Over the past 5 years, AI technology has been developing into a very stable and complete stage, it has the power to revolutionise how businesses operate and the way we live. In Vietnam Tech Market, many startups have already developed numerous AI Machine Learning projects creating an innovative boost for the whole industry. For that matter, the salary for this particular skill is increasing significantly for the years to come. At recent national tech conferences like Vietnam Web Summit and Vietnam Mobile Day, many companies and corporations from all over the globe have mentioned a lot about applying AI and Business Intelligence in to their current bussiness models. It shows us that AI is the key to our future and this is one of the focuses for Vietnamese Tech industry to look at for the next innovation movement. Not just AI, many other technologies are also on the rise, understand the market is the key to your future success. While advances in technology may someday result in ground-breaking solutions, for now businesses should follow a clear path for their innovation process and this is the best information we’ve provided yet. Your success is our success.

1. Q4 - 2018
Vietnam IT industry
human resources
trend and insights
https://topdev.vn
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2. 1
An open letter for
our tech fellows
Over the past 5 years, AI technology has been developing into a very stable and complete stage,
it has the power to revolutionise how businesses operate and the way we live. In Vietnam Tech
Market, many startups have already developed numerous AI Machine Learning projects creating
an innovative boost for the whole industry. For that matter, the salary for this particular skill is
increasing significantly for the years to come.
At recent national tech conferences like Vietnam Web Summit and Vietnam Mobile Day, many
companies and corporations from all over the globe have mentioned a lot about applying AI and
Business Intelligence in to their current bussiness models. It shows us that AI is the key to our
future and this is one of the focuses for Vietnamese Tech industry to look at for the next innovation
movement.
Not just AI, many other technologies are also on the rise, understand the market is the key to your
future success. While advances in technology may someday result in ground-breaking solutions,
for now businesses should follow a clear path for their innovation process and this is the best
information we’ve provided yet. Your success is our success.
binh nguyen
CEO - TOPDEV

3. 2
content
introduction
An overview about
Vietnam Developer scene
Understanding Market
Developers in the eyes of employers
Technology Trend
What is the best technology
platform for 2018-2019?
skills
Best Skills and Technologies
for 2018
Into the mind
of a developer
Developer’s path in 2019
4
11
14
17
24
How much developers are being
paid in 2018-2019?
29salary range

4. With the rapid change in IT human resources market,
we've put our report into two perspectives, from both
employers and developers point of view.
Source:
The information was acquired from Oct 3rd to Dec
14th. We have been collecting surveys from
thousands of developers and recruiters in our data-
base into to form one of the most comprehensive
guideline for IT industry market report.
15.000+
150+
100.000+
IT candidates
Recruiters
Analyzed Data
3
introduction

5. DEVELOPER
PROFILE
4

6. 5
gender of developer
92.9%
6.9%
0.2%
Male
Female
Other
The ratio of male and female in IT industry is still very unbalanced with male accounting for 92.9%
comparing to female with only 6.9%.
However, since last year, the number of female developers has been increasing rapidly, especially
female developers of two years experience.

7. 6
which technologiess are
female developers following?
Our survey also states that, there's more than 30% of female developers are using Java. Other
programming languages such as Ruby, PHP or Python and other new trends like AI and Machine
Learning are also getting more and more attention from female developers.
30%
20%
10%
0
Java Javascript C C++ Python PHP C# Ruby Swift Go

8. 3%7%
18 - 24
years old
48%
25 - 34
years old
25%
35 - 44
years old
17%
Under 18 years old44 years or
older
About ¾of current Developers are less than 35
years old.
Moreover, Vietnamese Developers are considered
younger & more active than other countries in the
world.
7
age of developer

9. 57.90%
48.20%
37.80%
20.40% 17.20% 14.30% 13.10% 11.30% 10.40%
Back-end Full-stack Front-end Android iOS Database
Admin
Product
UX/UI Design
System
Admin
DevOps
Specialist
Nearly 60% of respondents are Back-end Developer,
Full-stack Developer ranks second with 48%. The domi-
nation of Web technologies trends has helped increase
the number of Web Developers in general.
In addition, other prominent related fields including
Database Administrator and System Administrator,
DevOps Specialist also gain significant growths com-
pared to last year.
8
most popular developers

10. No 76.40%
23.6%YES
According to the survey, nearly a quarter of developers reported that they have participated
in open source projects. 100% developers said they use open source projects regularly.
About 70% Developers works with Javascript, PHP and Python open sources projects.
9
do developers contribute
to open source?

