Unlocking Romania's IT Potential: Insights on the Growing Market and Opportunities

How would you describe the current state of the IT market in Romania?

Right now, the IT market here in Romania still shows growth, even though it is slightly slower than in the last years. There is still plenty of demand for technical talent, and global companies want to expand or create new development teams here. In recent years, Romania has no longer been a “cheap alternative” for foreign software companies. Instead, it transitioned into being a reliable and qualitative partner. Everyone knows that here you’ll find well-prepared developers, at a fair price based on their skills, with good English and lightning-fast internet.  

What are the most in-demand programming languages and technologies in the Romanian IT market right now? How are you addressing them in your Coders Lab Romania training curriculum?

As in the rest of the world, JavaScript seems to be the most in-demand programming language. Software development companies have an increased demand for it. This also transitioned to the aspiring developers, who mostly ask for JS courses. That is why we’ve prepared a complete bootcamp for JS students, learning and practicing everything from basic HTML & CSS to JS’s React framework. 

Of course, there is also high demand for backend languages, and here, Python seems to be the new king. In Romania, PHP was very popular for a period of time, but it seems things are shifting. Same as for all technologies, our Python course starts from the basics, up to learning advanced Django, the most used Python framework. We even teach a bit of JS here so that future developers will also build their new applications' interfaces.  

What kind of job opportunities are available for IT professionals in Romania, and how have they evolved in recent years?

Romania is a complete hub for software development. There are job opportunities for programming in most languages, testing (manual and automated), project management, business analysis, UX/UI, and so on. There has definitely been an evolution in recent years, in terms of growing demand, for more senior roles, but also salaries have had a pretty steep growth as well. Software companies now know that they can trust Romania as a technical talent provider, which can be seen in all statistics.

How do you think the IT market in Romania compares to other European countries?

Briefly comparing Romania with other eastern-European countries, I’ll repeat it, we are not that cheap anymore:) The IT salaries have increased, and quality has also gone up. West and North European countries are intensely investing in technical talent in Romania and building / expanding development teams here. Romanian developers learned how to work with other cultures and quickly adapted to new clients. 

How is your IT academy helping to address the skills gap in the Romanian IT market?

This is one of our main goals and why we started to teach IT courses. We see a yearly growing technical talent gap between 2000 and 5000 jobs, out of which a bit less than half is for junior developers. Nowadays, junior talent has a growing demand as companies realize that less experienced developers can also do good work and quickly develop themselves, starting from a lower salary. At Coders Lab, we’re constantly building new partnerships with software development companies to understand their needs and provide them with course graduates looking for new IT careers. 

Can you discuss any unique challenges or opportunities that the Romanian IT market presents compared to other markets?

In Romania, we’ve always had the challenge of working with the public sector and making people realize the importance of education and continuous learning. But at the same time, we have many unique opportunities: well-prepared technical talent with a very good level of English which means they can work and perform in any global company. An excellent internet speed and beautiful places where one can organize an excellent setup for working remotely. Working in IT has become an “archetype” here: people immediately see you as an intelligent, rich person with lots of freedom:) But this depends a lot on how you set up your career path.    

How are companies in Romania adapting to the latest trends and technologies in the IT industry, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things?

We’re adapting to new trends and technologies automatically and immediately, mainly because a large percentage of the software being done in Romania is exported. Global companies are adapting their needs, and we’re adapting our offer to match their needs. That is why we’re always up-to-date and even one step ahead sometimes.    

How do you see the future of the IT market in Romania evolving in the next 5-10 years?

It will continue to grow at a slower but steady pace. It will adapt to global trends, and we’ll also see more Romanian-based tech startups and unicorns. If AI rules supreme, we’ll also be there to help it. 

What advice would you give to companies thinking about improving their digital skills?

I see two types of companies here: IT and non-IT. For IT companies, I would advise them not to use mid-senior employees for training the juniors. It is far more efficient to outsource this to an IT academy that can get your junior employee to the right level using your technologies and products. 

For non-IT companies that most likely work with outsourced software companies, my advice will be to start building an in-house team. It can be as small as 2 people, but this would give them a bit more understanding and control over their website, application, etc. They can identify current employees with this IT drive, and we’ll train them.

For more information, visit Coders Lab - Academia de IT website.