Where are the Serbians? This is about your country!
Why Serbia is on 5th place in Worldwide Developer rankings?
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Also, Serbians music! I like it very much!
And Serbia is a beautiful country with beautiful people. Many said that food is very nice in Serbia.
They know how to party, with Turbo-folk 
https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2015/17-things-to-know-before-you-go-to-belgrade/
And the Capital Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia. Nice place to have coffee ☕
https://yugotour.com/blog/yugoslavia-intro/
Have you ever been to Serbia?
Traditional Serbian meals are full of strong flavours. Hearty stews and basically any form of meat—grilled, cured, or stuffed with cheese—feature prominently, usually served alongside salads, bread, and condiments. Sauces are big here, from kajmak (Serbia’s answer to clotted cream) to ajvar (a spicy, red pepper paste).
Legend has it the preponderance of pork originated as a form of gastronomic resistance to the Ottoman overlords. Serbian food might be rustic, but due to the fertile land and relatively late industrialization, the quality of ingredients is high, even in basic restaurants. For a lighter touch, there are several new restaurants putting a more refined twist on traditional tastes such as Pire Slow Food and Homa.
In Serbia you can make your first million (in dinar). Serbia’s currency is valued pretty low compared to the Euro, making Belgrade a spendthrift’s dream as far as accommodation and food are concerned. As the economy has increased, so have Belgrade’s prices, but compared to most European cities you can eat, drink and sleep like a king, for less than a princely sum. Some of the neighbouring Balkan states are already E.U. members—to deal with the constant headache of cross-border exchange issues, you can exchange euro or U.S. dollars for dinar in ATMs, and there is also a plethora of menjacnica (money exchanges). As dodgy as these holes-in-the-wall look, with their gaudy flashing lights and post-apocalyptic vibe, the rates aren’t bad and you won’t be charged a commission. There’s not a great deal of variation so no need to shop around.
@power_9_the_people I have read the articles you mentioned here. So much of information!
JijoAttumalilJose wrote:
Have you ever been to Serbia?
I know people from there. The most funny people 🤣 in the world
Most of them are very technology oriented. Is it?
I don't know. Do you mean like the Indian people?
We, Indians are not fully technology oriented. We are still struggling with technology.
Many of our 'big brains' are working for many of American and European countries. They settled there. We a only a few left here. The funny thing is that our brains are being used by other outside countries and they are cashing on it.
I think Serbians are cleverer than us.
JijoAttumalilJose wrote:
We, Indians are not fully technology oriented. We are still struggling with technology.
Many of our 'big brains' are working for many companies of American and European countries. They are settled there. We have only a few left here. The funny thing is that our brains are being used by other outside countries and they are cashing on it.
I think Serbians are cleverer than us.
Highly qualified experts and long-term cooperations with Western and Arabic companies have made the information technology industry one of the most important drivers of the Serbian economy today. Already, leading digital companies have either established development centers in Serbia or have outsourced services to local firms. Those of us at Digital Knights are no strangers to highly talented teams and individuals from Serbia, but several less obvious factors help the nation stand out as a whole in the IT world.
In 2017, The Serbian Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector exported 750 million EUR, ranking the country as one of the 50 biggest software exporters globally. With a year-to-year growth rate eclipsing 25%, ICT is among the fastest growing sectors in the country and since Serbia is not a member of the EU, most home-grown talent stays in place. On top of this, Serbian people are exceptional when it comes to English language proficiency, ranking third worldwide
(behind the Philippines and Norway) and have been in the Top 5 globally for more than five years.
Outsourcing possibilities in Serbia
With such talented remote teams, Serbia is fast becoming one of the most in-demand outsourcing destinations in Central and Eastern Europe. The country's engineering education is particularly strong, with almost a third of university graduates coming from technical schools. ICT is currently being taught at 37 higher education institutions, while demand for placement in these programs is ever increasing. Locally, salaries in software development services are increasing as well, however Serbian companies and professionals are extremely competitive with other established “outsourcing” destinations. According to the leading ICT portal in Serbia, STARTIT,
there are:
• 11,500 developers (9,000 Java professionals as well as sub-specializations)
• 15,000 network and Internet engineers
• Web marketing professionals, designers, managers, etc...
Locally, entrepreneurs have risen to the challenge by establishing more than 100 software houses that work with 50+ different countries around the globe, host innovation hubs, self-fund startups, and support business partners. As the system further develops, more and more Serbian software companies may naturally appear in response to the rising demand.
Value for your project
The Balkans is one of the lowest cost regions in Europe in terms of software development services, especially compared to the Nordics. The sheer cost of living adjustment coupled with the competitive scarcity in places like San Francisco means choosing Serbia as a destination for developmental activities just makes economic sense. Skillful programmers with a Western European flair, high levels of deep technical knowledge, and impeccable English, combined with lower than average rates makes this a difficult destination to ignore.
Global companies in Serbia
Committing to the development of the economy, the Serbian government is focusing on stability and a predictable environment for investment and business operations, as well as accelerating growth and creating new jobs. Key players such as Google, Microsoft, SAP, and many others have taken advantage by establishing development centers in Serbia or outsourcing services to local software development firms.
