Most Russian IT professionals with extensive work experience do not intend to work in an office. Remote access for them is the main requirement, the ability not to appear on the territory of the employer is much more important to them than the size of their salary.
Salary doesn't solve anything
Domestic IT workers have dramatically changed their priorities when looking for a job and choosing an employer. As analysts of the iTrend communication agency told CNews, IT specialists do not put salary at all at the forefront, despite the rapid price growth and official annual inflation of more than 7% (Rosstat data).
The main factor for Russian IT personnel, at least for middle and senior managers, is the presence of remote work in the list of employer offers. The ability to work without appearing in the office at all is important for 75% of experienced IT professionals, and this is the first place among the requirements.
Middle, senior, and june (English – junior) are generally accepted terms that indicate the experience of an IT specialist. June is an employee who has barely joined the IT field, for example, yesterday's graduate of a specialized university, who has almost no knowledge and work experience. Middle is the next level. He has significantly more knowledge and experience, as well as a patch, but in all these points he lags behind the seigneur.
As reported by CNews, by the end of autumn 2023, 40% of all Russian IT specialists worked remotely. And 40% of them are ready to immediately write a letter of resignation in response to the employer's request to return to the office.
The size of the salary offered by the employer, oddly enough, did not even enter the top five in terms of relevance. It concerns only about a third (33.3%) of experienced IT workers, and this is the seventh place in the rating.
The survey was conducted in March 2024 and involved more than 300 high-level IT professionals aged 25 and over, working in the country's largest IT companies. Among them are employees of HRLink companies (engaged in digitalization of business processes, in particular, personnel document management), "Cargo Transportation Exchanges ATI.SU", software integrator MONT, software developer and integrator Corpsoft24, developer of data storage and visualization systems "Aerodisk", etc.
No one needs outdated companies
If the ability to work from home, a cafe, another city or country is the most common requirement of middle and senior managers, then in second place is the presence of an up-to-date technology stack, especially software. 70% of the surveyed IT professionals have no desire to work with outdated software. Completing the top 3 criteria for choosing a new job is the opportunity to develop in the profession – 63% of respondents want to learn something new and accumulate knowledge and skills.
The fourth place goes to the product created by the employer. This is an important criterion for choosing a job for 62% of respondents. Completing the top five most popular responses is choosing a job based on reviews from friends — this is what more than 46% of respondents do.
Among the less significant criteria was the presence of VMI – 44% and the sixth place. And only then comes the size of the salary (33.3%). This is followed by the presence of a well-equipped office (25% – those who do not need remote access), the brand awareness of the IT company (24%), the age of colleagues (16%), the first places of the employer in industry ratings (12%), as well as the mention of the company in business and industry media (4%).
"Several new trends have emerged in the IT labor market in recent years. So, the concept of "Employer-as-a-Service" appeared, in which the brand's strength loses its significance, and the idea of "I get paid here and now for a certain job"prevails among employees. At the same time, IT companies have leveled off on the main parameters, such as working conditions, salary, medical insurance, office conditions and training," iTrend managing Partner Asya Vlasova told CNews.
No one asks the Junes
Novice specialists, so-called "juns", did not participate in the iTrend survey. Over the past two years, the Russian IT industry has developed a very specific attitude of employers towards them – back in August 2022, CNews wrote that they are hired with great reluctance.
In modern Russia, IT juniors are most often graduates of online schools – this is often the fastest way to become part of the IT industry, since training in some professions lasts only a couple of months. However, as reported by CNews, employers are very skeptical about applicants who do not have a specialized higher education and provide not a university diploma, but an online school graduate certificate.
Meanwhile, there are not enough middle and senior managers in the Russian IT industry. CNews wrote that Russian employers often spend up to six months searching for IT personnel with work experience. Some companies are willing to hire specialists without specialized education, as long as they have the necessary knowledge and skills. And often the salary offer becomes a trump card – companies that are willing to pay good money for the work of an experienced IT employee close vacancies three times faster.
