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Scarcity of professionals, high salaries, and practical requirements expose a silent change in the Brazilian technology market, where diplomas lose prominence and portfolios gain decisive weight in the competition for increasingly technical and competitive positions.
The evaluation of academic history has lost space in the Brazilian technology market, where companies have begun to prioritize concrete evidence of delivery, even in a scenario marked by a scarcity of qualified professionals, high salaries, and continuous growth in demand for specialists.
It was in this context that developer Pedro Lima published a statement on LinkedIn that summarizes a practice already widespread among recruiters: “No one will hire you for your academic history,” while recounting his experience early in his Computer Science degree.
During the first year of the course, Lima claims to have worked in web development as a freelancer, created bots for Telegram using languages like Python, JavaScript, and Java, in addition to participating in hackathons, an experience that, according to him, weighed more than academic performance.
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Describing his journey, the developer highlighted that “college gave me the theoretical foundation. The market gave me the experience,” adding that recruiters tend to evaluate what has actually been built, not grades obtained in subjects like Calculus.
Technology market prioritizes practical experience
This understanding is also reflected in the words of human resources professionals and executives in the sector, who reinforce the change in criteria in selections, especially in technical areas where the practical application of knowledge has become decisive.
According to Veridiana Bicalho, HR manager at XP Educação, the decisive factor is no longer linked to the educational institution, but rather to the candidate’s delivery capacity, with analysis focused on portfolio, developed projects, and adaptation to the work environment.
In the same vein, Leonardo Matsumota from AWS’s business development area assesses that the diploma still serves an important function as a formative basis, although it is not sufficient to guarantee advancement or permanence in a technology career.
Deficit of professionals in IT in Brazil
Although the demand for professionals remains high, access to positions does not occur automatically for those who complete their academic training without practical experience, highlighting a structural mismatch between education and the market.
Data from Brasscom indicates that Brazil graduates about 53,000 technology professionals per year, while the average annual demand hovers around 159,000 new positions, resulting in an accumulated deficit of over 530,000 unfilled positions between 2021 and 2025.
Even with this significant volume of opportunities, companies report difficulty in filling positions that require familiarity with tools used in daily operations, as well as the ability to work autonomously and solve real problems.
In this scenario, selection processes have begun to value public repositories, personal projects, participation in technical communities, and performance in practical tests, reducing the weight of academic history as the main screening criterion.
As a consequence, candidates who enter the market only with a diploma face greater initial difficulty, while those who develop side projects, contribute to collaborative platforms, or accumulate practical experiences tend to stand out.
Salaries in IT reflect level of experience
Still, a university education has not lost relevance, especially in aspects such as logic, data structures, system architecture, and theoretical foundations that support the development of more complex solutions.
The differentiator, however, has become the combination of theory and practice, requiring students to build technical repertoire throughout their degree, rather than relying solely on the formal content offered by educational institutions.
The attractiveness of the technology field is also explained by salaries, which remain above the national average, although the distribution of earnings reveals a strong dependence on the level of experience and technical specialization.
A survey by Código Fonte TV indicates an average CLT salary of R$ 4,154 for junior professionals, R$ 7,840 for mid-level, and R$ 15,635 for senior, while the Technology Activities Survey records an overall average salary of R$ 7,666 in 2025.
Observing these ranges, it becomes evident that salary progression primarily follows the complexity of the functions performed and the scarcity of experienced professionals, and not just the attainment of a higher education diploma.
In more advanced areas, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and system architecture, salaries can reach significantly higher levels, with ranges exceeding R$ 20,000 per month in various specialized positions.
Still, access to these levels requires a consolidated trajectory, deep technical mastery, and a history of involvement in relevant projects, factors that do not depend solely on traditional academic training.
Entry into the IT market requires portfolio and practice
Analyzing the set of data and reports, the technology market in Brazil shows a transformation in the criteria for entry and professional progression, shifting the focus from the diploma to the proven ability to execute.
In this environment, the difficulty reported by newcomers is not necessarily due to a lack of vacancies, but rather the absence of practical experience that allows them to compete in increasingly technical and results-oriented selection processes.
As a result, trajectories like that of Pedro Lima cease to be exceptions and begin to illustrate a broader logic, in which continuous learning, portfolio building, and practical experience become central elements for insertion and growth in the field.
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