Russian Software Specialists Prefer to Stay in Homeland
Ten years ago, most Russian programmers were anxious to emigrate abroad for better pay and living standards. But now many more Russian programmers are interested in remaining in Russia to work and live.
Sep 30, 2000
According to a report from the McKinsey Global Institute, Russia's offshore programming sector (involving programming specialists in Russia who design software under contract with foreign companies) is growing at a rate of 50 to 60 percent per year. And, although this growth concerns what is, for now, a very small base, the authors of the report say that this industry should be able to obtain the requisite track record and international certification to become a greater force within the world offshore programming market.
Ten years ago, most Russian programmers were anxious to emigrate abroad for better pay and living standards. But now, despite the high demand for programmers in Europe and the United States, many more Russian programmers are interested in remaining in Russia to work and live.
"Those programmers, my friends, who wanted to live in the United States have achieved these goals - they live and work there," said Vladimir Shmakov, supervisor of the Petersburg branch of secretmaker ag, a company which develops Internet security software. "America was where we could find absolutely everything we needed to be successful in life and in work."
"However, after living in the United States for half a year, it was difficult for me to adjust to the differences in the culture there," Shma kov added. "I felt bored, and missed my friends and family. That's why I decided not to extend my contract there."
"Russians feel a strong link to their national ideas and traditions," Vitaly Me leshko, a programmer at secretmaker ag, said. "For Russians, more so than for people from other cultures, these considerations are often decisive."
According to the McKinsey Institute report, the demand for foreign Internet technologies specialists in the United States is 850,000 people. Germany recently increased its quotas to admit 30,000 IT specialists per year (the annual shortage is estimated at 55,000 specialists), and France is experiencing an annual skills gap of 13,000 IT graduates and technicians.
"It's much cheaper and quicker [with the same high level of quality] to outsource software development to offshore suppliers where highly skilled resources are abundant," the report says. "IBM, General Electric, Boeing, Motorola, Intel SAP and Microsoft have already outscored software development to Russia, and profit from its intellectual capacity."
Secretmaker ag, whose head office is based in Switzerland, opened a branch in St. Petersburg about a month ago. According to Roland Stach, general director of secretmaker ag's St. Petersburg branch, the company will employ Russian specialists, but sell their products on the European market.
"We can't find this number of programmers in Germany, we just lack the human resources," he said. "Four years ago, the German government even closed a few universities, arguing that there wasn't enough money to keep them open. This has further contributed to the gap."
At the same time, foreign companies have deemed it productive to become involved in further developing technical education in Russia. For instance, the Russian branch of electronics manufacturer Motorola confirmed that the company already runs a number of education projects in cooperation with higher education institutions in St. Petersburg, Moscow and a number of other Russian cities.
The company gives courses in hi-tech programming and Internet technologies at different schools. The programs serve as a kind of employment pipeline for the company, as certain students are offered the opportunity to gain practical experience with the firm and, ultimately, gain permanent employment.
Stach says that even though Germany has upped the quota of programmers allowed into the country, immigration laws are not the greatest factor at play.
"The problem is that the people don't always want to come. They don't want to go too far from their families and enter a different culture," he said. "In Russia there are a lot of universities producing software developers, and there aren't so many foreign companies, so we can easily find talented staff."
According to representatives of a number of Moscow companies, sales to foreign markets are much stronger than at home in Russia.
"We started as the developers of optical character recognition [or OCR] computer programs. Today 70 percent of our sales are in Europe and the United States, while two-thirds of the remaining part is for corporate-sector clients, such as banks and large companies," Sergei Andreyev, general director of ABBYY program developers, told Vedmosti.
"We tried to earn money producing computer dictionaries for the broader market, but discovered that the only one way to sell them is if the price of the product is as low as that of a pirated copy."
And Dmitry Ivanov, an investigator with the St. Petersburg police's special "R" detachment, which investigates crimes in the high-tech sphere, sees another sign pointing to the growth in the number of talented programmers and their abilities.
