Looking for IT specialists with “itchy feet”? Go to Bulgaria! A recent poll among young Bulgarian ITs aged 23-29 showed every other specialist is “willing to consider working abroad for a certain period”. Recent EU accession of Bulgaria (2007) and liberalisation of labour market for Bulgarian employees are but a few of the factors leading to this shift in attitude.

Some 50% of Bulgaria’s young IT specialists are willing to go international.

Most of the global leaders in IT have strong

operations in Bulgaria

Due to the easy and abundant access to qualified employees in IT, Bulgaria has been a preferred outsourcing destination for the IT industry for a decade now.

Excellent performance of the local branches justified expansion and the transfer of growingly important business to Bulgaria.HP (2000 people), CSC (600 people), SAP Labs (500 people), vmware (300 people) etc. have all expanded their operations in recent years, providing local IT professionals with more know-how, more training opportuni-ties and more corporate culture touch points.

With greater exposure to international projects, Bulgarian IT experts expand not only their portfolios, but also their horizons and mentality, making them more fit for assignments and employment abroad.

Bulgaria boasts tradition-ally strong performance and gold medalists from the International Informatics Olympiads High-school education in Informatics is

considered to be quite elite and is much sought after by teenagers. The Bulgarian school of Informatics has very strong traditions and boasts a long line of prizes and medals from the Informatics Olympiads and other international test of competence and proficiency in computer science.

Bulgaria is also one of the founders of the Informatics Olympiad initiative and the only country to have hosted twice the games for teenage IT talents - the first games in history, back in 1989, as well as the 21-st edition, in 2009.

Hackers? No: future creative IT specialists

Bulgaria tops every possible Internet piracy list in the world, which, of course, is a very bad thing. However, there’s one positive side to it - Bulgarian teenagers learn from their early teens not to take ‘no’ for an answer. In other words, impossible is nothing, indeed. Luckily, once they go to university and get a more mature view of life, IT geeks put their hacker history behind. But the creative usage of digital tech-nology and the path-finding attitude has by then instilled in their genes. Many of the most successful IT entrepreneurs in Bulgaria confess having hacking experience in their younger years. You say “Damn hackers!”. We say “Give them some time...” :-)

ICT expenditure in Bulgaria is with 30% higher than the average for middle-income European countries

ICT has been a top-3 priority for the last three governments of Bulgaria (all from different political parties, by the way). So, ICT is not probably the only consensus point, but also one that surely goes forward and pays off.A recent World Bank global report* shows ICT expenditure in Bulgaria rising to 6.5% of GDP. This ratio is 1/3 greater than the average spending rates for all middle-income countries in Europe, higher than that of the Euro area (5.2%) and equal to that of IT “miracles” as Finland (6.5%).

*The Little Databook on Information and Communication Technology 2010

Sofia is one of the top 10 cities in the world by broadband Internet access

Being well-wired is a key prerequisite for IT development. Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, boasts one of the best broad-band Internet connections in the world, giving both upstart IT specialists and well-established businesses the vital advantage of high-speed, high-quality connectivity.

IT science traditions in Bulgaria date back to the 1960-ies.

During the communist regime Bulgaria was the only country in the Soviet block that developed micro-electronics at consumer level. Bulgarian-made PCs have been developed and produced since the early 80-ies of the 20th century, under the brand of Pravets.

This gave Bulgarian hardware and software industry its first major boost, taking the know-how and experience of local specialists to world-class level.

57% more Bulgarian students enrolled in computer science majors in 2009, as compared to 2001

Different technology majors (incl. Information Technology and Electronics) are the second most favoured field of study for Bulgar-ian university students. More than 1/4 of all Bulgarian students graduate as engineers.

This number beats humanitarian & liberal arts majors by more than 2 times. Technology majors are also the top choice for post-graduate studies (16% of all Ph.D. students).

MiNDS People & Solutions03/2011

MiNDS People & Solutions47A Sitnyakovo Blvd., Level 51505 Sofia

T/F: +359 2 484 0351minds@mindspeople.com

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