We have asked Sergei about life as a programmer in Ukraine, in general, and also he shared with us what is his job like, and how it is to work for a Japanese company.
Hi, I am Sergei, a software engineer based in Ukraine. I hold a degree in applied mathematics and during my career gained experience a web developer, software architect, team lead. Regarding programming languages and technologies I am fairly familiar with PHP, Java, C++, JavaScript and MySQL.
While working as a freelancer, I had the chance to work with clients from all around the world.
When looking at salaries of IT engineers, I would say that you can definitely earn better — if not much better — than the average level, without having to be a top manager or setting up your own company.
For example, if we look at the official statistics of Ukraine, where the average salary is around 450 USD, in IT you can earn 1000 USD or depending on the field and experience, even up to 5000 USD a month.
A programmer often has to solve complicated problems, therefore, for non-IT professionals, programmers are seen as magician, almost. Also, in the case of Ukraine, many IT specialists work for foreign companies, unlike people working in other fields. Thanks to these, programmers are highly respected here.
When looking at programming languages, in web development, the most popular server-side technologies are PHP, Python and Node.js. I would say that for large-scale, enterprise-level software still Java is the widely-used.
Regarding mobile app development, I don’t have experience in iOS apps but as for Android, Java is the language you need.
Among C++ and C#, sometimes Java is also used in desktop app development.
Now, I work for a large Japanese recruiting company. One part of my job is to provide support, bug-fixing and also develop new features into existing web-based systems.
The other part is carrying out the development of completely new web-based systems. It starts by analyzing and discussing the requirements, then set up the system architecture. This is followed by choosing the tools, frameworks, services we want to utilize.
And after all this, I can start building the system according to specification. I quite enjoy the challenges that I can work with technologies that are new to me.
All in all, I enjoy living in Ukraine, not only because of its mild climate and the closeness of the sea but also it is very easy to travel to other countries in Europe. More and more IT startups are founded, while Ukraine is becoming a popular destination for foreign companies as well, which will bring new opportunities for Ukrainian IT engineers.
WIJ Team
