Burnout was a “percolating issue” during the 2022 and 2023 research cycles and even way before. It was firmly in the background, fully acknowledged as a “problem to deal with”, but in the grand scheme of things it was fairly low on the list of issues to handle. 

So what’s changed during 2024? Why do more respondents mention burnout as one of the critical problems? 

Let’s look closer.

The State of Ukrainian Tech Segment Employee Burnout 2024  

Employee burnout is a kind of phantom menace in the tech industry worldwide. It is always there, everybody knows it is a problem. Companies deal with it, and yet it just rears its ugly head again and again gleefully throwing a wrench into whatever is going on. Nobody is safe.

The Ukrainian Tech Segment got it even worse. 

In addition to regular sources of employee burnout (i.e. poor work-life balance, overwork, concerns over employment stability, stress, toxic culture, etc), we have a war going on. 

Companies took it into account. But there are only so many ways you can deal with employee burnout when the biggest factor persists with no end in sight. 

Long story short:

• Companies got “used” to the fact that once in a while their employees burn out and take a break. As one of our interviewees morbidly put it – “a natural thing with specific procedures in place”. 
• But in our case, the source of stress feeding said burnout never goes away and slowly amps up more and more. 
• The result is more burnout for more team members at once. And companies need to manage these leaves of absence to keep the workflows functional. 

So what is going on?

Why does Ukrainian Tech Talent suffer from burnout?

Let’s break it down:

• Fear of losing job security – the biggest stress factor currently running rampant in Ukrainian tech. The current tech labor market is employer-driven which makes getting a good job offer much harder than before as there is a lot less hiring going on and companies can play the attrition game much better than tech talent in active job searches.
• Lack of job security spawns overwork – the good old reason for burnout.
• Then there is a lack of work-life balance. In the attempt to make ends meet – many try to overwork their way through the rough patches. Sometimes it means taking on more tasks. Sometimes tech talent works an extra job. It takes a toll regardless.
• Fear of death is another crucial factor. Unfortunately, the drone and missile attacks are still commonplace. Lack of sleep and constant disruptions during the day stuck in expecting the resolution can weigh down even the mentally strongest given enough time.
• Toxic work environment is a factor respondents talk a lot about but if it is an HR manager talking – that’s never about them. 
• Health issues – The current situation takes a toll on mental health which in turn can lead to physical issues too.

The crux of the problem

The anonymous project manager of a large outsourcing company described the challenge in the following terms: 

“When one member of the team takes a break – you shuffle things around and keep going. The other team members can be understanding and supportive of a downed colleague. At least to an extent.

But from late 2023 we started having 2-3 team members burning out and taking a break at the same time. In a 10-man dev unit – that’s a hit you can take and keep going. In a 5-man unit – that’s a problem.

You can allocate the workload with one team member’s absence. It is harder to do with 2-3 and now even 4 at once. 

There are fewer people on the bench these days. Hiring new developers is not a proper solution either. It takes time to find the right specialist and slide him in. Sometimes the replacement team member just doesn’t gel with the rest or is not as experienced in the domain and that’s an additional hassle. 

The biggest problem is that you can’t plan team member burnout. You expect it is going to happen, but that’s about it. 

Sometimes those who are burned out don’t come back for whatever reason. You have to deal with it. That annoys a lot of people and contributes to the team’s further burnout as the workload grows.” 

In contrast, here’s how things are going inside a small-scale startup company according to their People Partner:

“Our team is 15 people plus recurrent contractors. Compared to my previous experience with larger product and outsourcing companies, there is way less of a distance between an HR dep and the team so you get way more honest feedback but you also see the toll up close and it is deeply concerning.

On the one hand, you have the development team who work hard on the project. They want to keep their jobs and show their worth. They tend to overwork and it is way harder to keep an eye on since everybody’s working from their respective homes. So it is a whack-a-mole. They don’t want to quit unless it’s a money thing. Team leads are critical in determining who needs to take a break. It’s always case by case. 

On the other hand, there is a management team, executives specifically. Operating a startup in Ukraine during these times is complicated, to say the least. The investors have their concerns and demands regarding securing the project’s future up ahead. This comes with expectations that you need to meet or else. Not everyone is equipped to handle it but unlike the dev team who cycle in and out, when an executive burns out – they just quit and need to find another one ASAP.

One of the ways to deal with employee burnout is to act preemptively. That’s what the HR department usually does. But there is a catch.

What makes dealing with employee burnout challenging?

Talando’s 2023 and 2024 labor market surveys show a gradual shift of tech talent priorities and reasons to stay at a current job specifically.

Previously, the most popular options were “work-life balance”, “interesting or challenging project” and of course “salary”.

These days – “job security” tops the list across the board. It is easy to see why – the economy is failing, there are not as many viable job opportunities and there is a looming threat of mobilization. So tech talent try their damnedest to stick around.

According to an anonymous employee wellness manager of a B2B product company dealing with employee burnout became much harder because of that. 

“My job is to observe and talk with the team. Sometimes managers point out that something is going on with one of the developers and I take it from there. But most of the time I’m doing one-to-one short meetings and going through the checklist. Once a month and ready to go.

That’s all I needed back in 2020 or 2021 but these days, following the checklist is hit and miss and unfortunately it is becoming a miss more often than not.

The thing is – everybody’s messed up with constant sirens and turmoil. People are afraid of a lot of things. You can’t always tell whose state of “messed up” is more detrimental to the workflow. But you need to be proactive about that and that requires employees being honest about their state. And that’s where the problem lies.

