Many entrepreneurs face serious difficulties when searching for people to develop their software in capital. The market is growing rapidly and there is a lack of specialists, who are mostly aware of the prices they can command, even though they are not always quite sufficient. However, finding a specialist is only half the trouble. On employing an excellent specialist there arises the new and no less difficult task of keeping him on at least until he has finished the product development and, as strange as it may sound, simply making him work.
Why does this happen? Is it really true that the only chance of finishing a development project lies in paying fabulous salaries and complying with all kinds of fastidious requirements? Probably not.
Having read this article, you will learn:
- Which factors shape the labour market in capital cities
- How a person's place of residence affects his mentality, his efficiency and attitude to work
- About the motivation of some types of workers
- How to fill programmer vacancies in an original way
Peculiarities of capital labour market
| High salaries | The average salary in Moscow is 1.5–2 times higher than in other large cities in Russia. This is why everybody is heading for the capital in search of a better income. People come to Moscow to earn, not to work. Many projects in the capital fail simply because of the costliness of local development. | ||
| Many employers | There are a lot of employers and vacancies, dimming the enthusiasm of the workforce. This also applies to programmers. When another large high-tech company opens an office in London it starts to aggressively hire programmers away from rivals, their only lure to win them over being an exaggerated salary. This is why software development costs a lot in London. | ||
| Wage slaves | A high salary becomes an irresistible offer for some programmers who don't care much about the result of their work. Such people are primarily interested in the wages that the new employer can promise them, and not in the experience and responsibility. In the West, personnel with such priorities are known as “wage slaves”, and the name speaks for itself. In state capitals, many people live by a here-and-now, profit-driven mindset and are constantly in search of a better paid job. The fulfillment of obligations loses its priority. Of course, not all workers are like this, but the trend is quite obvious. If there is one important question about job-hoppers, it is their professional aptitude. Working less than a year in one place and never finishing projects, they can't obtain enough serious work experience, since the development of a serious software product can take several years. A new employer should understand that floating programmers have far less experience in development than workers who are used to working issues through to the end. | ||
| Many distracting factors | It is difficult to concentrate on one's job in a metropolis where one has to think about an upcoming party or other amusements of which the capital is full to the brim. There are fewer distracting factors in province, which is why teams are generally better able to concentrate on projects outside the capital. |
Who is rocking the boat?
A significant contribution to this floating of specialists is made by recruitment agencies: their profit depends on employee turnover. That is why they provide the media with widespread coverage concerning the necessity of frequent job changes, thus solidifying this myth in the minds of the population. In Russian regions it is still considered normal to work in one company for two to five years. In Moscow it is already anomalous.
A year isn't even enough for a serious software product to be developed. What software development experience could one obtain in that time? Staff turnover is a grave drawback of the capital's labour market.
Should business be compass orientated?
In the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson wrote about what distinguished the people of the North from the people of the South. He characterised northerners as sober, laborious, cool-headed and persevering people. Southerners he considered to be voluptuous, fiery, unsteady and indolent. The conclusions of Jefferson's discussion referred, of course, to America and the peculiarities of its economic development. The truth, however, is that whatever country sociologists choose for analysis there is always a notable difference in the mentality of northerners and southerners. The fact that climate has a serious impact on a person's character has been discussed by many scholars. Character in its turn has a direct influence on productivity and efficiency.
Which character traits are often found in southerners? An inability to overcome difficulties, a quick temper, and a lack of restraint. If something fails, the southerner isn't able to get over his negative emotions. Not everybody is like this, of course.
Northerners are different. The cold climate makes them more persevering, stable and even austere. A northerner will not fall into hysterics if something doesn't work out immediately. He buckles up and says: “I'm going to do it until I succeed!”
If you compare Muscovites and, for instance, Siberians, the latter are more purposeful and responsible. They demonstrate a better readiness to accomplish. If a Siberian has made a decision, the harsh winter weather is conducive to those decisions being stuck to. In a warm climate a person is eager to leave the office sooner.
Attitude of programmers to conflict
There are a lot of technical arguments and sometimes even tense situations during the process of software development, and a programmer should be fair and unbiased in order to be able to analyse his mistakes and see the product through to its final stage.
Quite often, workers in the capital are hardly able to take any criticism and require a special approach when delivering it. Siberians, on the contrary, simply hear out the comments, make conclusions and continue their work.
Muscovites more often strike the “you don't value me” tone, and quit the job immediately when conflict emerges, or simply remain watching the clock at their workplace for months on end, doing non-work tasks at the office.
Work ethic
Siberian programmers and programmers from the capital have differing attitudes when it comes to adhering to an agreement. The former, having signed a contract which says that he is to program or at least attempt to do so, will be the first to come up and say: “I have read the documentation and I am ready to work”. For a Siberian an agreement is a confirmation of his responsibilities.
An employment agreement for a Muscovite is the grounds to demand wages. When signing a contract he understands that he doesn't have to work until he is compelled to.
How does one close the issue of searching for programmers?
When one needs software development in capital, and the disadvantages of the capital's labour market are obvious, one can hire the larger part of the workforce remotely and a small part locally. EDISON Software Development Centre has created a software product, Big Brother, enabling the setting up and management of remote offices.
This approach has undeniable advantages.
- The choice of qualified specialists significantly widens with the geography of the search
- The expenditures on workplace management and rental on premises decrease
- The cost of labour is in line with market demand
- A contractor can live in a different time zone and carry out an assigned task while the client is sleeping
2002–2024