Mobility, Transfer, and Other Challenges: Some Tips from the IT Professionals

Highly skilled migration and mass outflow of the IT professionals after the collapse of the Soviet Union put these engineers on the map of global technological market. Mythology about and nostalgia for the Soviet education take roots in a complex of different stages of the trainig system starting from an elementary school and extracurricula activities and finishing with the World contests and programming Olympiands. The talk presents some results of the study of Russian IT professionals placed in Russia and the UK based on biographical interviews. IT professionals usually mention their training when discussing factors of successful careers abroad. But what is also noticed is the recent negative tendency in the transformation of the whole system of technical training. The local barriers are relevant for the higher education institutions depending on available symbolic, social, material, and political resources. The IT sphere is leading in producing new projects as industry is highly concerned: the IT companies form demand and thus create new mechanisms for collaborations with HEIs by implementing specific training. Practical experience of the graduates from technical universities raises their global compatitive capacity and facilitates the international mobility resulting in internal and external migration. These professionals become recognised on the global level, where the flows of highly skilled migration acquire national treats. Compatriots being successful abroad turn their attention back to their home countries or away to the post-Soviet diaspora abroad. Shared cultural and educational background ease a knowledge transfer and connections to networks of technical specialists. HEIs remain sources for qualified personnel and potential partners thus confirming sacred status of alma-maters and education in general. Despite the negative estimates of the recent changes in the educational system, the nostalgic image of education and training keeps the process of professionalisation run for the post-Soviet technical specialists in a global community.