Lots of people don’t want to acknowledge that they are burned out or need mental health support because they are afraid of losing a job. Plain and simple. 

Employment stability is a way bigger concern compared to personal safety or even mobilization reservations. Because of that, lots of people just try to push through to their detriment and make matters worse in the long run. 

They will say “I’m fine” and now it’s your job to make them acknowledge that they need to take a break and that it is just a break for a couple of days to get some rest and stop overworking.”

Is there a viable solution to fight burnout in Ukrainian Tech?

If you google “how to fight employee burnout” – you will probably get something like “preach work-life balance” “break the monotony” or “nurture positive culture” statements about nothing in particular. The Ukrainian context requires more efficient solutions than a bunch of generalizations.

Here’s what the anonymous mental health consultant says about that:

“The biggest stumbling block in developing effective burnout mitigation procedures is that there is no dedicated research within the context of tech companies. You don’t do it once or twice. You need a running operation to get data all the time. 

Everybody’s up to surveying people and asking them general things. You can figure out some things out of that and assume you understand what to do. But that’s only a part of the solution at best.

In contrast, it is very hard to study companies and the ways they deal with burnout. Even if you get some details regarding their workflows – that’s what is written on paper. Barely any company conducts a systemic assessment of their procedures – so there’s no data to study. You can’t draw a line between workload and turning the team toxic based on what you think is happening.

Theoretically, you can converge a semblance of a solution on a case-by-case foundation, but how many cases it would take to be even remotely representative of a segment-wide challenge?”

Former HR and career coach explains the challenge of mitigating burnout this way:

The big challenge in dealing with burnout in Ukrainian tech companies is twofold. 

First – lack of trained personnel. There are not that many HR managers with proper psychology training able to handle employee burnout beyond a simple “take a break” solution. 

Most companies can’t afford dedicated employee wellness managers whose job would’ve been to figure out a system to prevent burnout. Not to mention handling the costs of maintaining a mental health therapist full-time.   

In addition, there is very little to no employee training regarding burnout. Everybody knows burnout’s bad for you, but no one knows whether they are en route to burnout.

You can somewhat explain the basics as part of employee training, but it only can do so much. As a result, you have both HR and employees willfully ignorant of solutions to the problem.

Second – lack of management solutions to alleviate burnout costs. If you can’t prevent burnout – you need to deal with its immediate impact. 

Considering that Ukrainian tech managers tend to micromanage and lead but toxic example you can figure out why everyone pretends they have burnout under control.

Burnout mitigation does not mean solely distributing the workload between the remaining team members. A regular vacation schedule can be a relief. Covering mental health therapist costs is a solution too. 

But the core thing is culture – there must be a proper feedback loop between management and employees so that everyone’s on the same page. Whether this feedback includes concerns over burnout and mental health is a question of maturity of a specific organization”.

What’s next?

As you might’ve noticed – at this point there’s no workable solution to handle employee burnout in the Ukrainian tech. 

At least one critical burnout factor is not going away and no one can make it disappear. War won’t stop because it is bad for employees’ mental health. However, companies can take measures to better assess their culture and management practices to keep the issue within reasonable scope.

The post Burnout is becoming a way bigger problem than it seems first appeared on Talando - Market Research.

JavaScript is one of the top in-demand technologies in the Ukrainian Tech Segment, it is used everywhere where apps are and so the demand for qualified talent is ever present and thoroughly consistent. In the past, that meant job opportunities were always around the corner and you wouldn’t even need to squint to find one. These days it means you can always be replaced by someone willing to take less money.

This article breaks down what is going on with the Ukrainian JavaScript developer salaries during Q4 2024. Buckle up.

The State of Ukrainian JavaScript Developer Talent Pool

For better or for worse, JavaScript in its numerous variations and domains has always been one of the cornerstones of the Ukrainian Tech Segment. Ever since web apps became commonplace – the demand for JS went up and never really looked back.

As a result, JavaScript (and Java for that matter, but that’s a story for another time) has always been very popular among entry-level talent starting out their journey in tech, and over the years it led to a very even spread of qualification grades among the talent pool. 

• Even in these dark days our salary surveys still get healthy 25% splits between junior, middle, senior, lead lead-level talent. 

The consistent demand was the reason why there were so many JavaScript developers – outsourcing companies, product companies, startups, eCommerce, financial institutions, state institutions – literally, everybody wants some hot JavaScript action to get their Web Apps running smoothly.

• Because of that, you can find all sorts of JavaScript developers who are well-versed in many different stacks and capable of handling numerous challenges at once. 
• But when the business is down, a good pair of hands is not enough to get the invisible hand of the market to sway things in your favor and that’s where we are at. 

The business is down across the board. Go figure. 

• The outsourcing companies struggle due to the demand decrease and unwillingness to work with Ukrainian companies. To make matters worse, European and American markets also struggle due to inflation, cost of living crisis and a litany of smaller economic misfortunes rendering businesses unable to outsource software projects.
• Meanwhile, product companies’ woes are twofold. 
  • On the one hand, the consumer market is down because the cost of living crisis is taking all the money away. When the rent is sky high, homie got no spare dime for your premium gamified mindfulness app. The penny-pinching is real and it hits the product companies right where it hurts.
  • On the other hand, enterprise solutions suffer from companies optimizing their spending for the long haul. The economic crisis is crushing everyone and the question is how to mitigate the damage more efficiently. Not spending your budget on all sorts of communication apps, task management suits, content creation apps or Grammarly Business is one of the solutions – these costs pile up high when you have a thing going. And there’s not much you can do about it. 
  • Things are rough for product companies with quality output, but for companies that develop gimmick products (like Reface), it’s the fat lady sings stage. Hype might get you seen but it ain’t got you going and that’s what counts. So that’s that.
• Oddly enough, the Ukrainian startup scene is looking well in comparison. One of the reasons why is that startups have less pressure to perform from the get-go and have more leeway to figure out a better way of doing their thing. As a result, investors are more forgiving about the costs and have some faith it will pay off eventually. Especially, if your startup is developing literal killer drones, but let’s not go there this time.
• Fintech and banking companies are the only white niche with consistent talent demand that has the money to spend on talent. These guys like their apps running tight and they will pay to make it so.
• The other niche with healthy talent demand is predictable gambling and online gaming because of course they are. Those online casinos won’t run themselves. Pretty much these two niches are currently the main driving forces for salary growth while everyone else goes down.