Government support of the IT sector
The Serbian government
has dedicated itself to encouraging growth in the sector and established a Ministerial Council for IT, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, with the mission to address any issues, support the industry, and enable faster development. The great demand for IT professionals globally and in Serbia especially has resulted in increased investment for expanding computer science programs at universities and improving the curriculum for IT in primary and secondary schools, ensuring a steady pipeline of talent. The IT Council is set to invest around 8.5 million EUR into the infrastructure and around 1.5 million EUR into retraining programs. The government's plan during the next few years is expected to:
• Reach 1.5 billion EUR in IT sector net exports.
• Increase the number of skilled IT workers to 5,000 per year (from current 1,500) through educational initiatives.
• Invest more in the physical infrastructure of the IT centers in Serbia, mainly within universities.
• Reduce barriers of entry by changing the legal framework related to early stage investments, electronic payments and venture capital, introduce tax reliefs for business angels, and review IT industry grants.
Behind the scenes, Serbia is borrowing good ideas from outside the country as well. The Ministry of Public Administration is using the Finnish cultural model as a template for building an efficient tech ecosystem. The Embassy of Finland in Belgrade (together with the Serbian Innovation Fund) organizes local pitching competitions with the winner having a chance to participate in a 10-day long boot camp in Helsinki and attend conferences.
Why Serbia?
Cultural affinity - Serbia has a delicate balance and link between East and West, both on a personal and business level, which makes building relationships easier.
Time Zone - Serbia is situated in the same time zone as Western Europe (+/- an hour), which enables easy coordination of daily communication and meetings arranged during working hours. Time zone difference from East Coast is six hours, which makes overlap with clients possible at least for a portion of their working hours.
English language - The English language is mandatory through education in duration of at least eight years, and since they study at least 2 foreign languages, it is common to find professionals from all lines of work with excellent knowledge of German, Italian, Spanish, French or Russian.
Value - Clients can get relatively low prices in Serbia for the same high quality of work as in Western Europe or USA.
Education - Thanks to the educational system significantly focused on engineering and computer sciences, Serbia creates highly qualified and very capable young people with strong mathematical and logical background focus.
I found out many chess.com's programmers are from Serbia. Then, I went on to search the reason behind it. Here is what I found out from internet. (Courtesy: tms-outsource/developer-rankings)
All Serbians in chess.com, come and comment here.
Although we might be tempted to believe that the best developers in the world are based in the United States, worldwide developer rankings will show without any doubt that developers from the United States are outstanding, but they are not the best in the world.
A comparison of the data SkillValue and Hacker Rank, our competition, retrieves from the same type of program for testing programming skills shows that, unlike Hacker Rank, we keep neglecting a lot of areas across the world, including China and a significant part of the Far East.
Hacker Rank maintains a more consistent and wide-ranging presence in these areas compared to us, but, as far as Europe is concerned, we are every bit just accurate. Both of us have secured a recognized position inside the European market.
The YouEconomy movement allows individuals to become chess players rather than chess pieces and take the future of work into their hands, which makes it easier for remote teams to work together and search worldwide for better deals and connections as well as lower costs.
Within this context, I can transfer to you the experience that such young entrepreneurs have accrued across three continents, which will allow you to identify and appreciate the rules of doing business at a global level and will show you how to add a local flavor to your brand.
This article will answer your big question: why get involved in conducting business internationally? You will also become motivated and enthused by the coming together of new arts and media in these settings.
Serbia is a surprising place where upfront and frank communication is advised while collaborating with the technical workforce. In 2014, ADAC performed a comparison between 20 costs for different holiday items across European cities. Belgrade’s rating has remained the same ever since.
Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, outranked 19 other established metropoles in Europe, including Ljubljana (Slovenia), Zagreb (Croatia), Budapest (Hungary), and Prague (Czech Republic). Belgrade secured the topmost position in this list based on its €42-basket of consumer goods.
Given this context, Serbia looks appealing to tourists with middle-incomes who enjoy independent traveling. However, Belgrade is far more than an appealing tourist attraction. It has recently become a veritable hub for pioneering businesses.
More and more such companies establish their offices in Belgrade. They bring with them the nomads of the digital world who choose to conduct their work in unique places that boast a vibrant history, such as Serbia. But why is Serbia in 5th place on worldwide developer rankings?
The motive behind their choice is the ability to contract out part of their work to highly proficient programmers that come with a European approach and character in addition to lower per hour rates and exceptional English skills with magical wit.
Within this context, it is a foreseeable development for more Serbia-grounded companies to be established and transformed into successful enterprises. An example to follow is Nordeus, the company that has created the worldwide famous Facebook game, Top Eleven.
Other examples of successful enterprises include Seven Bridges, the developer of software designed to analyze genomic data. Seven Bridges was ranked as one of the 50 Smartest Companies (2016) by MIT Technology Review.
