Beer, Coffee, and Multi-Core Processors

Putting aside beer, coffee, and multi-core (not necessarily in that order, of course), I did learn a few things this past week in and about the Czech Republic, as I'll shortly be trying to explain to the boss. In all likelihood, she will want to talk about irrelevant issues, such as how a tour of the Strahov Monastic Brewery ended up on my expense report. What can I say? I was interested in brewery IT infrastructure, or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm still working on answers to sure-to-come questions about the Svijansky Rytir Jireckova brewery tour, and what the heck does Joe's Garage Beer have to do with C++.

As quickly as possible, I need to get her focused on all of the software development shops in and about Prague. Shops like those of Microsoft, Skype, Deutsche Borse, Accenture, HP, CA, RedHat, Sun Microsystems, LogicaCMG, Infosys, and Monster Technologies. And that's just the short list of companies that have set up shop here. There are dozens if not hundreds of home-grown development centers, like Grisoft and Kerio. An umbrella organization that ties many of these development centers together is the Czech ICT Alliance, which works under auspices of CzechTrade, a government trade promotion organization.

From what I learned, there are about 129,000 people working in the Czech IT sector, although this figure probably doesn't include programmers and other IT workers in industries such as finance and the like. According to some studies, senior programmers in the Czech Republic earn about 16,000 Euros per year, while junior programmers earn about 11,000 Euros annually. Likewise, senior software engineers earn about 22,000 Euros a year, while junior software engineers earn about 16,000 Euros. Wage affordability for employers is one reason why the Czech Republic is so attractive to employers. To illustrate, a systems analyst in, say, Great Britain will command a salary of more than 40,000 Euros annually, while the same job in the Czech Republic is about half that.

Of particular note to a lot of software developers I know is that the Czech Republic has between 65 and 70 golf courses, compared to, say, just seven in Hungary. This is important, as I'll try to explain to the boss, although I luckily don't have to explain any golf-related expenses this time around.

As I previously mentioned, education is a big deal in the Czech Republic, with about 60 universities and colleges in the country. Of the 50,000 annual graduates, about one-third leave school with a degree in a technical or scientific discipline. In terms of IT, there are about 24,000 students in this arena, with about 3,000 graduating annually.

Thanks to reader John Ferguson who sent me a note to "nevermind the coffee, try the beer." Now John, can you can put in a good word for me with the boss? Also, thanks to Rob Demmer of Sun's NetBean team in Prague who took time to share his perspective of software development in the region. Finally, it really hit home in the Intel multi-core/multi-threaded sessions I attended that "Parallelize or Perish" is the real deal. So start tuning up on those concurrency skills now.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com

Posted by Jon Erickson at 02:34 AM  Permalink