JavaScript Salary Dynamics Q4 2024

Junior

One of the most interesting things about the Ukrainian JavaScript developer talent pool was how efficient the talent pipeline from junior to lead. Because the demand was always so consistent – the supply more or less followed suit. Cue all sorts of learning courses and more than enough job opportunities for starters. 

As a result, the junior-level JavaScript talent pool was one of the most diverse across the entire Ukrainian Tech Segment. There are switchers from elsewhere, switchers from other tech domains, university students, and even high school students. 

Because of that, historically, the junior JS salary range has been wide. 

Here’s how things have changed during 2024:

• The overall trend for Junior JS salaries is that lows are getting lower while the highs got slightly higher. The lower-end decrease year over year is at 16% due to lots of learning courses producing entry-level talent. At the same time, the upper end of the range saw a 19% decrease. The current median revolves around $1000-1100 while last year it was closer to $1300-1400.
• The 5% incremental growth in some cases revolves around companies toying with talent development from the very start and having several subgrades for junior talent. So basically, the whole growth thing is for advanced junior+ talent. 
  • My prediction is that it won’t be a factor during 2025 because the business is down and it is just not sustainable at a meaningful level. But as of mid Q4 2024, companies are still trying it.

Middle

Middle-level salaries have always been an odd thing to study. The main reason why is that the definition of middle talent is very vague. And it gets things all over the place for no particular reason.

• Some companies have a Middle JS salary range at what is technically a Junior+ salary range.
• Other companies do the opposite and keep Middle JS salaries at competitive highs – more or less at the same level as lower-end seniors. 
• To make matters even more confusing – there’s this whole Middle+ thing that can be at the upper range of the chart, but it can also be at the third quartile range and there’s no rhyme or reason to trend.

Overall, things are rough all round:

• The Middle JS salaries saw a 28% decrease compared to Q2 2024 and a staggering 29% compared to Q4 2023. I guess it will be well into 30-35% and down by the time Q1 2025 rolls around. The past median was around $2700-2900 depending on the niches. These days it is closer to the $2500-2600 range and it would probably go all the way down to $2500 by Q1 2025.
• The middle section of the range remains consistent with past years, but the lower end is going down and so does the upper end. How so? Lots of people are losing their jobs and quite a lot of them had higher salaries. Basically, what we got in the chart is the whole upper end starting with the third quartile got cut in half while the rest of the chart more or less remained at the same range. Thus the median shift.
• Oddly enough, the middle+ salaries had some incremental growth driven by the startup segment. So if you are a solid pair of hands that can do what they’re told – good news, there’s 9% growth compared to Q4 2023. Given how intense the inflation is – that’s a spare pizza. Yay!

Senior

That’s where things get funny if you like morbid things. So – high profile tech talent is always in demand, right? It still is, except when it is not and now it is not. 

The senior JavaScript developer salaries have been going crazy ever since the pandemic started and it was like that up until Q1 2024 when things started to change. 

• The current media is at $4500-4800 depending on the niche. 
• At first, it seemed like an odd slowdown – none of the salary reviews showed a significant growth (for instance in 2023, senior JS salary review saw a 20% increase on the average, these days you’re lucky to get 10% and not get fired two quarters later) and then none of the new hires showed any significant changes too. 
• And then Q2 2024 came about and it was the same thing but more. And there was a trickle of respondents with “currently unemployed” and “in active job search”. These two tags complicate things and “complicated things got|.
• Q3 2024 is where things got really rough. By August there were regular reports of talent cuts, salary freezes, salary cuts, company reorganizations, eliminating benches, etc. Pretty much anyone deemed disposable got let go and it turns out that a lot of senior JS are disposable. Even more than middles and juniors. Mostly because you can hire two or three middle JS at the price of one really good senior. That happened. 
• As a result, there was a staggering 35% salary decrease across the board for senior JS talent compared to Q4 2023. The median literally looks like it travelled forward in time from 2020 and it is just not funny. The decrease will be 40% by mid Q1 2025.  
• For what it’s worth, the entire Q4 2023 upper end of salary chart, the one that represents consistent high figures, is now in the “sporadic & irregular zone”. Now that’s a gut punch. 

Lead

Given how rough things have been for Senior JS one might assume that lead level talent had it even worse but they mostly were left unscathed by the big salary decrease. 

• Sure, there’s a solid 17% salary decrease from Q2 2024 and 23% from Q4 2023, but compared to Senior JS falling off a cliff – that’s basically cuts and bruises.  
• Because of that, the current Lead JS median revolves around the $6400 mark, but if we look at different niches it slides from $6200 to $6700.

One of the reasons why the decrease was less drastic is because there was less lead level talent. 