11. use online courses
Stackoverflow.com
Github.com
Codeacademy.com
In addition to other popular sites, Vietnamese developers do use lots of local tech sites to learn and update new knowledge. They
also use community forum to reach out to other developers for networking. Especially, Techtalk.vn is one of the most active orga-
nizations that holding many community events and activities for developers. These are the events that has help gathering most
of tech experts in Vietnam to come together and share their innovative ideas to the public.
77%
read tech
news & articles
Medium.com
Techtalk.vn
Viblo.asia
Slimshare.com
Kipalog
33%
Community Events
29%
use short term
courses
17%
CoderSchool
Nordic Coder
INTEK
Vietnam Mobile Day
Vietnam Web Summit
TechFest
Tech Summit
10
Top learning resources

12. what are employers
thinking about?
11

13. 12
What do employers care about
CV of developer?
There has been a misconception that employers
prioritize candidates from top-notch IT universities.
But in fact, what they care much about is candi-
dates' real-life experience and practical working
capacity.
Foreign language (English/Japanese) is also a com-
pulsory skill for all developers.
Experience
Portfolio
(Github,...)
Education
Foreign Languages
(English/Japanese...)
Soft
skills
90.50%
72.70%
41.70%
23.70%
8.20%

14. Referral
Job sites
(TopDev, Vietnamworks, ITViec...)
IT Communities
University Recruiting
Social media, blogs
Company
career page
Tech Events/
Meetups
Hackathons
58.5%
51.2%
27.3%
25.3%
23.7%
21.4%
20.3%
18.7%
13
which channels do employers
find it candidates?
Sometimes, a successful recruitment doesn't often
go through formal hiring processes, they usually
come from employer network (Referral).
Recruitment process should be using a standard
approach to find and evaluate candidates based on
their skill sets. In other words, every referral candi-
date should go through the same rigorous evalua-
tion & interview process as other candidates. The
interview panel should not be influenced by the
referral system solely. As a result, by focusing on
the candidates’ skills rather than introduction, there
will be less biases which can help expand the talent
pool significantly in the future.

15. DevOps is a new term emerging from the collision of two
major related trends - The first was also called “agile
infrastructure” or “agile operations”; it sprang from
applying Agile and Lean approaches to operations work.
The second is a much expanded understanding of the
value of collaboration between development and opera-
tions staff throughout all stages of the development
lifecycle when creating and operating a service, and how
important operations has become in our increasingly
service-oriented world.
DevOps has now become one of the main focuses
of shaping the software industry over the past
few years. Experts say that DevOps will be the
mainstream and its popularity will peak in 2019.
DevOps adoption has increased aproximately 8%
from 2015 to 2016 and this number is expected to
keep growing significantly in 2019.
DevOps throne
14
it trending

16. Vietnam May Soon Emerge As
One Of Southeast Asia's Blockchain Innovation Hubs
Vietnam's startup ecosystem has become increasingly dynamic, and it may well provide fertile
ground for developing in blockchain applications. The government has expressed strong support
of local start and initiated a plan to provide resources and training to tech companies during the
next several years.
As of August 2018, there were more than 430,000 open source projects and 800 startups in the
world operating on the Blockchain platform. Particularly in financial industry - payment, Block-
chain is expected to bring an economic value of 20.3 billion USD by 2030.
15
boom of blockchain technology

17. AI & Machine Learning will be the main focus for future businesses. They can handle huge amounts
of information and data flows which will free IT staffs from tedious tasks and focus more on other
important things, boost revenue and improve customers experience.
With waves of investment and development in Vietnam in recent years, big players such as FPT,
Viettel, VNG ... have all begun to research and develop many AI products and applications in real
life. Not only big companies, hundreds of startups have been applying these technologies directly
into their products such as Cinnamon AI Labs, Elsa Speak, Abivin, InfoRe ... This is considered one
of the most obvious signs for a strong technology innovation wave in the future.
16
ai & machine learning
reach new height

18. Most Popular
programming tools
in Vietnam
17

19. 69.8% 68.5% 65.1%
57.0%
45.3% 39.8% 38.8% 34.4% 30.7%
Javascript HTML CSS SQL Java PHP Python C# .Net
For the six years in a row, JavaScript is still the most commonly used programming language. Python has
surpassed C# to become the fastest-growing language thanks to the development of AI and Machine Learning
trends in recent years.
Developer's programming language choices are also affected by their popularity and applicability of most of the
products in the Vietnamese market.
18
Programming, Scripting
& Markup Languages

