PayPal, the online money transfer company owned by eBay, announced on March 26 that it will begin recruiting Ukrainians to work on a pilot project in its Berlin office.
Specifically, PayPal is looking to hire and relocate 14 PHP and Java developers to fill the open positions, Alexandra Ustinova, a public relations manager at Magento, which is also owned by eBay, told the Kyiv Post.
She said the idea to
hire Ukrainians came from PayPal recruiters, who were impressed by the skillful
developers working at Magento’s Ukrainian offices.
Mali Mehmood, head of
PayPal’s recruitment division in Europe, Asia and Africa, reiterated Ustinova’s
remarks.
“We analyzed the
market and saw that there was great potential in Ukraine in the sphere of
high-quality staff,” he said. “We see the level of professionalism of the
developers working in the company Magento, which is also part of the eBay
corporation, and believe in the potential of the Ukrainian specialists.”
But landing one of
the available jobs won’t be a cake walk.
“This is a difficult
process for most candidates,” said Natalya Wetlands, a PayPal recruiter in
Ukraine. “But on the other hand, for many it is a unique chance to get to work
in one of the top companies in the world, with the prospect of career growth,
worthy of social benefits and high wages.”
All candidates will
need to pass a special selection process, which includes testing and a series
of interviews. PayPal in turn will offer competitive salaries, open-ended
contracts and full relocation packages to those selected.
While PayPal has no
future concrete plans for the Ukrainian market, according to Ustinova, there is
a good chance that the company will look to the east again.
“We very much hope
that the pilot project will be successful, and we can open up more jobs and
bring more projects to Ukraine,” Mehmood said.
Today, according to
experts, Ukraine’s IT market is comprised of about 100,000 specialists, with
annual market growth of about 30 percent.
PayPal, founded in
1998, is a market leader in online payments. The company is headquartered in
San Jose, California’s Silicon Valley. More than 123 million people in 190
countries use its online money transfer service, which supports payments in 25
global currencies.
Kyiv Post staff writer Christopher J. Miller can be reached at
[email protected].