• For the most part these guys are very mixed-in with the senior crowd but have extra skills that make them valuable in different ways compared to senior developers. 
• An ability to manage teams and get things done goes a long way and companies tend to recognize that more than simply writing a clean code that doesn’t burst into tears if you look at it funny. 
• But even with that in mind what previously was average maximum range for lead JS is now in the “irregular highs” sections.

What’s Next? 

JavaScript had it rough this year, but it is not all doom and gloom. JavaScript is the heart of web applications. 

Sooner or later the market will figure out new ways of making dough with them. And when it happens – salaries will go up, outsourcing demand will soar and products will get their sales running wild.

Coming next – the demand for cybersecurity is at the all-time high and it shows. I wonder if that means DevSecOps is getting a raise this time?

The post What’s going on with JavaScript salaries Q4 2024? first appeared on Talando - Market Research.

On the other hand, embedded development positions are all over IoT product companies, consumer electronics manufacturers, industrial RPA, and vehicle hardware. 

The following challenges plagued the specialty in the past:

• There weren’t that many specialists on the market to begin with. 
• Almost all of them were very niche-specific and there was barely any talent cross-pollination across the industry. 
• Salaries were moderate at best compared to the wider Ukrainian Tech Industry and the job-to-job change wasn’t as staggering.

Things have been changing fast since 2022 and the rise of The Ukrainian military technology industry. As a result, the embedded development talent pool got a lot of new talent coming in.

That said, the actual salary dynamics as of early Q4 2024 are all over the place. Let’s look at them closer.

Entry level

Entry-level salaries at various projects range from $200-300/m for intern duties. Some high-profile high volume projects have intern salary ranges up to $500 but it is uncommon and closer to early stage junior grade. 

As such, that’s mostly part-time work for students.

The whole intern thing for embedded development is a result of the need for institutionalized talent development realized in a makeshift manner. 

This format allows students to learn the ropes and ease their way around the technology. Most companies apply this approach as a talent development long-term strategy. 

• There’s a six-to-nine-month window that can determine whether an intern can stick around and transition to low junior positions.
• In rare cases, this type of employment is applied to switchers as short-term testing whether they can find their way around it. It is low cost but hit-and-miss practice mostly applied due to a shallow talent pool. 

Junior Grade

Junior positions are where it gets really tricky due to grade interpretation. Let’s start with the figures. 

The range starts at $500 and can go as high as $1500 or even $1700 on some projects although the $1100-1300 range is the most common median across the sources.

This kind of range for junior talent doesn’t make any sense but here we are. What’s going on?

• The whole interpretation of the junior grade for embedded development positions is a giant mess. Even more so than in other software development domains due to different talent management and development strategies.

Three different varieties of junior grades have their distinct salary ranges.

• • Entry-level junior – got basic skills but green and can do only menial tasks. It’s like a full-time intern but with more touch-and-go mentoring. 
    • The salary range for entry-level juniors is between $400 and $900 depending on the technology complexity. 
    • Most entry-level juniors simply progress to regular juniors within a 6-9 month period.
  • Regular junior – fully equipped with fundamentals, totally lacking experience, in dire need of supervision. You know the ones.
    • The regular junior salary range is around $700 to $1400 depending on the organization and internal grading. 
    • Usually, there’s a salary progression of around $500-600 from starting on the position until transitioning into middle grade.

• Switcher junior – the most nondescript category because it can be a lot of things. We need to further differentiate two more subtypes:

• • • Internal switcher – those who already work at the company but want to change careers. It is a rare occurrence, but some of the bigger Ukrainian companies provide such opportunities. It is not a common practice by miles. The trade-off usually means the salary is 50% off of the then-current salary and a semblance of a career plan and training program to follow. Companies like Ajax and GlobalLogic and also some of the Genesis projects experiment with this approach on a small scale. 

• External switcher – the common type. Been a pro in one thing, decided to shake things up and start anew. Got experience and skills, but exactly all there, but it is good enough to get going. Switchers are generally more valued as junior talent because of their previous experience and better cross-technology flexibility. As such – the overall external switcher junior range is a bit higher than regular juniors – starting with $800 and up to $1800 which is the lower end of middle grade for regulars.

Middle Grade

The Middle-level embedded developer talent pool is probably the most diverse tech talent pool in the Ukrainian Tech Industry outside of Java and Python. It has all sorts of tech specialists represented and none of them in quantity to satisfy the talent demand because there’s no proper education pipeline to develop new talents en masse while the talent continues to grow. 

The key reason for growth is the defense tech segment. The production pipeline needs more and more resources including human resources to develop new and more intricate ways to handle challenges.

Meanwhile, the civilian consumer electronics segment, namely the IoT niche is currently at the crossroads as there are limited investment opportunities in Ukraine and the economy doesn’t allow proper business scaling. Because of that, these companies hire way less and often keep their salaries closer to the lower end of the range.

The salary range looks like this:

• The regular middle-level embedded developer that started in the niche and grew into middle grade has a salary range between $1500 and $3000 depending on the technology complexity. 
• The median is closer to the $2200-2500 range with higher levels mostly indicating middle+ talent on the verge of transitioning into a fledgling senior-level specialist.

Things look a bit different for the middle-level switchers:

• The overall salary range for the middle-level switcher to embedded developer revolves around $1300 and $3500. So it is both lower and higher at the same time. 
• The median is also a bit higher – bouncing between $2400 and $2700. 
• The reason for the difference comes down mostly to experience and learning capabilities.

Senior Grade

So, the junior embedded developer grading and salaries are a giant tangled mess, remember that? Well, senior grade came and said hold my beer. That’s how you describe the state of things in the senior embedded developer talent pool and its salary dynamics. 