20. 49.6%
36.9%
27.8% 27.2%
17.6% 13% 8.5% 7.8% 7.4%
Laravel Node.JS ReactJS VueJS Angular .Net Core Spring Django Tensorflow
Laravel and Node.JS continue to top the chart, VueJS and .Net
Core are also getting more attention.
19
frameworks, libraries
& tools

21. 58.7%
41.2%
32.9% 25.9% 19.7% 18.0% 14.1% 13.4% 11.1%
MySQL SQL
Server
Postgre
SQL
MongoDB SQLite Redis Elastic
search
MariaDB Oracle
Like last year, MySQL and SQL Server are the most commonly used database
management system
20
databases

22. 34.9% 34.3% 34.2% 28.9% 25.8% 24.9% 19.3% 18.9% 18.0%
Visual Studio
Code
Visual
Studio
Notepad++ Sublime
Text
PHPstorm IntelliJ Android
Studio
Eclipse Atom
Visual Studio Code just edged out Visual Studio as the most popular developer environment tool across
the board.
Developers who write mobile apps are more likely to choose Android Studio and Xcode. Meanwhile, the
most popular choice for DevOps and sysadmins is Vim, and data scientists are more likely to work with
IPython/Jupyter, PyCharm, and RStudio.
21
Most Popular
Development Environments

23. Windows
MacOS
Linux-based
BSD/Unix
49.90%
26.70%
23.20%
0.20%
Half of the surveyed developers said they mainly use Windows, and
the rest were evenly splitted between MacOS and Linux.
22
Developers' Primary
Operating Systems

24. Agile
Scrum
Kanban
Pair programming
85.4%
62.7%
35.2%
28.4%
Agile and Scrum are still the most common methodologies
for developers to manage their projects.
23
methodologies

25. 24
what are
vietnamese developers
thinking?

26. Develop and research
their own technology
Startup
Pursuit new technology
Improve languages
and soft skills
Get Promotion
(Project Manager, IT Manager...)
Other
33.90%
9.90%
6.60%
2.80%
25.70%
19.40%
Most of developers want to continue to develop their
career paths in technical development.
Many developers from 25 - 30 years old have plans to
establish their own businesses.
25
what do they want to do
in the next 5 years?

27. Developers often feel more satisfied
when thinking about their career
than their current job.
18%
53%
15%
10%
4%
Extremely satisfied
Moderately satisfied
Neither satisfied
nor dissatisfied
Moderately dissatisfied
Extremely dissatisfied
What do
developers
think about
their work?
Developers group from 35
years old and older has the
highest level of satisfaction
in their career paths as well
as their current jobs.
26

28. About three-fourths of developers are interested in hearing about new job opportunities.
59.8% 24.3% 15.9%
I’m not actively looking,
but I am open to new opportunities
I am not
interested in
new job
opportunities
I am actively
looking for
a job
27
Job Search Status

29. Typically, the highest priority of
developers is salaries and benefits
when looking for new jobs. Next
thing is the Technologies they have
to work with.
Salaris & Benefits
Programming languages, frame-
works, and other technologies
they will have to work with.
Promotion opportunities
Working Environment,
Company Culture
Opportunity to
work from home
28
5 things that make
a job awesome

30. salaries of DEVELOPERs
Based on the salary information provided by IT applicants and
data from job postings, we have identified the highest paying
skills in Vietnam IT Market.
1,318 USD The average salary that most employers are willing
to pay for experienced developers.
16-27% Salary increase rate in 2018
29

31. Web Development have a high demand but also have a fairly competitive salary.
Leader & Manager positions have the highest salary.
"FRESHER" DEVELOPER
347 USD - 412 USD
$
mobile DEVELOPER
517 USD - 988 USD
$
FRONT-END DEVELOPER
408 USD - 732 USD
BACK-END DEVELOPER
511 USD - 1127 USD
FULL-STACK DEVELOPER
1359 USD - 1683 USD
30
developer salaries
by position

32. After 1 year, Developer's salary will often increase significantly.
Employers also face a lot of difficulties in hiring positions from management level upwards
due to strict & high requirements.
New graduates
330 USD - 515 USD 525 USD - 1150 USD 1550 USD - 2350 USD > 2300 USD
(Under 2 years of exp)
Experienced
(From 2 years of exp)
management level
(From 5 years of exp)
director or higher level
(From 10 years of exp)
31
developer salaries
by years of experience

