In the season finale of The TechIsland Podcast powered by payabl., hosts Tanya Romanyukha and Artemis Pnevmatikou zoom in on one of the most visible shifts in Cyprus’s tech story: the way the industry is reshaping the job market, and the reasons more people can now build international careers without leaving the island.

Joining the conversation are two people leaders who sit close to that change every day: Xenia Panteli, Head of People Services EMEA & LATAM at Exness and Jolita Strasunskaite, Chief People Officer at payabl. Together, they unpack what “working in tech” actually means in practice, and why Cyprus is increasingly competing on something more human than perks or hype: a quality of life that makes ambitious work feel sustainable.

A big part of the episode challenges an outdated assumption, that Cyprus-based work must be Cyprus-limited work. Both guests describe organisations that operate globally, with teams distributed across countries, shared standards across offices, and roles in Cyprus that influence products and decisions far beyond the local market. The result is a career path that looks global on paper, but lived on a much smaller, calmer map.

Engineering and technical roles remain in high demand, but the episode makes a clear point that tech is not only about code. Tech companies run on product, risk, compliance, operations, design, marketing, finance, and people functions, and many of these roles can be filled by professionals who did not start in technology. The guests repeatedly return to the same idea: curiosity, learning speed, and the ability to connect dots often matter more than a perfect background.

Culture is another through-line. Hiring is framed as more than skills matching, with both guests describing “fit” as alignment on work ethic, openness to learning, and how people collaborate under pressure.

If Cyprus wants the tech sector to keep expanding without relying indefinitely on relocation, the talent story has to start earlier. The guests point to schools, especially public schools, as the place where awareness of tech career paths needs to become normal, not niche.

Cyprus’s tech ecosystem is not only growing. It is changing the shape of what a “good career” can look like here, and who gets to access it.