"In conditions of affluence and even an excess of specialists at the junior level (juna-approx. CNews), middle and senior level specialists have plenty to choose from. Such specialists receive up to 10 working offers per day. This forces businesses to compete fiercely for finding and retaining experienced employees, as well as change their approach to building an HR brand, look for media platforms that have authority among experienced IT professionals, and generally pay more attention to communications," Asya Vlasova told CNews.
Employers opinion
As practice shows, not only IT specialists working in the relevant organization put remote work at the forefront. A similar situation has developed, for example, in retail.
"Like many companies, we were faced with the fact that during the pandemic, many employees of the head office, including IT, effectively worked remotely from different regions of Russia," representatives of the M Group told CNews.Video-El Dorado". – Now we continue to search for and recruit IT employees from all over the country, relying primarily on the competence of specialists. We are interested in high-potential employees from all regions of Russia who are ready to develop, learn, and take on responsible roles and tasks. Currently in our company " M.Tech – an IT solutions developer and digital partner of the M Group.Video-Eldorado " – we build a hybrid work schedule, which on the one hand meets the company's business objectives, and at the same time gives flexibility to the schedule for employees. In other words, we are fully building a hybrid schedule, understanding that this is important for IT specialists."
"Of course, for many specialists, the ability to work remotely is an advantage. However, we cannot say that this is relevant for all employees – "Fyodor Chernov, head of the development department of the corporate messenger Compass, told CNews. – Some specialists, after the experience of being forced to work remotely during a covid lockdown, on the contrary, refuse to work remotely in favor of the office. This helps you focus on your work and separate your personal and work experience. As for our company, we are considering both remote and office work formats. But if the employee is located in the city where the company operates, we are in favor of the specialist working in the office. Offices in this case are the cores around which remote employees unite."
"In the last couple of years, large IT employers have leveled off in terms of salaries, so this criterion is no longer as important as it used to be," Ekaterina Sarantseva, Development Director of the iTrend communication agency, told CNews. – In addition, senior-level specialists think in the format of hackathons – they are used to keeping track of time, calculating the cost of an hour, and evaluating the amount of benefits brought to the company during this hour. In this approach, they prefer to focus their working time on product development and not spend it on lower-priority tasks that do not bring tangible results - for example, on the road."
Salary doesn't solve anything
Domestic IT workers have dramatically changed their priorities when looking for a job and choosing an employer. As analysts of the iTrend communication agency told CNews, IT specialists do not put salary at all at the forefront, despite the rapid price growth and official annual inflation of more than 7% (Rosstat data).
The main factor for Russian IT personnel, at least for middle and senior managers, is the presence of remote work in the list of employer offers. The ability to work without appearing in the office at all is important for 75% of experienced IT professionals, and this is the first place among the requirements.
Middle, senior, and june (English – junior) are generally accepted terms that indicate the experience of an IT specialist. June is an employee who has barely joined the IT field, for example, yesterday's graduate of a specialized university, who has almost no knowledge and work experience. Middle is the next level. He has significantly more knowledge and experience, as well as a patch, but in all these points he lags behind the seigneur.
As reported by CNews, by the end of autumn 2023, 40% of all Russian IT specialists worked remotely. And 40% of them are ready to immediately write a letter of resignation in response to the employer's request to return to the office.
The size of the salary offered by the employer, oddly enough, did not even enter the top five in terms of relevance. It concerns only about a third (33.3%) of experienced IT workers, and this is the seventh place in the rating.
The survey was conducted in March 2024 and involved more than 300 high-level IT professionals aged 25 and over, working in the country's largest IT companies. Among them are employees of HRLink companies (engaged in digitalization of business processes, in particular, personnel document management), "Cargo Transportation Exchanges ATI.SU", software integrator MONT, software developer and integrator Corpsoft24, developer of data storage and visualization systems "Aerodisk", etc.
No one needs outdated companies
If the ability to work from home, a cafe, another city or country is the most common requirement of middle and senior managers, then in second place is the presence of an up-to-date technology stack, especially software. 70% of the surveyed IT professionals have no desire to work with outdated software. Completing the top 3 criteria for choosing a new job is the opportunity to develop in the profession – 63% of respondents want to learn something new and accumulate knowledge and skills.
