Last 20 years of the IT sector in Estonia briefly

IT professionals and Estonia

For as long as I remember, IT people have been highly valued in the Estonian economy. While tech-savvy people looking for work in line with their interests have generally been a fairly common occurrence here, some events in our country's history have deepened the need for truly skilled IT specialists.

Today, Estonia has made itself somewhat known in the world (at least among people in the IT field) by trying to be the most digitized country in the world. It has worked somewhat, although some of the claims circulating the internet are false (like the "wifi anywhere in the country, even forests" thing, who thought of that one). This goal has greatly increased the demand for IT professionals in Estonia over the years.

How did it start?

Estonia's recent history is entangled with tech, becoming the first country to allow digital voting as early as 2005. It was no small effort, and the voting system itself is inherently very security-focused, so a considerable workforce versed in cyber security was required.

The cyber security focus escalated massively after 2007 when Estonia suffered the then-second largest cyber attack ever recorded. This attack displayed the potential vulnerability of a country, unprotected from potential cyber threats. As a response, Estonia took up bolstering its cyber security capabilities, creating even more demand for workers in the field. Today, Estonia houses the NATO cyber defence hub CCDCOE and has a separate branch in its military dedicated to cyber defence (KÜVJ).

From a non-defence perspective, Tallinn has been dubbed the Silicon Valley of Europe, with the number of startups per person surpassing any other European country.

What does this mean for an IT professional?

The range of jobs a professional can find here is pretty colourful. In CVKeskus.ee, as I'm writing this, there are 188 job offers in the IT category, with the oldest offers being just under a month old. A lot of them offer the chance for working from home, and almost all of them are well-paid by Estonian standards. In addition, a lot of professionals prefer to change jobs every ~3 years to keep the pay competitive by market standards. Some of the offers are listed in English, but most of them require at least some English language skills anyway.

Common expectations for a worker in the field

In addition to whatever skill set is needed to complete the technical job, good English and overall communication skills are highly valued. As the crowd in Tallinn becomes more international, the Russian language loses a little bit of its importance in the workplace compared to the past, however, it is still a plus.

Comparing past expectations and conditions to current ones, we can see that the amount of jobs has grown, but workers are also much less "loyal to their workplace". I see it as a good thing because it incentivizes employers to make working for them more beneficial for the worker as well. In addition, the importance of the Russian language has declined, with English mostly taking over in the IT sector. Skills with newer version control technologies like Git have become almost required to facilitate more efficient development. Formal education in the field has lost a little bit of its importance, however, it is still heavily considered as a factor in hiring (although experience and overall competency outweigh a certificate – if you make it to the interview).

Conclusion

Estonia's strides towards digitization (successful or unsuccessful, depending on the take) have undoubtedly facilitated the emergence of a fairly IT-focused job market that has changed and evolved quite a bit over the years.