“I still believe in the potential of the local IT&C market to attract investors and I think it will remain a business where we won’t see any people without jobs,” Jurcut added.
He believes the potential of the market comes from the investments that have to be made by the public authorities, as well as from the increase in the service segment as a result of a change in how companies see the IT part of their business.
“Outsourced services will be in higher and higher demand from small and medium-sized companies.”
IT colleges turn out about 7,000 graduates every year and the IT sector has been the only one that increased the number of employees during the crisis. The number of employees was 13% higher at the end of May compared with December 2011, 32,700.
The Bitdefender executive believes there are enough IT jobs because the industry is really developed in Romania, therefore the graduates no longer have to look for work abroad and salaries are competitive. Their decision, however, is also influenced by the living standards they want to attain.
A very good niche for graduates is the antivirus software business, which has been on the rise because more and more companies realize the need for security. Customers therefore migrated from pirated products to free solutions and from free solutions to paid solutions.
Bitdefender started in 2011 when it was founded by Florin Talpes, which is still its owner and one of the most famous IT entrepreneurs in Romania and has grown year after year. It is currently exporting its products to US, Australia and Japan and plans to expand distribution partners in the future and consolidate its presence on the market.
It posted EUR32 million revenue in Romania in 2011, up 10% on 2010, and had 370 employees at the end of last year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)