What should not wait for developers in Russia?

Parallels Vice President Nikolai Dobrovolsky met with students of the Higher School of Economics . In an open lecture, he spoke about the company and answered questions from those present. One of the topics of the meeting was the emigration of programmers abroad. Video from the open lecture is available here . In the article under the cut extended conversation, which took place after talking with students.


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The mantra "It's time to cut down" I hear for all 20 years that I have been developing software. At first it was in high school, where peers dreamed of America, then in a financial company, where I worked as a programmer and system administrator in parallel with my studies. Dreams of “dumping from this country” and earning literally hovered in the air, intoxicating young and immature minds.

The motives of those who tried to drive off changed slightly over time, but the direction remained unchanged, away from the Motherland. Calm, safe, comfortable, here are just a small part of what beckoned into the distance. It's no secret that many talented guys left in the early 2000s. Really worthwhile experts have found use in global corporations.

The second wave of talent outflows from our country, according to recent reports by migration specialists, falls on the last couple of years. And it is no wonder. If you are a professional, then nationality is the last thing that interests your potential employer. Modern IT industry is erasing geographical, national and cultural barriers. HTML, C ++, Python - all this is a truly universal language environment, where professionals will always find a common language.

What is there beyond the horizon?

For everyone in different ways. For example, I will interview all the staff who come to us. Many candidates leave large companies because they see absolutely no influence of their work on the business and the results of the giant employer. I will definitely talk to those who for some reason decided to leave our company. In my memory there were several cases when employees went "there" for a lot of money and returned a few years later, while pretending to have a lower salary. Why? Motivation really hit me. Someone said that it was boring, someone didn’t want to sort out pieces of paper, gradually turning into a pumpkin. It turned out that by attracting the best of the best, global IT giants do not guarantee delegation of super-complex tasks to you. Yes, you are in the Premier League, but in the second or third composition, or even on the bench. And not at all because you are a bad or insufficiently good team player, just in the team of the best of the best on the football field, whatever one may say, there must be 11 players. So they sit for years in the “children's sandboxes” and “frog pools” waiting for the miracle of our talented domestic “aircraft carriers”. For some, this is quite normal, since in return a decent salary, insurance and other trivia of the compensation package are offered. What more could you ask for? A talented engineer for a couple of years of such idleness is ready to climb the wall. Apparently this is exactly the same "grief from the mind." So they come back to "unwashed Russia".

What about here?

If we get lucky. For example, in Parallels you can do truly unique things that are in demand around the world. And many of our developers are the authors of patents for inventions, which we have in the asset more than a hundred. The “indulgent mood” in the industry made us think about the possibility of relocation within the company for our developers. We have 10 marketing and sales offices scattered around the world, so creating another one was quite simple. In 2015, we opened the European Parallels development office in Tallinn. It was easier for us to move people to Europe than to lose them forever. As a result, even those who had documents for moving to Australia, the USA, Canada, decided to move to Europe and remain in the company. Why do we need it? In our team, some people work for 15-20 years, the majority - more than 5. It is a pity to part with those who have successfully worked in our team for many years and are very loyal to the company, but want to “go beyond”. In addition, it is, as a rule, about unique and very talented engineers.

When planning your departure abroad, there are several aspects to consider:

1. The skill level and the availability of an invitation from a potential foreign employer. If you have a contract and a competitive financial offer, you can take a chance. The risk is noble. Do not like it, you can always safely return to your homeland.

2. How far from relatives and friends can affect your mental and physical condition? For example, a number of employees relocated by us to the European office of Parallels a year later decided to return to their homeland. The alien environment and the absence of the familiar environment led to the fact that the most active supporters of the move were the first to return.

3. Are you ready to admit that you will meet old age far from home? The more you are detached from the motherland, the more difficult it will be to come back after the passage of time. The classic situation: "Yours among strangers, a stranger among your own."

How not to leave anywhere and feel comfortable here?
1. Russian is native to us, we think and speak it.
2. Our relatives live in Russia and are not going to move.
3. With the modern level of development of communication tools, you can safely communicate with colleagues, partners and customers from every corner of our planet.
4. At home, comfortable and you can not feel limited in work and leisure.
5. No matter where you live and work. If your product is needed by users working in the IT field, you can achieve success by staying at home.



What should not wait for developers in Russia?

1. Do not wait for help from the state and rely only on themselves.
2. Do not wait for affordable loans from state and commercial banks. Spend the money and not lose focus on the product.
3. Develop a product with an eye on global expansion. Limiting the localization of one country for an IT company is a crime.
4. It will always be bad. The worse the situation, the greater the chance of finding a free market niche.
5. It is not necessary to expect the coming of Western investors. In the case of Russian partners, you should not lose a controlling stake in the share capital of your company. Taking into account the mentality, it is possible that a business can be “squeezed out”.
6. Carefully choose an investor, focusing not only on money, but also on connections and experience, which often play an even more important role than financing. A fund focused on biomedicine is unlikely to be able to greatly help a startup developing a new social network.
7. The state will seek greater regulation. It is possible that this will affect the volume of markets. Developing your business model is a differentiated approach to the options of monetization of your development and think globally.