2000 per month depending on their skills and location. Considering the fact that the minimum gross wage makes $840 and the average monthly gross wage across in Poland is $1540, a junior developer position is a quite rewarding occupation. Plus, it's worth mentioning that juniors in Poland can climb the career ladder quite swiftly. The vast majority of specialists (61%) need approximately 1 year to turn into middle specialists, whereas 33% require 2-3 years to upgrade the position and get a higher salary accordingly.

Source: Polish IT Community Report 2023 by BulldogJob

Demand and Skillset for Java Specialists in Poland

Regarding programming languages, the most popular are Javascript (23%), Java (19%), Python (16%), TypeScript (13%), PHP (6%), and C# (8%), followed by Kotlin, Swift, Scala, and Ruby. It's easy to see that Java is the most popular object-oriented programming language in Poland, so no wonder that the demand for Java specialists is one of the highest in the country. If we refer to popular job websites like Pracuj, No Fluff Jobs, the:protocol, and others, we can see that 1 of 8 job offerings list Java as the main skill. The most popular job website Indeed now lists 1,689 job offerings for Java specialists where 149 vacancies are for junior Java developers. Among the must-have skills for junior Java developers, companies mention:

• Java
• Spring
• SQL
• Git
• Hibernate
• English (level B2 or higher)

Preferably, Java juniors should also have such skills as:

• REST
• Maven
• HTML/CSS
• JavaScript
• JPA

It'll also be an advantage if you have experience with:

• JUnit
• Angular
• SOAP
• CD/ID
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Gosu

Other welcome skills are:

• Programming languages like Kotlin, Scala, C++, Typescript
• Frameworks like PostgreSQL, NoSQL, Spring Boot, JQuery, React, Gradle, Kafka, Jenkins, JSP, Java EE, EJB
• AWS
• IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse

Conclusion

During the last few years, Poland has become one of the major IT leaders in the world. In 2023, Poland continues to establish itself as a great destination for IT investments and outsourcing thanks to an extensive pool of tech talent, competitive costs, and a favorable business environment. From all this, it's easy to conclude that the Poland IT industry will continue to flourish and evolve, offering immense opportunities for businesses worldwide. Whether it's developing web and mobile applications or leveraging outsourcing services, Poland will readily meet these requirements. With that, there are no sights of Java's decrease in popularity. This means the demand for Java developers will continue to soar, making Java language an appealing option to kickstart a career in software development.