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Staffing in Ukraine in times of war: myths and reality

Updated: Nov 8, 2022

When it comes to the best IT specialists, the whole world knows that Ukraine is

one of the top outsourcing destinations. Apple, Adobe, Google and many other

giant tech corporations are eager to work with Ukrainian tech talents because 80% of them are fluent in English, have a high level of IT, and are hardworking. It is

also a thing that many world-famous tech products were built in Ukraine, such as

Grammarly, V-touch, Petcube, Peoole.ai, and Looksery. As for the latter, the

startup was bought by the Snapchat company back in 2015 for a whopping $150

million.



Ukrainian bright IT talents are the ones who use cutting-edge technologies to share their unique ideas with the entire world. Large international projects and world- known companies have always shown great interest in employees from Ukraine, but with the Russian invasion, the recruitment of Ukrainian programmers has changed dramatically. Around 80% of the IT specialists that lived in Ukraine were forced to relocate to the western territories of the country or flee to other countries or even continents. For this and other reasons, many myths have been built that complicate the hiring process. However, these myths are far from reality.





Myth #1: The war has stopped the work of many Ukrainian companies. Reality:

Most companies started to work even harder. Of course, some companies decided

to put on hold their working process or partly stopped their contracts with some IT specialists. Some companies informed their IT departments that they stop

employment or shortened up to 30% of their IT specialists. But as for many other

companies, they keep on going strong and even boost their workforce. For

example, the IT department of Monobank has accelerated its IT efforts and not

only created a new design and is about to remove the Russian language from its

interface, but also created a way to support the citizens of Ukraine and the military with donations from all over the world.


Myth #2: Ukraine experiences troubles with the internet connection. Reality: There

are some problems with the Internet in cities that are occupied by Russians or

where hostilities are taking place but there are only a few of them. Most people

who were forced to relocate, normally have a good internet connection to work.

Moreover, in late March, Elon Musk sent Ukraine thousands of Starlink satellite

internet kits. Indeed, it changed the war on the ground but it is not just about

military communication. Many people have a chance to stay in contact with their

loved ones and work from any spot in Ukraine.





Myth #3: Many Ukrainians left the country, so their working teams are facing

difficulties now. Reality: Indeed, many people left Ukraine but they keep on

working hard. It is true that many Ukrainians were forced to leave Ukraine but it

didn’t change anything for those who work online. Of course, a few weeks after

the relocation it wasn’t easy to adapt to the situation but Ukrainians are very

hardworking, responsible, and flexible so they managed to deal with the shock

quickly. Many Ukrainians who moved to other countries admitted that although it

was not easy in the early days, the situation did not greatly affect their

productivity.





Myth #4: Ukrainians who left the country raised prices. Reality: Most of the prices

remain the same. As many may have noticed, every day everything becomes more expensive. From gas prices to food – it rises dramatically in almost every country in the world. The war in Ukraine, inflation, post-COVID consequences, all these things make life more expensive in different aspects. That is why, many people who work as freelancers or apply for new projects might have raised prices

because it is needed to do so. However, the trend among Ukrainian IT

professionals is to keep the same prices. Of course, they may increase prices on

some projects but it always depends on the workload, the task, and what’s going on in general in the world.





Myth #5: Ukrainian IT companies have problems managing remote teams that are

now scattered around the world. Reality: Remote work has become the new normal for most Ukrainian IT companies since COVID times. Working from home, café, workshop, and only sometimes visiting the office has never been a problem for Ukrainian IT professionals. Long before the pandemic, many IT companies

practiced remote work, and this was considered successful. COVID only

accelerated the hybrid work model or a complete remote model and when the war started, this did not pose any difficulties for specialists who were already used to working remotely.

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