This is the latest edition of the largest and most detailed survey on Polish IT. You'll find information about who works in IT, how they work, how much they earn, and what Technologiess they use. This year, we've added a section on mental health. In total, we’ve prepared 244 charts.
Data indicates that IT specialists are staying in their positions longer, and advancement requires more experience than before. The increasing number of specialists in the market gives employers more choices and the ability to thoroughly verify candidates. Companies expect genuine expertise and specialized skills, rather than just a certain length of service.
Currently, even a junior must possess specific knowledge to stand out in the market, while seniors are increasingly required to have, for example, advanced knowledge of system architecture, process optimization, or mentoring skills. We also see this in current recruitments, where clients significantly raise their requirements for candidates.
At the same time, the importance of soft skills and team compatibility is growing. Employers are increasingly emphasizing collaboration, flexibility, and alignment with organizational culture. At Scalo, we recognize that creating stable and efficient teams requires a comprehensive approach – technical skills are essential, but so are interpersonal skills and long-term commitment. It's worth noting that some of these competencies, especially those related to organizational culture and team management, develop over years and require conscious cultivation.
These trends are also visible globally, as confirmed by the Future of Jobs 2025 report published by the World Economic Forum in January. Global analysis indicates that career paths in IT are becoming increasingly demanding, and candidate expectations are rising, especially in the context of the dynamic development of technology and automation. Employees must not only acquire new skills but also adapt to dynamic changes in the job market, where both technical knowledge and interpersonal skills are crucial.
The IT world is dynamic, but one thing remains constant – the more strategic and comprehensive the role, the more years of experience are required to achieve it. Statistics clearly indicate that the IT Architect position demands the most tenure, reflecting a long and demanding career path. It's a role for experts who not only thoroughly understand technologies but also foresee the future of systems, creating solutions that will function for years.
Project Managers and Product Owners hold the second position, showing that managing IT projects is no easy task and requires years of practice and experience working with technical teams.
At the opposite end is Data Science / ML / AI, which may have several reasons. First, it is a relatively new field, and secondly, the development of tools and process automation allows specialists to quickly acquire competencies that used to require years of practice.
An interesting trend is that Programmers have shorter average experience than IT Administrators and DevOps specialists. This may be due to a large supply of juniors on the market and more frequent job changes in programming, where new technologies replace old ones, and career paths are less linear than in system administration.
So, does the length of experience in IT matter? From this data, it can be concluded that not every role in IT requires decades of experience, but strategic and managerial ones do. Will long tenure still be crucial? Technological changes suggest that in the future, flexibility and the ability to learn will matter more, not just the number of years in the industry. Will these statistics look completely different in a few years?