Why so? Unlike junior and middle levels that have specialists more or less locked in into specific tech stacks and frameworks, senior talent tends to expand and diversify their skills and certifications outwards.

As a result, over time senior talent becomes more valuable as their skills grow and their expertise broadens. 

One of our 2024 salary survey respondents put it this way: 

• “Gotta know a lot of different things to figure out a solution. It’s not a whim, it’s a necessity. One way of doing things is generally insufficient. You can get things done, but you need to get things done better. Because lives depend on that. Because of that, different tech, different frameworks and tools, their very mechanics are vital in broadening the scope and making you see more possibilities in implementing an effective solution”.

So here’s what the senior-level embedded developer salary looks like:

• Senior embedded developer skilled in one domain (let’s say C++-centric) has a salary range revolving around $3200 and $4900 with singular instances going beyond that (in case you’re wondering, the highest figure in the category was $6200, 10-year vet Python-centric).
  • The most common figure constituting the core median is $3800 Q2 2024 and $4000 Q3 2024
• In contrast, a senior embedded developer who can work in several programming languages/platforms (usually C++ and Python or JavaScript and Python combo or the PyCharm Visual Studio oddities), got their range prancing in-between $3100 and $5400.
  • The median for this type of senior talent is around $4000.

Lead Grade

Lead-level positions are where things converge once again. The developers growing into lead positions settle into their definitive configuration with their tech stack clearly defined and centered around the specific technologies and frameworks. There is a lot less diversity even though the majority of lead-level talent in embedded development are multi-platform skilled. But all of them eventually settled into the core tech stack and went into the depths from there.

According to our 2023 and 2024 surveys and research, there are barely any lead-level embedded developers who settled into one specific tech stack at the beginning of their career and stayed at it from junior to lead or even middle to lead. 

The change usually occurs either at the junior when the specialist still figures themselves out or at the middle level when they are willing to take things to another level. Full-on stack switches rarely occur at the senior level as it is more of a combination and exploration.

Because of that, lead-level talent usually goes “X-centric, well-verse in Y, handy in Z” kind of configuration instead of simply “well-verse in X & Y”. But we’re straying off the subject.

The salaries for lead level go like this:

• The 1st quartile revolves around $4500. 
  • That’s the median in the civilian segment as of Q4 2024. 
  • Due to smaller scale projects and smaller teams, lead-level positions in small-scale civilian segment embedded development salary range closely follows the high end of the senior grade – figures between $3100 for small 3-5 men teams and $5900 for 10+ units.
• The 3rd quartile is at $6900. That’s the long-tenured 5-6 years+ grizzled rough riders.
• The median bounces around $5600-5700 figures.

What’s next?

So that’s how embedded developer salaries look like these days. You might find yourself wondering – but what about Python, JavaScript, and C++-specific embedded development salary dynamics?

Well, that’s what is coming next. 

The post Tech Talent Salary Dynamics Q4 2024 Explained: Embedded Developer first appeared on Talando - Market Research.

• The market is down because there’s a war going on;
• The economy barely manages to carry its load; 
• The labor market is continuously devastated with no solution to mitigate it; 
• The cost of living crisis in Ukraine, the USA, and Europe is running wild;
• The recession hollows out the momentum of the worldwide economy into an “all show no go” state. 
• Big tech butts heads with the governments but everyone else feels the toll as the online-based businesses need to catch up with the whims and fancies of the big tech platform providers.
• Crypto is making a comeback but this time everyone is on the joke that it is for scamming dunces.

That’s where we are at right now. What’s not to like, eh?

So how is all this reflected in the Ukrainian Tech Segment?

The Ukrainian Tech Segment in 2024

This was the year that happened and whatever good managed to sneak in was instantly overshadowed by the hubris of trying to run a business in a country amidst a war with a government playing checkers. That’s the short of it. 

The long of it goes like that.

• The mobilization and its increasingly confusing regulation continue to devastate the Ukrainian tech talent pool. No amount of learning courses and switchers can mitigate this factor.
• The reintegration of the veterans is currently not an option to replenish the talent pool due to several reasons. 
  • First is that no demobilization policy would enable a mass influx of tech talent to come back into the fold. 
  • Second – those veterans who get discharged are injured and variously impaired which is a can of worms of its own that should be dealt with by the government first. Companies will follow suit eventually.
• In addition, institutional corruption enables illicit immigration – those who can afford it (some of which are part of the tech talent pool) try their luck leaving the country outright for the greener and safer pastures. As soon as the travel ban for males gets lifted – lots of fellers will do that too and it is not like the European Union will turn them away. 

What’s interesting is that while the overall Ukrainian Tech Segment talent is getting smaller and smaller, the talent itself doesn’t grow in value. 

• It is not like high-profile specialists really can command big-money salaries like they did in 2021. 
• More often than not companies are fine with letting go big money salary guys to reduce spending and focus on maintaining the core team for the long haul. 
• As a result, many high-profile specialists are forced to accept either lowball offers or stay put with no significant salary increases.

The global recession is taking its toll on the Ukrainian tech segment both product and outsourcing sides.

Here’s how things are on the product side:

• The consumer product segment is in the weird spot in which the target audience still spends money on tech products (especially those that directly affect quality of life), but they spend like they used to and the figure goes down and down year over year. 
  • The cost of living crisis is real and slowly eating away at the foundation of the consumer tech product segment. People can’t afford to keep this many software subscriptions, they can’t afford to buy premium, and they can’t afford to blast lifetime subscriptions out of the goodness of their hearts. 
  • But consumers are still willing to spend their hard-earned cash on something that gets things done. However, the modern software product mindset is not very adjusted to this configuration and it will take time until the companies fully adapt to the leaner, less commercialized approach of yesteryear.