Devana’s ManageWP is another Serbian success. It stands for the multi-site WordPress management tool acquired by GoDaddy to get into the international market, as well as for the further growth of the network, and the sharp learning curve.
Serbia’s Information and Communications Technology/ICT sector lacks both junior and senior professionals in the context of a 41.7% unemployment rate for the 15-25-year age range and a 33.27% unemployment rate for the 15-30-year age range.
Serbia registered an export of services of the software arena valued at €678,3 million in 2015. Moreover, a dazzling number of programmers estimated at 30.000 would commence work instantly against the double of the country’s average wage.
Crazy plans don’t look that crazy anymore. StartIT is a community that intends to instruct and train 100.000 leaders, all young, in 12 Serbian cities by 2020. The biggest support in the history of regional crowdfunding looks like a feasible plan.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the educated and skilled workforce of the country migrates towards pioneering hotspots in Europe, Asia, or the United States. More than a hundred years ago, two of the most celebrated inventors in the world, both of Serbian origin, Nikola Tesla and Mihajlo Pupin, have done the same. Upon their success, they eventually joined the New York City’s high society.
The Belgrade Museum provides you with a chance to applaud Nikola Tesla and his 160th birthday. You can also celebrate online via VR headsets. A museum dedicated to Tesla was launched recently in the Wardenclyffe Tower in New York. Using Tesla’s car to take a journey to Tesla’s birthplace sounds like a great way to enjoy your time in Serbia.
Augmented reality was used for the first time at the Historical Museum of Serbia to bring to life Mihajlo Pupin, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, one of the forefathers of NASA, and a dearly loved professor at Columbia University. It is all possible due to the enthusiasm of Ms. Aleksandra Ninkovic Tasic and Ms. Dusica Bojic, the authors of the exhibition.
With such ancestors, it is no wonder that Serbia is at the top of the developer rankings. In addition to amazing working opportunities, Serbia has to offer many fun opportunities that include vibrant night-life and festivals, including the Guca Trumpet Festival or the EXIT, which is the Serbian version of the Glastonbury, held in the Petrovaradin Fortress that overlooks the Danube river in Novi Sad.
With your pockets overflowing with happiness and brass as the Pretenders’ song, Brass in Pocket, is saying, you may be tempted to try a trumpet for yourself or become a virtuoso of the Merak sound yourself. Traveling around the country is a great enterprise, but so is motorcycling around the country with the wind pushing you forward.
Serbia’s history comes to reinforce its status as the birthplace of numerous engineers, often famous across the world. The country’s reputation in this respect has been secured through an educational system that places a high emphasis on science-related subjects rather than ideological matters.
It is only now that we get to see how the country’s tradition of focusing on mathematics and science as far as education was concerned contributes to preparing the future generation of IT specialists.
People can get an education in Information Technology in 35 higher education establishments. Moreover, in Servia, 33% of university graduates are engineers. All this comes to prove why Serbia stands in the 5th place in developer ranking across the globe.
With an abundance of tech talent, so many software development firms establish academies to exert a pull on the smartest post-graduates. These academies offer skill development opportunities as well as potential job placements within the academy’s founding company.
Academies are also a hotspot of innovation that is meant to appeal to informally educated developers, not solely students, drawing them into the core of the companies behind such academies. One more reason for Serbia to be among the best in worldwide developer rankings.
In addition to the academy example, there are universities in Serbia that work together with various software developers. A viable example is that of developers helping university labs on implanting electronic medical devices and controlling and monitoring software.
A good example is medical technical insights provided by developers that have aided in the implantation of a deep-brain stimulation gadget, which was designed to treat and cure acute neuropsychological disorders.
Such long-term collaborative projects between the academic and the IT fields only come to demonstrate that the two domains work together very efficiently with astonishing results.
Serbia was at the intersection of the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman empires, which empowers Serbians with an intercultural mentality that has become a great asset in today’s modern world.
Serbians have the innate ability to efficiently build connections and relationships with representatives of the IT industry from the Netherlands, Israel, and Dubai through the Middle East, Deutschland, Austria & Switzerland.
Adding a personal touch to the process, most technical partners in Serbia commence any business collaboration via a face-to-face meeting despite the long distance that separates them from their potential partners, which sets the foundation of durable relationships.
Serbia has tight business relationships with the Netherlands, which came as a surprise during our Serbian journey. Some of the IT teams we’ve met up with attribute this good relationship to a Dutch IT provider, Levi9, who launched a center for developers on Serbian land to gain access to Serbian engineers.
It seems as though Serbia’s success among the world’s developer rankings is not just a matter of strategic geographical positioning, but also a matter of a well-established reputation for competence.
Serbian IT teams are looking forward to collaborating with the western world. They seek to tackle the biggest problems with their innate problem-solving abilities. They want to collaborate and demonstrate that Serbia 5th place among developer rankings is well-deserved.
Serbia is a crucial outsourcing country that has been mastering the technological field for quite some time. Serbian ICT representatives offer cost-effectiveness, loads of talent, and a driven mentality. Their diligence also makes Serbian tech teams to be a valued asset inside any global team.