What are the most sought IT skills in Poland?

I just have one semester left before I finish my msc at the politechnika warszawska in electrical engineering. Currently I have a part time job as a bilingual English/Spanish sales engineer, writing technical requirements based on the user needs, explain the needs of clients, and making quite good money. However, I would like to switch my career to software development. It seems that all design engineering jobs are reserved to native Poles, but I prefer to do something more technical and I learned that most IT jobs in Poland don't require you to speak Polish. I know some stuff about coding from my undergrad coursework and I actually enjoy coding too. Once I graduate, I really would like to stay in Poland and just work here in the field of IT.

I took some IT courses in my university including Python, PHP and artificial intelligence. Currently in the summer, I also take intensive Polish course at B1 level and I teach myself SQL. I am just wondering if any of you would have any advice on things that I can learn during my free time beside improving my spoken Polish. I am thinking of learning Linux Shell once I become competent with SQL because I already know some programming languages such as C, C++, Java so I figure if I learn something that is completely different but valuable among Polish employers.

The most sought after skills vary depending on the area of software development eg if you want to work in banking/finance you'll ideally need to know C++ and MFC. If you want to be a software developer what you really need is to know two computer languages very, very well, rather than a bit of this and a bit of that. You'll pick up the other stuff as you go along. Concentrate on honing either your Java or C++ (ideally C++ as it's more complex than Java and hence there is a shortage of C++ programmers compared to Java) and then try to get a position as a junior programmer in that language.


If you have a skill set they need, the Polish language won't matter so much but if you're looking for a junior programming position I'm not so sure. Although there are plenty of foreign nationals working in Polish offices, most of them have been hired because they are experienced. Most communication in Polish teams takes place po Polsku. So continue to work hard at your Polish too :))