Tech lifestyle in RO. What you need to relocate in one of the fastest growing economies in Europe
T3ch life Research
by Loginro June 7, 2021 at 3:23 PM

Tech lifestyle in RO. What you need to relocate in one of the fastest growing economies in Europe

Romania must be the place of your next big career move because there is a company that needs your talent here and is willing to pay nice money for it. But it’s not only that. Beyond the company that hires you, you’re in good company too: great urban lifestyle, amazing quality of life for people like you, unbelievably beautiful nature at your bike’s reach. Until you see it for yourself, get started with this guide. 

Let us introduce ourselves. We are Loginro, the community of tech professionals in Romania. And elsewhere! We're matchmakers, enablers, facilitators, and beautiful minds altogether. Together, we are starting a thriving movement, a movement that inspires change. Our dream? Making Romania the strongest technology hub in Europe and promoting the quality of the local IT brains.

You may know Romania. Everyone who was born here has many stories and lots of strong opinions about life here. Some of them are preconceptions, based on a past personal history or on a distorted perception of what is really going on.

For those who left Romania years ago, one thing is for sure: Romania is not the way you remember it. Many things have changed and keep changing quickly.

One thing's for sure. One can never get bored. The challenges one can find here may be annoying from time to time, but there is no doubt they require a high dose of creativity, humor, open mindedness and advanced problem solving skills. It’s not always easy. But it’s fun. You can’t get lazy in Romania.

Romania must be the place of your next big career move because there is a company that needs your talent here and is willing to pay nice money for it. But it’s not only that. Beyond the company that hires you, you’re in good company too: great urban lifestyle, amazing quality of life for people like you, unbelievably beautiful nature at your bike’s reach. Until you see it for yourself, get started with this guide.

Of course we can’t cover every aspect of a complex country (too complex, some may say), but we encourage you to drop any question we haven’t answered in an email - contact@loginro.com.

Download the complete Tech Lifestyle In Romania Whitepaper or see tech jobs in Romania.

THE IT GENIUS LOCI
It is said that every place has a Genius loci, a spirit of that place. For sure, the Romanian one has strong tech skills, speaks good English, has one of the fastest Internet connections in the world, is open minded, smart, witty and creative, dresses funky and loves spending time both in nature, biking or skiing, but also in pubs, having fun with friends.

With the fastest economic growth in the EU, Romania is a place for independent minds where bright ideas meet a can-do spirit. There is a lot of energy in Romania, a vibrating medium that encourages innovation. If we keep in mind that the IT sector has many benefits regarding taxation and that the technology universities are preparing the software developers of tomorrow, Romania is the place where these bright ideas come to life.

Romania occupies an important area on the tech world map, even larger than its geographical boundaries. On the one hand, Romania is still in an emerging market, providing high quality software for big companies, innovating and launching new products, but on the other hand it is still too much exporting the brain and knowledge abroad. While, for many years, many brilliant minds found their place away from home, this started to change.

The IT Services and Software Industry in Romany has had a steady growth of some EUR 0.5 billion each year, foreign companies generating most of this revenue (over 70%), having the most accelerated growth rate and employing most of the available human resources available on the market. (source: Software and IT Services in Romania - ANIS).

Even with the Covid-19 pandemic, the tech Industry was barely hit at all. Less than 15% of the IT companies perceived a negative impact, either in income (especially those developing projects for the horeca or travel industry) or attrition and satisfaction of human resources. But the majority of the IT industry has seen a positive impact: increased productivity due to work from home policies, lower costs, business opportunities both from the public sector and the other industries that needed to get digital and fast. It seems that previous predictions that the IT sector could reach 10% of the GDP in just a few years if it’s backed by coherent support measures and legislation could be right.

At this growing rate of the IT industry Romania has the opportunity to become an important technology hub in Europe and attract both investors and professionals. This generates a lot of opportunities if you are part of the ecosystem that is going to boom.