33. Engineering Manager, DevOps Specialist and Data Scientist are the most well-paid
positions.
The more experience developers have, the more priority will be given to key positions.
But Data Scientists and DevOps Specialist are still paying far more than others.
32
developer salaries
by field

34. 33
$1,071 $1,023 $997 $1,057
$1,185
PYTHON .NET PHP JAVA C++
C++ is the highest paid programming
language, averaging $ 1,185.
Next is Python and Java.
Top 5 Highly Paid
Programming Languages
$1,089
$893 $762
Ho Chi Minh Ha Noi Da Nang
Salary of IT positions in Ho Chi Minh City is still higher than other
cities, but the difference is not too significant.
$833
$1,089
$786
$1,563
$1,121
DEVELOPER TECH LEAD TESTER PROJECT
MANAGER
OTHER
In the development team, Project Manager position has
the highest salary.

35. 34
the salary of ai engineers
can be up to $22,000/year
AI Engineer/Machine Learning Engineer $1,678
Data Scientist $1,537
DevOps Engineer $1,505
AI and Technology shows advances in current tech industry due to its matured development time. Particularly
in Vietnam market, there are a lot of small and big startups developing potential projects related directly to
AI and Machine Learning. Because of this development trend, the salary level of AI engineers will increase
sharply in the coming years.

36. 35
it human resources in vietnam
2018 - 2020
2019
need
350,000
miss
90,000
2018
need
320,000
miss
75,000
2020
need
400,000
miss
100,000
The shortage of IT personnel is always the most difficult problem for the IT market. Although the
salary and bonuses have been increasing remarkably for this industry, many experts predict that
in 2019 Vietnam will still have a shortage of 70,000 to 90,000 developers/engineers.

37. tech
events
405
speakers
635
keynotes
25,018
attendees
1,351
partners
In which
Vietnam Mobile Day 2018
8,678
Vietnam Web Summit 2018
9,891
highlighting
events
3/2018
Vietnam Mobile Day 2018
TopDev & VECOM
Tech Event: AI - Ứng dụng thực tiễn và cách ứng dụng
Microsoft Vietnam & TopDev
5/2018 Tech Event: Xây dựng & sử dụng dữ liệu tối ưu cho vận hành doanh nghiệp
The Coffee House & TopDev
5/2018
6/2018
Tech Event: Azure Summit 2018
Microsoft Vietnam & TopDev (Media Partner)
Saigon Code Tour 2018
VNG & TopDev
7/2018
ReactJS & React Native: Optimizing Application in Real World
Shopback & TopDev
8/2018
September Rendezvous With Line Vietnam - Java The Day
LINE Vietnam & TopDev
9/2018
Data Science & Analytics In Digital Age
FE CREDIT & TopDev
11/2018
Vietnam Web Summit 2018
TopDev & VECOM
12/2018
12
fanpages
339.376
followers
11.232
contents
22.464.000
engagement
(Like, Share, Comment, Click)
52.790.400
reach
77% Male | 22% Female
65% (18-24) | 28% (25-34)
2.5% (35-44)
tech news
techtalk.vn
72% IT-related | 28% Marketing/Business 26% (18-24) | 57% (24-34) | 15% (35-50)
Techtalk.vn is the leading IT & Programming online publication in Vietnam - a huge
community with 90% which are experts/engineers working in Technology filed.
Techtalk.vn is considered as an indispensable component in Vietnam’s IT ecosystem,
in which many programmers trust and use daily to update all latest technology
about topdev
TopDev.vn | Vietnam Mobile Day | Vietnam Web Summit | Meetup.vn | AmazingUX | TopDev Techtalk | TopDev Academy | Techtalk.vn | Devvui.com
- Top IT Recruitment in Vietnam more than 300,000+ Developer Profiles
- The one & only IT agency in Vietnam that helps build Employer Brand for hundreds of
IT and Tech companies in Vietnam.
- One of the most prestigious survey companies analyzing and publishing IT market &
HR report in Vietnam.
- Key organizer of the two most influential Tech events in Vietnam: Vietnam Mobile Day
& Vietnam Web Summit.

38. Contact:
Ms. Truong Quynh Nhu
Email: nhu.truong@applancer.net
Mobile: 033 884 7836