💭 👨🏼‍🌾 👼🏽 While everyone is heading west, I moved to Armenia 👨‍🎓 🔵 🐔

Soon there will be no senior level specialists who would not receive relocation offers or would themselves not seek to move somewhere. Someone goes for experience, some for money, others for comfort.

In the summer of 2019, I also got the feeling that it was time to change something. But after working in Abu Dhabi and Moscow, if I could move to Switzerland or the USA, I moved to Armenia.

In order, I’ll tell you about the reasons for the move, the choice of company, a product that is unusual enough for the post-Soviet space, and how the developer differs in each country.

Reasons to move

In a joke, I can say that I lived in a country where it is always summer. Then in a country where it is always winter. And I wanted to live again in a country where there are all 4 seasons. But seriously, this was not an easy decision.

I was born and raised in Armenia, got an education here and started working. Then he moved to the UAE, where he spent 3 years developing software for radar systems and processing signals. From the UAE he moved to Moscow, where for 2 years he worked in Yandex, first in the Search team, then in the Air. After very interesting projects in these companies, such as the creation of hardware and software systems for the armed forces of several countries or the broadcast of the World Cup 2018 for a multi-million audience, I wanted something new.

Like many Yandex employees, I, too, was under the scrutiny of recruiters and received various offers, including from IT giants. Nevertheless, in Moscow there were no companies that I would be interested in after Yandex, and in a hypothetical Zurich I did not want to. As a result, Armenia became the golden mean, a country where all the factors important to me coincided.

Company selection

Now I work in the Yerevan office of the American startup ServiceTitan. Prior to the decision to move, I did not particularly follow the Armenian market, I heard something, but did not dive deeply. The choice of work was done not emotionally, but according to clear criteria, which he determined before the start of the process. It was important for me that the company had:

Office and intention to expand the team in Armenia;
Own product and ambitious plans;
Good conditions and team (in terms of human and professional qualities).

ServiceTitan learned about when, at the end of 2018, information began to appear that the company was launching operations in Armenia. I didn’t know the details, and at first glance it’s hard to understand what the company is doing.

ServiceTitan develops software for businesses that provide home services, such as installing or repairing air conditioning, plumbing, gas, electrics. The platform helps to better manage processes: track customer calls, optimize the movement of specialists, analyze advertising campaigns, revenues, etc. Specifically, our team is working on integration with various platforms, such as Google, which facilitates the process of ordering services.

I think it’s hard for many in the post-Soviet space to imagine that such tools can be created for such businesses that there is such a need in the world. In fact, over 900 employees are working on the product, and the company is valued at more than $ 1.6 billion.

Developer in the UAE, developer in Russia and developer in Armenia

Moscow and Abu Dhabi are located almost on the same meridian at a distance of 4000 km. Exactly in the middle is the third capital - Yerevan. A similar analogy can be drawn about the weather, culture and customs of these countries. Yerevan is a city where people have European values, but oriental hospitality, hot summers, and the New Year with snow.

Developers everywhere are practically of the same skill and differ from each other only in mentality and behavioral patterns. In the Emirates, the majority are visitors from all over the world with a different culture, religion, history and problems. This is interesting, but a bit complicated. You must carefully choose words, gestures, or, for example, plan ahead to work with colleagues who have other holidays.

Armenia has more in common with Russia than differences. For example, the widespread distribution of the Russian language in Armenia, a similar university base.

In terms of management, the main difference is that in Armenia there are more open and emotional relations between people. Often, working relationships go beyond a certain line and simple human relationships begin. There are disadvantages in less formal relationships, but if both parties understand why they gathered in one office, this will only help.

Prejudice vs. Reality

Relocation to Armenia is a non-standard choice with all the options available. But if one rejects prejudice, such a decision does not seem so radical.

In Armenia, you can pump in technology.
Before moving, I worked in C, C ++, Python. These languages are fundamental, but if you leave the large corporations where optimization is very important, not many companies need such skills. ServiceTitan runs on C #, .Net Core, React. I had to learn these languages. We have certain groups that focus only on the backend or frontend, but each engineer is required to be mobile and able to work on fullstack.

In general, the Armenian market is not far behind the others, it works closely with the West, the tech community is actively developing here, large-scale events and meetings are taking place.

Comfortable conditions

Yerevan is a safe city with good weather, delicious food. Of course, this is not Moscow or Abu Dhabi, the choice of concerts, exhibitions, events is impossible to compare. Nevertheless, this does not create isolation from the rest of the world, and if you wish, you can buy tickets to Europe for $ 100 and spend the weekend there.

Armenia has its advantages. Here, the cost of living is lower, and the salaries of developers do not differ from those offered in Russia. So, everyone can create the most comfortable conditions for themselves.

international experience

Armenia is a mono-ethnic country, in which, anyway, you constantly encounter other cultures. Even within the same company, you can communicate with offices in different parts of the world.

The active development of the IT sector has recently attracted more and more specialists from abroad. A person brings with him a completely different cultural code, experience, work style. A couple of months ago we conducted a survey on how many languages are spoken in our office. The minimum value, that is, the number of languages that one employee knows, was 3. The maximum is 7. And these are all technical people. In total, it turned out that in our office people speak more than 10 languages.

Relocation to Armenia does not mean that we are talking about outsourcing or a local product. The Armenian IT market is not the most talked about, not many have heard about Armenian companies, and if they have heard about them, they probably do not know that the development is in Yerevan. If you decide to test the Armenian market personally, you can write Satenik @satenikavetis to our recruiter in a telegram .