The fourth place goes to the product created by the employer. This is an important criterion for choosing a job for 62% of respondents. Completing the top five most popular responses is choosing a job based on reviews from friends — this is what more than 46% of respondents do.
Among the less significant criteria was the presence of VMI – 44% and the sixth place. And only then comes the size of the salary (33.3%). This is followed by the presence of a well-equipped office (25% – those who do not need remote access), the brand awareness of the IT company (24%), the age of colleagues (16%), the first places of the employer in industry ratings (12%), as well as the mention of the company in business and industry media (4%).
"Several new trends have emerged in the IT labor market in recent years. So, the concept of "Employer-as-a-Service" appeared, in which the brand's strength loses its significance, and the idea of "I get paid here and now for a certain job"prevails among employees. At the same time, IT companies have leveled off on the main parameters, such as working conditions, salary, medical insurance, office conditions and training," iTrend managing Partner Asya Vlasova told CNews.
No one asks the Junes
Novice specialists, so-called "juns", did not participate in the iTrend survey. Over the past two years, the Russian IT industry has developed a very specific attitude of employers towards them – back in August 2022, CNews wrote that they are hired with great reluctance.
In modern Russia, IT juniors are most often graduates of online schools – this is often the fastest way to become part of the IT industry, since training in some professions lasts only a couple of months. However, as reported by CNews, employers are very skeptical about applicants who do not have a specialized higher education and provide not a university diploma, but an online school graduate certificate.
Meanwhile, there are not enough middle and senior managers in the Russian IT industry. CNews wrote that Russian employers often spend up to six months searching for IT personnel with work experience. Some companies are willing to hire specialists without specialized education, as long as they have the necessary knowledge and skills. And often the salary offer becomes a trump card – companies that are willing to pay good money for the work of an experienced IT employee close vacancies three times faster.
"In conditions of affluence and even an excess of specialists at the junior level (juna-approx. CNews), middle and senior level specialists have plenty to choose from. Such specialists receive up to 10 working offers per day. This forces businesses to compete fiercely for finding and retaining experienced employees, as well as change their approach to building an HR brand, look for media platforms that have authority among experienced IT professionals, and generally pay more attention to communications," Asya Vlasova told CNews.
Employers opinion
As practice shows, not only IT specialists working in the relevant organization put remote work at the forefront. A similar situation has developed, for example, in retail.
"Like many companies, we were faced with the fact that during the pandemic, many employees of the head office, including IT, effectively worked remotely from different regions of Russia," representatives of the M Group told CNews.Video-El Dorado". – Now we continue to search for and recruit IT employees from all over the country, relying primarily on the competence of specialists. We are interested in high-potential employees from all regions of Russia who are ready to develop, learn, and take on responsible roles and tasks. Currently in our company " M.Tech – an IT solutions developer and digital partner of the M Group.Video-Eldorado " – we build a hybrid work schedule, which on the one hand meets the company's business objectives, and at the same time gives flexibility to the schedule for employees. In other words, we are fully building a hybrid schedule, understanding that this is important for IT specialists."
"Of course, for many specialists, the ability to work remotely is an advantage. However, we cannot say that this is relevant for all employees – "Fyodor Chernov, head of the development department of the corporate messenger Compass, told CNews. – Some specialists, after the experience of being forced to work remotely during a covid lockdown, on the contrary, refuse to work remotely in favor of the office. This helps you focus on your work and separate your personal and work experience. As for our company, we are considering both remote and office work formats. But if the employee is located in the city where the company operates, we are in favor of the specialist working in the office. Offices in this case are the cores around which remote employees unite."
"In the last couple of years, large IT employers have leveled off in terms of salaries, so this criterion is no longer as important as it used to be," Ekaterina Sarantseva, Development Director of the iTrend communication agency, told CNews. – In addition, senior-level specialists think in the format of hackathons – they are used to keeping track of time, calculating the cost of an hour, and evaluating the amount of benefits brought to the company during this hour. In this approach, they prefer to focus their working time on product development and not spend it on lower-priority tasks that do not bring tangible results - for example, on the road."
