How Kazakhstani students choose IT employers

The goal of the study is to identify the profile of students interested in IT, their motivation when choosing an employer, and to find out which platforms are best for companies to interact with them. Kolesa Group conducted such a study last year, but in 2024, they updated the data and expanded the sample of respondents.

A total of 1,008 students across Kazakhstan participated in the survey. The average age of respondents is 21 years.

In the 2024 study, there were 15.3% more responses compared to the 2023 study. This was due to reaching new regions and channels for finding respondents.

Most of the survey was taken by 3rd and 4th-year students from about 80 universities and colleges across the country. Senior students are the most engaged and interested audience.

Kristina Abdraimova, Head of Learning and Development at Kolesa Group

Universities are eager to work with us because they are interested in ensuring their graduates are in demand in the market. At Kolesa Group, we actively collaborate with more than 10 universities across Kazakhstan. As a business, we understand that students will make up the majority of our team in just a few years.

Therefore, we prepare students who are better suited for the market:

— We participate in creating syllabi

— We communicate with students at job fairs

— We train and employ students through the Kolesa Academy and Kolesa Upgrade educational programs

— Once a year, we host Kolesa JunDay 2024 — a large-scale free IT event for Kazakhstani students, where our experts help them lay the foundation for their career path.

We want our educational projects to continue benefiting emerging specialists in Kazakhstan. Therefore, we conducted this study to understand what is important to students when choosing an employer, which communication tools are most effective, and what truly motivates young people to develop in IT.

Top 5 universities and colleges whose students participated in the survey:

Satbayev University — 18%
Astana IT University — 11%
International University of Information Technologies — 9%
Suleyman Demirel University — 8%
Kazakh-British Technical University — 8%.

The surveyed students are primarily studying the following majors:

The remaining 20% of students are studying the following majors: data analytics, automation and management, marketing, finance, and international relations.

What and why interests students

Kolesa Group identified the top 5 IT areas of interest for students:

Backend development — 19%

Data analytics — 12%

Frontend development — 8%
ML — 8%

Product management — 7%.

The remaining 5% of students want to develop in the following areas: SMM, computer graphics, IT recruiting and HR, 1C development, fullstack development, hardware engineering.

The share of "undecided" respondents increased compared to last year — 15%. In 2023, this figure was 8.8%. However, in recent years, students have become more conscious: in the 2022 study, 23% of respondents answered "I haven't decided yet."

When students start working

At the time of the study, 356 of the surveyed respondents already had IT work experience. 50% of those surveyed started working during their second or third year of study.

Students with IT experience are studying the following fields:

— Computer engineering and software

— Computer Science

— Management

— Engineering

— Mathematics.

How students prepare for IT careers

For self-education, students use the following resources:

Notably, the role of YouTube and pet projects for students has grown significantly in 2024. For comparison, similar figures from the 2023 study: YouTube — 35%, pet projects — 4%.

Sources of information about vacancies/internships:

Regardless of whether they have experience or not, students share two common traits:
— Most learn about vacancies on hh.kz, Telegram, and LinkedIn
— The share of LinkedIn used for job searching has increased several times compared to 2023. 

Criteria for choosing an employer in 2024:

While in 2023, the top 5 factors for choosing a potential employer included: 

And in 2022, the main criteria were:

Main conclusions of the study:

1. In the top factors for choosing an employer in the 2022 and 2023 studies, salary was in third place; this year, it has moved to first place. Career growth and learning opportunities still remain in the top 3 when choosing a workplace.

2. Most students with IT work experience are in their second or third year of study.

3. In 2024, students use YouTube, courses, and pet projects for self-education.

Recommendations for emerging IT specialists can be found at this link.