When people find out I’m from Serbia, they often mention Novak Djoković or Nikola Jokić, and rightfully so. They’re world-class athletes and symbols of resilience, discipline, and confidence. But there’s another Serbia that rarely makes the headlines. One that starts with chalk dust on classroom blackboards and ends up in high-performing tech teams across the globe, including here in Silicon Valley.

It’s the Serbia of engineers, mathematicians, physicists, and problem-solvers.

A Culture Where Math Comes First

In Serbia, math isn’t just a school subject. It’s part of how we grow up. Kids solve logic puzzles with their parents. Math competitions are popular, even at the elementary level. And STEM isn’t treated as a special interest; it’s mainstream.

Most students learn to take math seriously early. It’s not uncommon for high schoolers to spend weekends prepping for national or regional STEM tournaments, while their friends in other countries are at football practice. That early discipline builds habits of precision, persistence, and curiosity, critical traits for future software developers, data scientists, and engineers.

Universities That Build Real-World Skills

Our universities aren’t always featured in international rankings, but they produce highly capable engineers who are in demand around the world. The University of Belgrade and the University of Novi Sad, in particular, are well known in European tech circles for their strong STEM programs. Students graduate with a deep understanding of computer science, physics, mathematics, and electrical engineering.

And many go on to earn jobs in Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, or the U.S., or work remotely for global tech companies right from Serbia. It’s estimated that over 50% of Serbian IT professionals are working for foreign clients, either as freelancers or employees.

Developers Who Show Up and Deliver

What sets Serbian developers apart isn’t just technical skill—it’s mindset. A lot of us grew up with limited resources, so we had to learn how to be scrappy, practical, and creative. When you’re used to debugging without Stack Overflow in your native language, you get good at finding solutions fast.

There’s also a strong sense of ownership. When we commit to a project, we treat it like it’s ours because accountability is something we take seriously. That’s what makes Serbian developers a great fit for high-stakes environments and startup teams. We’re responsive, focused, and driven—not by buzzwords, but by the desire to solve meaningful problems.

Another advantage? Fluency in English. English is mandatory from first grade in elementary school, so by the time we graduate, most of us are comfortable communicating with international teams, whether we’re writing documentation, joining Zoom calls, or chatting on Slack. It makes collaboration across time zones and cultures much smoother.

In a recent developer survey, Serbia ranked among the top European countries with the highest percentage of self-taught coders and remote contributors to open-source (Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023). That says a lot about the internal motivation and adaptability of our talent pool.

From Serbia to Silicon Valley

As someone who began her career in Serbia and now works in Silicon Valley, I’ve seen firsthand how well Serbian tech professionals integrate into global teams. I’ve worked with developers back home who were leading AI infrastructure projects, optimizing backend performance at scale, and building mobile apps.

I’ve also seen Serbian-led startups scale to global markets, sometimes reaching unicorn status, often without making a big noise. That quiet excellence, that heads-down, let’s-make-it-work energy, is deeply Serbian.

Serbia: Quiet Talent with Loud Impact

So yes, we have Jokić. And Djoković. But we also have generations of quiet builders, engineers, and thinkers. People who may not trend on Twitter, but whose code runs behind the scenes of apps, platforms, and services you use every day.

When you hear “Serbia,” I hope you start to think about all of us who grew up solving math problems for fun, who learned discipline from a young age, and who now carry that mindset into global tech teams, with care, quality, and heart.

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About the Author
Written by a Serbian-born tech project manager in Silicon Valley who still believes that a good math problem can change a life, and that great code starts with character.