Candidate-driven market and challenges in the IT industry

You went through a patchwork of media headlines that have been following the IT industry in Serbia for years. Accelerated development which seemingly has no end, above-average salaries and staff that, no matter how skilled, are not sufficient in numbers to cover the existing needs for digital solutions are evident.

Circumstance by circumstance, the IT sector has become probably the most preferable carrier. However, the conditions of this attractive industry are not dictated by employers, but by candidates.

Why is that so?

Simply put, digitalization is everywhere, you need to create a website, develop a sales platform, educate yourself online, book a vacation, book cinema tickets, etc. There are many needs, as well as IT companies (domestic and foreign), and there are few developers. If we add well-known economic principle of supply and demand, it becomes clear why the IT industry is candidate-driven.

In such a market, salaries are important, but the experience of HR professionals shows that they are not the most important factor. We should add interesting projects, cutting-edge technologies, a good team, a pleasant environment, opportunities for progress and work-life balance. Only then, the offered position becomes what the candidate wants and looks for.

The developer’s approach does not depend on age, experience, or ambition, but stems from the awareness that they have the opportunity to choose from a number of quality job offers. The opportunity that, we can agree, is not the rule in other professions (but that is another topic). Hence employer branding as a trend IT industry imposes on other sectors. Hence the stories of the new rules set by millennials. Hence the focus on the value of IT staff and the IT market in general.

Let's go back to the beginning of the text and the title "Serbian IT market: Growth that (does not) slows down". The dilemma of the reach of IT industry is almost as old as public attention to the IT industry. Now let's actualize the question and put the title in the context of the new coronavirus situation - when we are all trying to rationalize what will happen in a month, by the end of the year, next year, etc.

Currently, statistics show that the domestic IT scene has not felt great repercussions of the coronavirus. In particular, we at enjoy.ing hired more people in the second than in the first quarter of 2020. There are projects, and the need for staff has not decreased.

And what will happen in the next period? Will COVID-19 strike a new balance?

The coronavirus will hardly bring anything good (except maybe more time we spent with our families). What will certainly change is the definition of the need for business premises - they must now "control" human contact and ensure various disinfection options.

In economic terms, changes are likely to be greater, but they are difficult to predict with certainty at this moment. Some industries will certainly suffer huge consequences in the years to come, and the IT sector is not an island for itself.

We are already aware that changes in the IT market will depend on changes in the industries we collaborate with. Today, we already know that we have the advantage that our colleagues can work smoothly from home and that the use of digital platforms will not disappear, but will change. Already today, we notice that the use of e-shopping is growing, while telco is becoming a word increasingly common in everyday use, and the need for network infrastructure, privacy and security on the Internet is increasing.

According to the latest Reuters report, the IT market was listed as the leading industry in innovation with 30 percent of the total number of patents filed. Such an innovative sector has not much to worry about. It will surely manage to adapt to the period of new normal. At the moment, with the coming soon prefix, the only question is the form in which this adaptation will take place.