"Software development in Russia is troubled by computer pirates and low profits from the sale of licensed products," Ivanov, said. "At the same time, the number of expert hackers shows that the large number of good technical institutes here has created an abundance of well-trained programmers."
Ten years ago, most Russian programmers were anxious to emigrate abroad for better pay and living standards. But now, despite the high demand for programmers in Europe and the United States, many more Russian programmers are interested in remaining in Russia to work and live.
"Those programmers, my friends, who wanted to live in the United States have achieved these goals - they live and work there," said Vladimir Shmakov, supervisor of the Petersburg branch of secretmaker ag, a company which develops Internet security software. "America was where we could find absolutely everything we needed to be successful in life and in work."
"However, after living in the United States for half a year, it was difficult for me to adjust to the differences in the culture there," Shma kov added. "I felt bored, and missed my friends and family. That's why I decided not to extend my contract there."
"Russians feel a strong link to their national ideas and traditions," Vitaly Me leshko, a programmer at secretmaker ag, said. "For Russians, more so than for people from other cultures, these considerations are often decisive."
According to the McKinsey Institute report, the demand for foreign Internet technologies specialists in the United States is 850,000 people. Germany recently increased its quotas to admit 30,000 IT specialists per year (the annual shortage is estimated at 55,000 specialists), and France is experiencing an annual skills gap of 13,000 IT graduates and technicians.
"It's much cheaper and quicker [with the same high level of quality] to outsource software development to offshore suppliers where highly skilled resources are abundant," the report says. "IBM, General Electric, Boeing, Motorola, Intel SAP and Microsoft have already outscored software development to Russia, and profit from its intellectual capacity."
Secretmaker ag, whose head office is based in Switzerland, opened a branch in St. Petersburg about a month ago. According to Roland Stach, general director of secretmaker ag's St. Petersburg branch, the company will employ Russian specialists, but sell their products on the European market.
"We can't find this number of programmers in Germany, we just lack the human resources," he said. "Four years ago, the German government even closed a few universities, arguing that there wasn't enough money to keep them open. This has further contributed to the gap."
At the same time, foreign companies have deemed it productive to become involved in further developing technical education in Russia. For instance, the Russian branch of electronics manufacturer Motorola confirmed that the company already runs a number of education projects in cooperation with higher education institutions in St. Petersburg, Moscow and a number of other Russian cities.
The company gives courses in hi-tech programming and Internet technologies at different schools. The programs serve as a kind of employment pipeline for the company, as certain students are offered the opportunity to gain practical experience with the firm and, ultimately, gain permanent employment.
Stach says that even though Germany has upped the quota of programmers allowed into the country, immigration laws are not the greatest factor at play.
"The problem is that the people don't always want to come. They don't want to go too far from their families and enter a different culture," he said. "In Russia there are a lot of universities producing software developers, and there aren't so many foreign companies, so we can easily find talented staff."
According to representatives of a number of Moscow companies, sales to foreign markets are much stronger than at home in Russia.
"We started as the developers of optical character recognition [or OCR] computer programs. Today 70 percent of our sales are in Europe and the United States, while two-thirds of the remaining part is for corporate-sector clients, such as banks and large companies," Sergei Andreyev, general director of ABBYY program developers, told Vedmosti.
"We tried to earn money producing computer dictionaries for the broader market, but discovered that the only one way to sell them is if the price of the product is as low as that of a pirated copy."
And Dmitry Ivanov, an investigator with the St. Petersburg police's special "R" detachment, which investigates crimes in the high-tech sphere, sees another sign pointing to the growth in the number of talented programmers and their abilities.
"Software development in Russia is troubled by computer pirates and low profits from the sale of licensed products," Ivanov, said. "At the same time, the number of expert hackers shows that the large number of good technical institutes here has created an abundance of well-trained programmers."