The Polish IT job market has transformed significantly over the past year. According to the fifth annual salary and recruitment report by Next Technology Professionals, which surveyed 1650 IT specialists, there is a clear gap between candidate expectations and market reality. What trends dominated the technology sector in 2026, and what do current hiring standards look like?
79% of IT Specialists want to change jobs
Survey data shows a clear drop in the number of specialists who remained with their current employers over the past year: this rate shrank from 73% to a mere 54%. Currently, as many as 79% of respondents declare openness to a new offer, which means a huge pool of available talent on the market for recruiters in Poland.
The main reasons why specialists decide to change jobs remain unchanged:
- Inadequate salary (40%).
- Lack of development opportunities (32%).
- Lack of promotion prospects (30%).
Candidate expectations vs. multi-stage processes
Although candidates are more willing to change jobs, market-wide recruitment processes have become significantly longer. Quick decisions, closing within 2 weeks, currently account for just 25% of cases. Recruitment processes lasting from 3 weeks to over a month have become the standard on the Polish market.
A gap is also visible in the number of recruitment stages:
- Expectations: As many as 81% of IT specialists prefer processes consisting of a maximum of 2 stages.
- Reality: In the market, as many as 42% of processes include 3 or more verification stages.
How do IT specialists want to verify their skills?
Less stress, more conversation
The survey results clearly show how IT specialists prefer to have their skills verified during recruitment processes. When asked for their opinion, candidates simply prefer to avoid methods that require a large investment of time or are simply highly stressful. If they could decide on the recruitment process themselves, only 9% of respondents would choose live coding (which is a drop in the popularity of this method by half!). The situation is similar with take-home assignments (homework): currently, only 27% of people see them as a preferred step.
Instead, a technical interview (74%) and an HR or business interview (50%) remain the most desired forms of verifying knowledge.
Financial transparency and the hybrid model determine employee loyalty in the industry
Today’s IT market is a time of fighting for stability: as many as 24% of specialists point to it as a priority when choosing a new place of work. Companies that want to effectively attract talent must focus on financial transparency and flexibility, given that the lack of remote work options is a reason to consider changing companies for 77% of employees.
Download the report and gain recruitment support
We encourage you to download the full edition of the report to check all market rates and the latest trends. As an experienced IT recruitment agency and outsourcing company, Next Technology Professionals comprehensively helps in building strong technical teams. We have completed over 1000 successful processes for corporations, scale-ups, and startups.
Beyond niches such as AI, Data, Machine Learning, or Cybersecurity, we also support recruitments in finance, engineering, and marketing. We offer permanent recruitment, IT outsourcing, Executive Search, and assistance in setting up R&D centers in Poland.
Contact us to work together on turning these hard data points into recruitment successes for your organization.