At the same time, there’s a return on investment problem that plagues the entire Ukrainian Product Segment. Investors still have rather unrealistic expectations that their products will work out spectacularly and they will get a lot of money out of that. 

A part of that unrealistic expectation is fueled by the product companies themselves hyping up their business prospects in the volatile market with limited predictability. 

But you gotta hustle to get investments so it is part of the process even if it is becoming increasingly counterproductive.

Here’s how things are on the outsourcing side:

• The outsourcing segment suffers from a lack of long-term projects to build their companies up for bigger things and diversify. 
• Historically, Ukrainian Tech started by outsourcing US and EU projects and slowly expanding into product niches. It is still a viable business model that enables building up a competent team, working out the operational kinks, and then leveling up with something of your own. 
• However, as of late Q4 2024, this kind of strategy is becoming a fantasy because companies can’t gain enough momentum from chugging on short-term small-scale projects. As a result, they’re stuck in the loop of soliciting project after project but never establishing themselves enough to scale. 

Meanwhile, in the startup realm, things are haphazard as always but a tad different.

The unrealistic expectations conundrum has always been a thing in the startup community. It is the name of the game at this point even though it is a deeply misguided way of thinking. In practical terms, the unrealistic expectation conundrum causes startups to rise high and fall hard. 

The overhyping of Artificial Intelligence technology and no-code solutions caused a lot of noise in the startup community and brought in a lot of people with lots of spare cash looking to invest in the next killer app.

• Except the killer app is not coming and at this point, it is fair to say that producing a killer app was never an intention in the first place. It was always about getting the bag for as long as possible and finding a good excuse to shrug off things not working out.

The problem this kind of attitude makes things a lot harder for startups that try to do something worthwhile. 

The realistic business planning just doesn’t look all that exciting. Given that you can’t get an ambitious project off the ground without significant starting investments – it leads to projects getting smaller and more derivative of what is already on the market. 

At the same time, most of the investments burn out on overhyped borderline sci-fi speculative potboilers.

• In other words – always the same, always different. 

So what’s next?

What will happen in 2025?

The tax increase will definitely do more harm than good and that’s probably why the government plays around with it so much but the uncertainty surrounding the tax increase also makes it hard for companies to plan ahead in one more aspect. As if things weren’t complicated already.

The mobilization shenanigans and the reservation hijinks will drain the tech talent pool even more. 

At the same time, the Ukrainian government seems to be hellbent on making every single thing going on in the military tech segment about itself, and given the government’s track record at running businesses and making deals that don’t end with scandals – things ain’t looking bright.

Gamble will sure feel alright given, as is online gaming which will continue its slow devolution into straight-up gambling.

The startup segment will remain shaky and getting serious investments will be even more of an undertaking because of all gimmick projects tanking the potential of the niches.

At the same time, product companies will feel bad and they are going to love it because experts said the SaaS business model is dubious back in 2015. So don’t expect some new “little engines that could” and expect more layoffs and restructures.

Aside from that – everything gonna be alright.

The post The Ukrainian Tech Segment Going into Q1 2025: What’s going on? first appeared on Talando - Market Research.

The big narrative of 2024 is that the business is down, the market is down, and naturally, the salaries also go down. If we take a glance at the salary dynamics – the overall shift is 35%.

If we take into account the cost of living growth during 2024 – the salary buying power decreased by approximately 30-35% at a minimum and it will probably go all the way to 45-50% by Q3 2025.

With that said, there is no real way to predict how things are going in our situation. Everything is volatile.

• Pretty much everyone predicted the labor market would cease to exist outright by late 2022 and it didn’t happen. 
• Then everyone yapped about how things were going surprisingly strong going into 2023.
• By late 2023, it was obvious that 2024 would be rough, except no one wanted to say it out loud and the whole “how bad can it get anyway?” thing. 
• And all this time the whole segment was breathing that sweet copium that things would be alright and acting like Frank Booth.

Well, things got bad because copium is not a valid business strategy to operate on during market volatility and economic turmoil. Duh. And it is not the company that is going to pay for this. 

What’s going on with the Ukrainian Developer salaries Q4 2024?

The overall salary decrease across the segment is in-between 30% and 40% depending on the niche. 

• The decrease itself didn’t happen because tech talent suddenly became less valuable. It happened because companies like surviving as an entity more than keeping their “company is a family” thing intact. Thus the layoffs furloughs and farewells.  

The outsourcing segment has been downsizing ever since the 2022 energy grid attack turmoil. The transformation was slowly, seemingly merely percolating in the background – the teams got leaner, the structures more straightforward, no sprawling multi-module projects – just down-and-dirty outsourcing for gutter punks.

• Because of that, if you compare the salary decrease in outsourcing during 2024 – it doesn’t seem like a lot (25-35% across tech positions for new hires). 
• But if you look at the overall respondent employment history over the 2022-2024 period – there’s barely anyone working at one company for over a year – the majority is less than a year, 1-2 years is barely a quarter, the rest is long-term outsourcing company employees. Back in 2021 – 1-2 years and 2-3 years were core segments for outsourcing. But not now.

Meanwhile, the product companies are all over the place. You have highs, lows, mids, and outliers all rolled into one messy falafel. 

If we look just at medians – it’s a solid 40% decrease across the board, except for military tech which is a parallel universe to everyone else. 

