How long will programmers remain this much in demand in Bulgaria? What does the future of this attractive sector look like? What do we need to do to give it better prospects? What sets us apart, and what reputation do Bulgarian IT specialists have around the world?
Is it worth turning to programming as a profession today?
Veli Pehlivanov is a guest who can give meaningful answers to these questions.
He started as a junior developer at Telerik in 2008 and climbed the software ladder quickly, even after the company was acquired in one of the biggest software deals in Bulgaria's history in 2014. Two years later he was already leading an engineering team at Progress. At 26 he found himself at the head of specialists from the American company who had decades of experience. He led a team of more than 100 people working across a wide range of technological fields, allocating a development budget of $5 million.
Today he is one of the cofounders of Resolute Software. With colleagues and kindred spirits, he created the software consultancy, which wants to offer a model of its own and already works with clients on four continents. So what makes their idea different?
– Why is there a stereotype that programmers are grumpy, withdrawn, uncommunicative people? And it often turns out to be accurate…
– On the whole, we engineers love dealing with abstract ideas and technologies, and that's the opposite of being social, of building relationships and communicating with the person across from us. It's a question of affinity first and of skills second. If I'd wanted to work with people rather than computers, I would have become a sales rep.
On the other hand, I'm very much aware that
as a software engineer I have to know how to talk to the people
who commission or accept the project; they need to learn about the quality of my work from me. That means I have to acquire the skills to talk at an adequate level, even if I'm introverted, withdrawn and uncommunicative. In my view, these skills can be acquired whatever a person's inclination—toward more communication or toward technical work.
But someone who can combine the two becomes exceptionally strong in our profession. When a good programmer also learns to communicate, miracles happen. People who invest in making up for one of these two qualities do themselves a great service as professionals.
– Besides a willingness to learn and analytical thinking, what other qualities matter for succeeding in this profession?
– That's a very interesting question. In recent years, with the isolation, we saw how
even though we work with technology, we are social beings
and our main means of communication is human relationships.
I'd say the strongest engineers are exceptionally good at communication and emotional intelligence, just as they are at technical and analytical skills.
Communication skills and emotional intelligence let you understand how the other person reasons, why they think a certain way. People like that are able to steer software development so that what we build benefits the business and adds value.
– Is it ever too late to become a programmer?
– It's never too late! We have colleagues on the team who started at a fairly mature age. One of our big clients in the US has its own software team, and some of the people on it are former police officers with 20 or 30 years of service.
– They must make good QA engineers. They know how to find mistakes…
– They're good as programmers and as QA, but above all they're a very telling example of how it's never too late to take up something you like and are passionate about.
In this industry there are so many things you can understand and be productive with; there's huge growth, development and improvement in technology. Even what you learned 10 years ago may no longer be relevant, while what you learn today will be useful tomorrow.
On our team we have colleagues with experience in various professions—former lawyers, architects, finance people. They build on a traditional education with professional courses and turn into software engineers.
It should never be too late to follow your dreams.
And many of these people show they've made the right choice; they put their heart and soul into the sector without being bothered that they invested 5 to 10 years in something they don't practice today.
– Lately Bulgaria's software industry has been attracting more and more attention. Are there fields and technologies in which we stand out in some way?
– We're very good at algorithmic knowledge and complex programming models. In general, the more technology develops, the more we become generalists as engineers—you know your platform, you know how it works, but you don't necessarily have to understand the algorithm hidden “underneath.”
Very often that's not enough, and to cope you need strong mathematical and analytical skills. I think Bulgarian engineers have historically had them because of our strong education, not only in math but also in the abstract sciences, logic, chemistry, physics. It helps us be better algorithmists than the average engineer anywhere else in the world.
Let me give you an example: a German client contacted us asking us to solve an algorithmic problem. Their architects and principal engineers hadn't managed it. In three months we developed a model and a visual component that solved the problem exactly as they had assigned it to us.
– And what is our image globally? Until recently our programmers were in demand because their work was much cheaper than in the West, but that's changing…
– Five to ten years ago we really were lumped under the common denominator of “Eastern European programmers.” A high level of development at low prices, which some 15 years ago even came close to those in Asia. Close to India, where we're talking about mass supply with varying quality of work.
That's not the case today. The standard is rising, so are expectations, and that drives up the costs
of every employer.
In my view, we shouldn't play in the market for cheap coder labor. There are plenty of other countries that beat us on price, and our supply is too small to make up for it with volume.
What can make us stand out is the quality of the work. I think we have the potential to show world-class results.
– But that somehow also requires a more active and united community in the software industry. Both at the level of companies and of the programmers themselves.
– Yes, here we're talking about a transformation in the thinking of the whole sector, which needs to be much more focused on developing people, on the potential for learning, on high added value and quality of work. And not necessarily on taking every project and hiring every candidate.
Yes, right now everyone in the industry is suffering from a shortage of staff, but that
shouldn't be an excuse to work with people who can't show the level
we demand and should demand.
At Resolute we don't compromise on hiring, no matter how urgently or desperately we need people. We work only with candidates we believe can show both the necessary technical skills and the necessary communication and soft skills for working directly with the client. What we value most is high potential for growth, because engineers' current abilities aren't constant over time. Today we work with certain technologies; in two years it will most likely be others. The only constant for us is development and acquiring new skills.
I think that's the secret to the success of our small IT community. A focus on quality, and conditions at the level of business, education and society so that only quality work is tolerated.
