69 percent of tech firms surveyed plan to grow their IT team by up to 50 percent in next 12 months
Source: Misfit Vietnam
January 2018 – A majority of tech firms operating in Vietnam say the country has great advantages as a IT hub, including high-skilled programmers, reasonable labor costs and political stability, according to a new survey by ITviec.com, the leading recruitment site for Vietnam’s IT sector.
In the survey, 73 percent of foreign IT companies said they had considered other countries before choosing to locate in Vietnam.
More than four-fifths (81 percent) said Vietnam has a larger labor pool and lower labor costs than other countries considered. Three quarters scored Vietnam’s IT engineers higher than their peers in other countries in terms of technical skill level.
The survey also found that three quarters of the IT firms scored Vietnam higher than other countries when it comes to political stability.
On the other hand, 85 percent of the companies scored Vietnamese engineers lower than their peers in other countries in English ability.
When asked about the number one area for Vietnamese IT engineers to improve, the top answer was “English ability” with 39 percent. The second most popular answer was “higher level ability to design and think critically instead of just execute” with 32 percent.
Bright outlook
Prospects for Vietnam’s IT industry are seen bright as 69 percent of the tech firms said they plan to grow their IT team by 10-50 percent in the next 12 months. Nine percent plan to grow their IT team by more than 50 percent.
The survey by ITviec.com also found that salaries for new engineers are increasing.
Forty-five percent of the companies surveyed said that wages for new IT hires surged by 10-20 percent over the past 12 months. Thirty-seven percent said payments for new IT workers rose by up to 10 percent while 16 percent said they went up more than 20 percent.
Despite higher salaries Vietnam remains competitive. Ninety-four percent of respondents said that Vietnam’s “value for cost” is still higher than comparable countries.
The most in-demand job in the industry is senior developers who can think creatively and propose ways to solve problems. Fifty-five percent of the IT companies said senior developers is the position type they hire most.
Source: PowerGate Software
Junior or middle developers who can follow instructions and write clean code came second, with 37 percent of the firms said they hire this position type most.
Around three quarters (76 percent) of the companies surveyed said that finding right talent for team/hiring fast enough is their biggest growth constraint. Only 11 percent said finding more customers is their biggest problem. Eighty-two percent of respondents reported that the majority of their customers are outside Vietnam.
Chris Harvey, CEO of ITviec, said: “Vietnam is becoming a tech hub not only of Southeast Asia, but also the world. Foreign IT companies increasingly are entering Vietnam, and local companies like Foody.vn and VNG are growing rapidly. ITviec.com is proud to help them grow.”
Michael Lobb, Director of Teamscāl Pty Ltd — an Australian-invested company that entered Ho Chi Minh City in 2013, said: “In the last five years, our Vietnam team has moved from being a basic pool of development resources to contributing heavily to creative and management of our Australian company. The level of talent has significantly improved and companies like ITviec have increased our capabilities in recruiting skilled professionals.”
Michelle Koh, Director of Robust Tech House – a Singapore-based firm that comes to Ho Chi Minh City in 2014, said: “The Vietnamese are thirsty for knowledge, hungry to excel and have excellent work ethics and attitude. A for Attitude – this puts them in a class above the rest.”
Download all survey data and photographs of IT working environments here.