Curiously, the majority of average maximums across the tech positions remain more or less the same since late 2023, but the lows and the majority of the range went all the way down. It is way thicker on figures on the lower end. 

• Why the decrease? The business is not working out more or less. SaaS and IoT business models live and breathe on getting more and more subscribers and monetizing more and more features to get that steady cash flow running. 
• But at some point, you hit a ceiling and need to figure out how to run a sustainable product and that’s where the trouble starts because there are simply not that many experienced managers who can do that. And it turns out that most of these products simply have a low ceiling and there is just not much you can do about it.
• There are lots of people who know how to get the product off the ground, but not that many folks know how to keep it running through thick and thin. That’s not just a problem for Ukrainian managers – it is a worldwide issue. Maybe the world doesn’t need all these endless applications. 
• Because of that, the projects either fall apart completely or get reorganized into something slightly different with less money involved.

The startup segment somehow manages to be an even bigger mess than it already is because of course it does. 

• A quick look at the median levels across the board shows a solid 45% decrease. If we take into consideration non-tech positions – it is 55%. 

At the same time – the high ends of the ranges remain at relatively the same level as in late 2023 which is surreal because new hires get a lot less and even that doesn’t matter anymore because just as I’m writing this paragraph there’s another wave of layoffs across the board so get ready for 50% decrease by late Q1 2025.

The post The State of The Ukrainian Tech Segment Salaries Q4 2024 first appeared on Talando - Market Research.

The Java Developer salary dynamics during 2024 is one of the most prominent examples of this situation.

• On the one hand, the market slowdown and effects of the global economic crisis take their toll.
• On the other hand, the talent demand and talent pool quality are strong enough to slow down to partially mitigate the economic woes compared to other segments. 

This article breaks down what is going on with Java Developer salaries in the Ukrainian Tech Segment during Q4 2024.

The State of Ukrainian Java Developer Talent Pool Q4 2024

Java remains one of the most popular and consistently used technologies in the Ukrainian Tech Segment due to its versatility and solid foundation. 

There’s an even spread between outsourcing, product, and startup companies. Because of that, the demand for Java Developers remains more or less consistent even when the overall market is down.

• That’s the case with Java developers right now. Even though the business is down, a good pair of hands that can handle an application can catch a good offer in a reasonable amount of time. 

The current demand drivers are product companies developing web and mobile applications, enterprise solutions, and all things Internet of Things. 

In addition, there are other dimensions of Java in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence products, and also Game Development. 

Web/mobile apps

• Web and mobile applications are currently a bedrock of Java developer talent demand. Whether it is a full-fledged product, an outsourcing operation, or a nascent startup, everybody needs their application running smoothly. 
  • As a result, middle-senior Java developer salaries have their median firm while the quartiles are stormy. However, the majority of Java developers prefer Web/mobile projects solely for the reason of job security even though the salary is not very competitive on the market. 
  • Important to note that overall Java Developer salaries in the web/mobile app niches are right in the middle of the chart for junior, middle, and senior grades. 
  • There’s a lot of diversity between different niches. For instance, fintech and banking products provide the highest salaries while leisure applications are at the lower end.

Internet of Things products

• IoT is the other major demand driver and in this case, there is even a twinkle of competition for high-profile senior and lead-level Java Developers. With that said, IoT projects also suffer from longevity and job security issues. 
  • Establishing an IoT product on the market is a challenge and many companies fail to connect the dots. So while there’s a consistent demand and somewhat higher than average salaries (around 15-20% higher compared to most web/mobile app products), there’s also a risk that the company will go down or reorganize with massive cuts due to poor business planning. 
  • This aspect makes hiring in IoT startups a bit of a challenge as high-profile seniors are hesitant to join unproven projects with uncertain futures.

Enterprise solutions

• Enterprise solutions are in the world of their own more or less. The whole scene is way less vibrant compared to IoT, ML, and Game Development but they have something neither can provide – stability. 
  • A long-running enterprise solution company may not provide the highest salary or the most interesting technology or a challenging project – but they have a job that pays well enough and sometimes good enough turns into full-on pretty good. 
  • Overall, Java developers’ salaries in enterprise segments are both lower on the lower end and higher on the higher ends of the chart but the median sticks to overall Ukrainian tech segment ranges.  

Artificial intelligence / Machine Learning

• The Machine Learning scene overall is currently a giant mess of new and established projects nailing down the technology but somehow still unable to figure out the whole business part of the operation. Because of that, ML/AI-related startups move fast, break a lot of things, and may offer a lot of money in the short run, but then there’s a three-stage layoff campaign and the company is changing course. 
  • The overhyping of Artificial Intelligence applications for all sorts of things led to investors throwing money around for increasingly less feasible ideas in hopes of stumbling upon a killer app that will print money. The downside is that the current wave of ML/AI startups is so crowded and similar to each other that it simply eats itself even before the market tests its endurance. 
  • With that said, Java tech plays a big role in data analysis and data processing solutions which are the core of machine learning products – so Java-based Data Scientists are in demand but the job security prospects may be flimsy.
  • As a result, even though the money might be too good to decline (30% higher than average for middle-senior-lead levels), not every data scientist is willing to try their luck with an unproven product that might fall apart simply because the market is stacked.