– Why is there a shortage of people when the profession is so well paid?
– I put it down to a global macro trend. Software development is growing at breakneck speed; various systems are being built into every aspect of our lives. In the car market, for example, some 10 years ago the features used to promote models were suspension, engine, soundproofing. Today every dealer promotes infotainment, navigation, autonomous systems—all elements that are the product of engineering work in the software industry more than in the automotive industry.
So we see software contributing more and more to quality of life everywhere. Accordingly, demand for solutions grows, and supply can't keep up. Especially in Bulgaria, where the industry offers a very significant difference in income compared with other sectors.
– Demand for people really does keep growing, and the gap of missing specialists seems to keep widening. Do you think we're close to the peak? After all, this can't go on forever…
– Many experienced people predict such an end. But I think we're in the upper half of the curve. There are several macroeconomic factors that determine this peak and may decide when it will end.
The first is the price of services relative to pay levels. Software development in Eastern Europe is becoming an ever more expensive service, approaching Western European price levels. Soon price won't be the deciding factor in winning projects, which could lead to a lull in demand for people.
On the other hand,
we're starting to see a gap between the added value of the individual engineer and the rising level of pay
he seeks on the market.
Building software is a team sport; the team is stronger than the individual. The individual on his own doesn't have the added value he once had, while at the same time the cost of him keeps rising. Calculating profitability is key—if it starts to slip away, that will change companies' attitude considerably.
– Where do you think there's hidden potential? I've always wondered, for example, why no one starts investing more seriously in schools, and specifically in those for minorities…
– There's definitely untapped potential in terms of people. The state and the education system certainly have work to do.
IT education has to start in primary and elementary schools. Computer literacy is becoming an integral part of the requirements for a professional career in every person's development today anyway. It's time it became part of the basic skills, the way we study chemistry and physics today.
Of course business has a role too, and it can help a lot. Because our profession is very practical. It starts with a large amount of theory and has a steep learning curve, but the everyday work actually has many practical dimensions. IT companies can encourage internships, training programs and, in general, young people's hands-on contact with real business. That will help enormously, not only with the technical skills this profession needs, but also in letting these future professionals feel the dynamics of the work.
– You started working in the software world in 2008. So much has happened since then; computers have taken over all our lives… What has changed in the industry from your insider's view?
– First, we've become very, very multi-technological. “Cloud engineer,” “full-stack,” “project manager” are professions that have transformed over time and include several disciplines that were of no interest 15 years ago.
On top of that, we see technological knowledge deepening in every field. Fifteen years ago we looked for a programmer with skills in a given programming language. Now that's not enough to define the type of specialist; you're no longer simply a “JavaScript programmer,” there's very deep specialization in a particular technology—for example, whether you do Angular or React. Very often these two communities aren't interchangeable; engineers do one and don't want to do the other.
– I can agree with that wholeheartedly—I wouldn't swap Angular, the technology I work with, for the other platform, which is more in demand.
– Whereas 15 years ago you'd just say, “I do JavaScript,” and that covered everything. Back then there weren't even DevOps engineers. Now, as technology has developed, many additional specializations have emerged.
I'd say we're much more polyglot as engineers than before
and much more focused on particular, specific technologies that we dig deep into in order to deliver the added value we once could with more general concepts.
At Resolute, too, we believe that specializing in certain skills is what gives us the biggest competitive advantage for a certain type of technical challenge we know we're very good at. And at the same time it gives us the confidence that
we don't need to be the best at everything and pretend we can solve every technical problem.
We've turned it into a model of behavior, of work. Sometimes we have to tell a client: “No, sorry, we're not the right people for this job.”
– You've told yourselves you'll never grow beyond 100 people. Isn't that an artificial limit? What's the logic?
– The limit is artificial, but it isn't arbitrary. We believe that
team culture and cohesion matter more than headcount.
All of us founders come from companies with hundreds or thousands of people globally. In them, team culture and collective identity get diluted. Employee engagement can't be guaranteed.
I've seen how in a big company employees' engagement, culture and happiness are a direct function of the team they work in. That means the people in a group, and only they, determine its quality.
We've told ourselves we're building a business that won't compromise on the quality of that group, on team culture, on people's happiness and satisfaction. Which means you automatically rule out becoming a big company, since that would automatically mean compromise.
Why exactly 100 people? Studies show a person can have up to 200 meaningful social connections. Since half of our lives is usually spent at work, in some professional setting, that means you can have up to 100 meaningful contacts there.
– I also learned that candidates take a kind of personality test when they're hired.
– We run several tests; we have a comprehensive model for analyzing candidates' personal and behavioral traits. In fact,
we do one technical interview and five different tests of behavioral patterns.
Analyzing candidates' personal characteristics is even more important to us at this point than their technical skills.
We're a company that works very closely with its clients, and within the team as well. Which means we value communication abilities, teamwork, collaboration and emotional intelligence just as much as technical qualities. What matters to us is that you're open, honest, focused on growth and on high results in the collective game that is our business.
– Where do you dream of being in 10 years?
– I imagine we'll still be successful, satisfied, working engineers and leaders. We're not a startup developing along the typical, currently fashionable funding trends—round after round and then some kind of exit. On the contrary, we're doing business the conventional way, with independent cash flow that lets us grow organically. With a focus on the satisfaction of doing our work well every day. So it wouldn't be surprising if in 10 years we're still the same Resolute with 99 people, just more successful and even more satisfied than today…
