Tech talent pool in Vietnam: Java, Python, JavaScript, and other emerging technologies

The issue of shortage in skilled IT professionals doesn’t seem to go away anytime soon, especially in Western nations such as the USA, UK, and other developed countries. This leads businesses to outsource their development projects to offshore companies by hiring remote software developers to work on their projects. In recent years, Vietnam has grown to become one of the most popular IT outsourcing destinations and trusted providers of software development services of excellent quality.

Outsourcing to Vietnam can be an effective way for companies to quickly scale their development team capacity while reducing hiring costs. Among the most in-demand technologies for Vietnam, IT outsourcing services are Java, Javascript, and Python.  

In this article, we examine in detail to have an overview of the tech talent pool in Vietnam and also to help businesses in their quest of hiring the best suitable software developers.

JAVA SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS IN VIETNAM

Vietnam provides one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of IT professionals in the South-East Asia region. In terms of the IT talent pool in Vietnam, according to topdev.vn, there are currently over 300,000 developer profiles in Vietnam listed in their database.

A quick scan on LinkedIn for “software developer” shows a result of over 45,300 results, and this figure is expected to continue growing in the coming years. At the present, the majority of software developers in Vietnam are of young age, with the majority being in the age range from 20-29 years old, consisting of 52.2% of the total pool.

In terms of technology, with the advent of many emerging programming languages, Java still remains one of the most popular programming languages among developers in Vietnam – with many software development companies in Vietnam providing Java outsourcing services. 

Read more about: Java Outsourcing – How to hire the right company?

Also, according to the same 2019 developer report by topdev.vn, Javascript and Java take up the top two spots on the list of programming languages Vietnam software developers use for work. Besides, LinkedIn data shows a result of over 13,960 Java developers currently working in Vietnam.

The above statistics demonstrate the available resources that the Vietnam IT market can leverage to match the demand for Java programming skills needed by foreign companies.

Hiring Java software developers in Vietnam

When it comes to hiring Java software developers in Vietnam, it’s better that you conduct direct interviews to identify the developers' skills, experience, and whether their personalities could be a good fit for the project overall. A number of technical factors need to be put into consideration:

• Knowledge of core Java and ability to keep up-to-date with the latest Java trends;
• Experience in building scalable Java applications;
• Strong knowledge of Java libraries and frameworks;
• Demonstrated experience in using new tools and technologies such as Jira, GitHub, Jenkins
• Good understanding of OOP concepts and development experience in JEE architecture
• And more

Personality and communication (including English) skills are also just as equally important.

JAVASCRIPT SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS IN VIETNAM

According to a 2019 survey conducted by Stackoverflow, Javascript takes up the number one spot as the most popular technology. And in Vietnam, as mentioned above, Javascript takes up the top place with Java coming in second, with over 69% of respondents choosing Javascript.

Additionally, going through LinkedIn, it’s shown that there are over 16,100 software developers who are skilled at Javascript.

Hiring JavaScript developers in Vietnam

Javascript is a great technology choice for the development of complex, full-featured, and dynamic web applications. The demand for experienced Javascript developers could be really high due to the strong demand for web app development services. At the minimum, customers should set out to hire Javascript specialists who have the following skillsets:

• Experience in working with various JavaScript libraries and frameworks for front-end and/or back-ends, such as React.js, Angular, JQuery, NodeJS, and others.
• Experience and possess good knowledge of web markup, including HTML5 and CSS3
• Solid knowledge of asynchronous request handling, partial page updates, and AJAX
• Back-end Javascript developers should be well-versed in Node.js, along with Express.js and other frameworks. Preferably, qualified JS developers should also have experience with database management such as MongoDB. GraphQL or REST are required for creating API, so the Javascript developers you hire should also have experience with at least one of these technologies.

Again, other soft skills and communication in English play an important role in selecting the right candidates for your project.

Also, read more about: Custom Software Development: Full-stack vs. Mean Stack

PYTHON SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS IN VIETNAM

Based on the same survey above, Python positioned itself among the top 5 most popular programming languages in Vietnam. Python has been around for a while and Python developers now take up a large portion of the Vietnamese IT market. A quick LinkedIn search yields a result of over 4,000 software developers in Vietnam who are adept at Python technology.

Additionally, Vietnam is also home to many Python development companies providing various services using Python including automation tests and web app development. Thus, a lot of foreign companies can hire Python developers in Vietnam to work on their projects for different purposes.

Factors to consider when hiring Python Development Company

When looking to hire a Python Development Company in Vietnam, first of all, customers should clearly identify the requirements for their project. Here are our 5 tips for hiring the right Python development company:

• Review the Python developers’ experience and skills, including work experience with popular Python libraries and frameworks, such as Django, and Flask for web development; Or, TensorFlow for machine learning and data science, etc.
• Experience working with front-end web development technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc.
• Solid knowledge of various concepts related to Python technologies, including core Python concepts about syntax and semantics, Python built-in container data types and libraries, threading limitations and ways to overcome them, etc.
• Hands-on experience using Python development tools, including debuggers, editors and IDEs, etc.

Other factors such as personality and soft skills also need to be considered in order to hire the best suitable candidates.

OTHER EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

In addition to the popular technologies mentioned above, many companies also choose to outsource to Vietnam their development projects which require emerging technologies such as Blockchain, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, etc.

Emerging technologies play a critical role in ensuring business success in the age of digital transformation. Companies ranging from large enterprises to new start-ups all looking to adopt emerging technologies into their business process.

In Vietnam, Blockchain and Machine Learning are the topics that receive a lot of attention in the IT community with many tech events and conferences being held around those topics. There are over 1,000 (1,045 to be exact) data scientists currently registered on LinkedIn. Considering the number of data scientists in Vietnam, customer companies definitely have a viable option to fill in their development capacity gap by hiring data scientists and other IT professionals in Vietnam.

CONCLUSION

Today, software developers in Vietnam are particularly in-demand by foreign companies looking to expand their development team capacities. Vietnam has a strong tech talent pool in the Asia region, with many software vendors providing quality IT services meeting international standards.

A large pool of tech talents who are open-minded, hardworking, and willing to learn new technologies are among the factors that contribute to the growth of Vietnam in the global IT outsourcing market.

Especially, there is a large pool of tech talents in Vietnam who are well-versed in Java, Javascript, and Python as well as other emerging technologies such as Blockchain, Machine Learning, and Data science which are available for hire, allowing customers company to quickly establish their development center at a much lower cost than in the local market. Companies that look to outsource can kick-start their development project by exploring the Vietnam IT market.