Cloud tech 

• Cloud tech is low-key of the niches on the rise in the Ukrainian Tech Segment. The growing market diversification of multimedia and software streaming apps makes virtualization and cloud computing a vital part of business operations. As a result, IaaS-type startups are currently expanding their share in the Ukrainian market and foreign companies have an interest in high-profile Java talent with cloud expertise. 
  • At this stage, the influence of Cloud Tech IaaS companies on the Ukrainian market is not that significant compared to other niches, but with this kind of dynamic and demand, it is one to take notice of during 2025. 
  • As of Q4 2024, cloud tech-related Java salaries follow closely the ML/AI startup ranges mostly revolving around its first and third quartile but not reaching the ML startup average maximum level.

Game Development and gambling 

• These two side streams of Java developer talent demand. While there’s a significant overlap with web/mobile application development, it is two separate realms with only somewhat overlapping talent pools. Java devs doing game dev mostly stick to their domain and bounce back and forth between projects depending on whose offer looks nicer this season. There’s a lot of moving around between the companies in a 1-2 year span but it is more of a culture thing and not because the business is down. 
  • Unlike other Ukrainian Tech Segment niches, game development and gambling domains actually feel kinda healthy in comparison. While there were major layoffs over the years, there’s a growing number of small-scale and mid-scale projects and the big players are mostly operating without much hassle outside of our regular fair of dealing with mobilization, burnout, and market volatility. 
  • As a result, game development and gambling have the widest salary ranges for Java developers out of entire Ukrainian Tech Segments. There are more opportunities for lower-level talent but there are also opportunities for high profile talent who want to handle some complex project with many moving parts and systems. 

Now let’s look at the salary dynamics for each grade.

Java Salary Dynamics Q4 2024

Junior

Overall, Junior Java talent is currently in a better position compared to the majority of junior talent in other technologies. Junior Java salaries were never high to begin with so there wasn’t a significant decrease so you might even say that the situation is kinda stable.

• The current median bounces between $1000 and $1200 depending on the niche. It will be closer to $900 by Q1 2025 due to possible new waves of layoffs and restructuring. 
• Compared to Q1 2024, the salary decrease for Junior Java is around 10% compared to JavaScript’s 15%.
• That said, there was also an incremental growth of 7% for Junior+ talent, mostly due to the continuing vague interpretation of what is Junior+ and what is middle-level talent. 
• However, the Junior+ figures often show inconsistency both with lower-end middle figures and upper-end junior figures which makes things messy.

Middle

Middle Java talent is currently the cannon fodder of the Ukrainian Tech Segment. Not a good place to be in – it is easy to find a job (relatively), but it is also easy to lose one because middle-tier talent is disposable and there is always someone willing to take a lower salary offer to do the same amount of work or more. That’s the current reality of things for Middle Java.

Because of that, the salary range will become a whole lotta wider in 2024.

• The current median is at $2600. Machine learning hype provided short-term bursts of increases but none of them really had a sustained momentum and dissipated by the end of the year.
• Compared to Q4 2023, there was a 24% median decrease. The majority of the former average maximum Middle Java salary range is currently in the irregular/sporadic section. The Q4 2023 third quartile more or less became the Q4 2024 average maximum. 
• The middle+ level looks a bit different as there is a lot of blend-in with lower-tier senior-level talent. Compared to regular middle-level the decrease is a bit lower coming at 20% compared to Q4 2023. With that said, at this point, it is meaningless to differentiate middle+ and low-end senior salaries as they basically share the salary range.

Senior

The senior level is where it gets really interesting because things are both good and bad. The bad news is that the lower end of the salary range had decreased all the way to the upper end of the middle-level salary chart more or less fusing together with the middle+ tier. 

The reason why it is important to note is that in prior years (2020 and up until 2023), middle+ was the in-between tier of Not Ready for Prime Time players spawned out of competitive salary reviews, the “getting there” bunch. These days it is not a thing,

• The current senior Java salary median is $4600. ML provides overall higher salaries so in this case median is closer to $4900, while the specific range median is closer to $4800 for long-term employees and $4700 for new hires.
• The overall salary range had extended in both directions. The average maximums had increased by 15% (mostly due to Machine Learning and Fintech), while the average minimum decreased by 34% meeting the upper end of the middle-level chart. 
• The main reasons for this dynamics are layoffs and new hires getting significantly lower salaries. Lots of high-salary Senior Java lost their jobs in 2024 and were forced to take on lower salaries to sustain themselves. 

Lead

For what it’s worth, lead-level Java talent had it least rough during 2024. Getting a good team lead or tech lead for a project is quite a task. Hiring away one may cost a hefty sum and given the market volatility it may not even pay off. 

As a result, lead-level Java talent technically had the most job security compared to other grades of Java developers. That doesn’t mean they had it easy though.

• The overall salary decrease compared to Q4 2023 is at 27%. In plain terms, what was before the third quartile is currently an average maximum part of the chart. The main reasons for the decrease are layoffs and switching jobs for more secure ones. 
• The current median is at the $6200-6600 range across the board and it would probably sink to $6000-6400 by late Q1 2025.
• With that said, there’s still a bit of a gap between the upper end of the senior Java range and the lower end of the lead Java range. One way to explain this is that lead-level talent has management skills to handle projects while seniors are handymen. But that’s an oversimplification. 
• The actual explanation is merely a numerical one – there are fewer lead Java developers compared to seniors and because of that, the majority of salary sources are more homogenous compared to senior and middle levels.

What’s Next?

Now that we have broken down what’s going on with Java, it is time to take a closer look at what is going on with Data Science salaries. 

Even now, this is one of the most promising niches in the Ukrainian Tech Segment and it always had an incredible diversity of technologies and salary ranges for all sorts of projects. Stay tuned.

The post What’s going on with Ukrainian Tech Segment Java Developer Salaries Q4 2024? first appeared on Talando - Market Research.