10 Things You Should Know About IT In Bulgaria

4. Looking for IT specialists with
“itchy feet”? Go to Bulgaria! A
recent poll among young
Bulgarian ITs aged 23-29
showed every other specialist is
“willing to consider working
abroad for a certain period”.
Recent EU accession of Bulgaria
(2007) and liberalisation of
labour market for Bulgarian
employees are but a few of the
factors leading to this shift in
attitude.
Some 50% of Bulgaria’s
young IT specialists are
willing to go
international.

5. Due to the easy and abundant access to Most of the global
qualified employees in IT, Bulgaria has been leaders in IT have strong
a preferred outsourcing destination for the operations in Bulgaria
IT industry for a decade now.
Excellent performance of the local branches
justified expansion and the transfer of
growingly important business to Bulgaria.
HP (2000 people), CSC (600 people), SAP
Labs (500 people), vmware (300 people) etc.
have all expanded their operations in recent
years, providing local IT professionals with
more know-how, more training opportuni-
ties and more corporate culture touch
points.
With greater exposure to international
projects, Bulgarian IT experts expand not
only their portfolios, but also their horizons
and mentality, making them more fit for
assignments and employment abroad.

6. Bulgaria boasts tradition-
ally strong performance
and gold medalists from
the International
Informatics Olympiads High-school education in Informatics is
considered to be quite elite and is much
sought after by teenagers. The Bulgarian
school of Informatics has very strong
traditions and boasts a long line of prizes
and medals from the Informatics Olympiads
and other international test of competence
and proficiency in computer science.
Bulgaria is also one of the founders of the
Informatics Olympiad initiative and the only
country to have hosted twice the games for
teenage IT talents - the first games in
history, back in 1989, as well as the 21-st
edition, in 2009.

7. Hackers? No: future
creative IT specialists
Bulgaria tops every possible Internet piracy list in the world, which, of course, is a
very bad thing. However, there’s one positive side to it - Bulgarian teenagers learn
from their early teens not to take ‘no’ for an answer. In other words, impossible is
nothing, indeed. Luckily, once they go to university and get a more mature view of
life, IT geeks put their hacker history behind. But the creative usage of digital tech-
nology and the path-finding attitude has by then instilled in their genes. Many of the
most successful IT entrepreneurs in Bulgaria confess having hacking experience in
their younger years. You say “Damn hackers!”. We say “Give them some time...” :-)

8. ICT expenditure in Bulgaria
is with 30% higher than the
average for middle-income
European countries
ICT has been a top-3 priority for the last three governments of Bulgaria (all from
different political parties, by the way). So, ICT is not probably the only consensus
point, but also one that surely goes forward and pays off.
A recent World Bank global report* shows ICT expenditure in Bulgaria rising to 6.5%
of GDP. This ratio is 1/3 greater than the average spending rates for all middle-
income countries in Europe, higher than that of the Euro area (5.2%) and equal to
that of IT “miracles” as Finland (6.5%).
*The Little Databook on Information and Communication Technology 2010

9. Sofia is one of the top 10
cities in the world by
broadband Internet
access
Being well-wired is a key
prerequisite for IT development.
Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria,
boasts one of the best broad-
band Internet connections in
the world, giving both upstart
IT specialists and well-
established businesses the vital
advantage of high-speed,
high-quality connectivity.

10. IT science traditions in During the communist regime Bulgaria
Bulgaria date back to the was the only country in the Soviet block
1960-ies. that developed micro-electronics at
consumer level. Bulgarian-made PCs have
been developed and produced since the
early 80-ies of the 20th century, under the
brand of Pravets.
This gave Bulgarian hardware and
software industry its first major boost,
taking the know-how and experience of
local specialists to world-class level.

11. 57% more Bulgarian
students enrolled in
computer science majors in
2009, as compared to 2001
Different technology majors (incl.
Information Technology and
Electronics) are the second most
favoured field of study for Bulgar-
ian university students. More than
1/4 of all Bulgarian students
graduate as engineers.
This number beats humanitarian
& liberal arts majors by more than
2 times. Technology majors are
also the top choice for post-
graduate studies (16% of all Ph.D.
students).

12. MiNDS People & Solutions
47A Sitnyakovo Blvd., Level 5
1505 Sofia
T/F: +359 2 484 0351
minds@mindspeople.com
mindspeople.com/international MiNDS People & Solutions
mindspeople.com (domestic website) 03/2011