Irina Likhnitskaya, the Head of IT Technical Department at Antal Russia
Anastasiya Kishkurno, Principal Consultant of IT Technical Department at Antal Russia
Read in Russian. The change in the economical environment has influenced the IT strategies of both Russian and international companies. Companies are banking on the short term and inexpensive IT projects or support of the current IT infrastructure, which are actual for the business even in the time when the company is cutting costs. The core IT specialists such as system administrators, engineers responsible for the support of different systems, and network engineers still feel stability on the market.
The labour market has changed from a candidate driven to an employer driven one. As a result, it has caused IT specialists who lost their jobs to become more flexible in negotiations with potential employers, including the discussion of compensation packages. If last year the experienced specialist or manager could move jobs with a 20-30% salary increase, now many candidates must be prepared to get 5-10% more or even stay on the same income level. In addition, IT professionals are now considering changing their specialization (within the IT discipline) from roles that are most interesting to them to those that are in greatest demand in the current market – a rare occurrence when the market was growing.
In contrast to the beginning of 2009 when the demand for IT managers was almost equal to zero and candidates lined up to fill the vacant positions, the situation has now changed for the better. Many companies which froze the integration or modernization of new and expensive business-critical IT systems at the beginning of the year, are now ready to spend some budget on it. As a result, the number of IT vacancies on the market is growing. There are still unemployed IT professionals out there, but they are not ready to take the first offer any more, as was the case several months ago. Instead they are carefully weighing up all the benefits and potential risks of coming on board a company.
Candidates, facing the tough reality of the market, are not ready to risk any more – they are looking for the “quiet harbour” striving to join a stable and honest employer with clear business processes and fixed internal procedures and policies. The stability of the company is becoming one of the most important criteria when choosing a new employer. Usually candidates see this stability in the Russian operations of international companies.
Some companies are trying to replace the IT managers and specialists that were hired when there was a shortage of talent in the market with more experienced and qualified ones, which they are trying to attract without particularly competitive salaries. This is not an easy task: managers within stable companies regard such offers reluctantly, and it is becoming more complicated to hunt highly professional IT staff.
If the visible positive trends in the IT recruitment market continue, recruiters expect that the recovery of the real sector will be followed by the recovery of the IT vendors and system integrators. Firstly, the recruitment activity should grow in companies providing IT solutions critical for business and then in IT companies selling infrastructural solutions.