*A study developed by EY shows that the share of the digital economy in GDP has reached 8.6% in 2019 and has the second most accelerated growth rate. In the possible outcomes that the study envisions for the next 5 years we can see that this sector will generate more than 100,000 new jobs in any scenario and many of those should also be filled by programmers.

Opportunities: digitalisation of the public and private sector, remote working, startups

Amid the Covid 19 pandemic, the digitisation process of public institutions in Romania has forcibly accelerated, which will increase the internal market in the coming years and represents a big opportunity for the development of the IT industry in Romania. In turn, it will create the need for even more skilled professionals. Tech professionals that already worked in companies from other, more digitalized countries, and are willing to come back to Romania will be assets.

New working habits

The pandemic also created a shift in working patterns and dynamics, with remote work and Work from Home (WFH) to the front and center. The results of a survey published by ANIS Romania in 2021 show that most IT companies (72%) already had a Work from Home policy before the pandemic, and for the future they aim to implement a hybrid WFH/WFO solution, based either on the employee's option or a standardised model of the company (in the mentioned survey not even one company said it considers coming back to 100% Work from Office ). The growing popularity of work from home and remote work concepts, together with the existing Internet infrastructure in Romania (speed and coverage), proximity to family and friends, and the lower cost of living in comparison to other European cities make our country even more attractive.

The IT sector in Romania is mostly concentrated in the largest cities in the country, and especially in Bucharest, Cluj, Timișoara, and Iasi, but in the last few years other tech regions of the country have started to emerge (Brasov, Sibiu, Craiova) which also might prove to be an incentive for IT professionals to come back to their hometowns. Salary differences between cities are also starting to fade (https://docsend.com/view/eyqnjgpaux5s7u9b)

What also changed in the last years for many companies (with plenty others following during the pandemic) is the HR approach, which became more focused on developing an organisational culture, a sense of community, adding benefits to foster the wellbeing and mental state of employees (such as flexible time). Employers in the tech industry were already providing distinctive benefits to their employees, as shown by their generous score of employee satisfaction, of 8 out of 10 (according to https://docsend.com/view/eyqnjgpaux5s7u9b), and the employers creativity and willingness to provide a healthy, motivating and innovative work environment will not fade in the post-pandemic rush for talent. As a rule of thumb, tech talent in Romania commonly receives extra benefits and distinctive attention from employers, and this is likely to increase as well as adapt to the current working models.

Volunteering and community initiatives

If you feel that you want to make a difference in the community, Romania is the best place to be. You can have a powerful impact if you decide to get involved in any civic action, and your employer will most likely support you and the cause that you choose to volunteer for, based on each company’s CSR policy (and we can guarantee that there is quite a wide variety to choose from). Either you decide to help an NGO working in healthcare, or an NGO fighting poverty, or maybe you’re interested in a clean environment, your expertise is highly needed and will be greatly appreciated, while your involvement will soon generate visible and tangible effects.

Startups

With almost 20% of IT companies being new, Romania is also starting to look good in terms of the value of investments in local startups that managed to raise more than EUR 30 million in 2020.

A cool and dynamic industry: 45% are under the age of 34 and have a high productivity rate. The gender gap is also starting to fade each year (more than a quarter are women), as Romania is known for having no gender discrimination in terms of salary. Furthermore, women in Romania are well represented in the business, representing 41% of the total number of managers.

If gender inequality seems to be more prominent in Western countries, Romania is a pioneer in women-led businesses, with a significant number of companies where women represent the majority of the workforce. From female owners to leading positions, women are taking their share in the business landscape of Romania. The Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2018 shows that Romania ranks 9th among countries with the highest percentage of businesses owned by women (approx. 30%).

The pay gap between genders is practically non-existent in Romania, which is the second least discriminatory country in the EU in terms of pay gap between genders, according to Eurostat figures (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:GPG_2019_data.PNG).

Download the complete Tech Lifestyle In Romania Whitepaper or see tech jobs in Romania.

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