As the world increasingly experiences paradigm shifts in all spheres of life, there is no doubt that soon, with the emergence of crypto world, there will be new professions that we haven’t heard of even a few years ago and that the demand for such specialists would double and triple. The first boom of this kind has already been witnessed, as over the past 6 months, the online job postings in cryptocurrency related fields have doubled.
According to a report by AngelList, an American website for startups and job seekers, in the first half of 2017, more money was invested in cryptocurrency startups than all of 2016 combined.
“As cryptocurrency companies are growing, raising larger amounts of money at higher valuations, so are their hiring needs for finding top talent. The number of job listings on AngelList by cryptocurrency companies have nearly doubled in the last six months.”
It is not surprising that engineers with an experience in cryptocurrency projects are highly demanded, as well as engineers interested in blockchain technologies.
Marketing, operations, customer support, business development, and other departments with no technical background also have vacancies.
The boom started when the cryptocurrency companies went further than traditional funding methods. The large amounts of money going into the crypto space and the price appreciation of Bitcoin (TICKER: BTC.EXANTE) and Ethereum (TICKER: ETH/USD.CRC), resulted in a cryptocurrency startups’ hiring boom.
“Small teams are finding themselves capitalized in a way that we’ve never seen before at such an early stage of the company’s lifecycle, and the cash needs to be spent (responsibly) somehow. One way they’re doing that, is hiring.”
Why join the market?
Cryptocurrency companies many skills, while some basic cryptocurrency knowledge is beneficial, and knowing the terminology is vital, such companies also need help in design, marketing, UI, and UX, and other functions.
It is about the money after all
Cryptocurrency companies offer better salaries. They beat the industry median by approximately 10-20%. Not to forget to mention that most startups have great incentives, including profit-sharing arrangements.
Greater Flexibility
There is more room for working remotely. However, it is not the case for many startups, which have different work policies, for example, where you are only required to be at the office on certain days.
Liquidity
Such benefit only applies to new coin or token companies.
“Employees receiving equity at typical startups usually have to wait for a liquidity event to sell their shares.”
Protocol companies’ employees will probably end up receiving coins as a form of equity-like compensation. While the coins still may have restrictions on them, they're inherently liquid.
Cryptocurrency companies are hiring in huge numbers, and are looking for both technical and non-technical specialists.
Normally, it is not required to have a deep knowledge of the Blockchain, companies look for someone eager to learn, someone with the ability to contribute right off the bat with a genuine interest in the market.
Skills required for technical roles
Blockchain Engineer
- creating custom tokens
- building decentralized apps (DAPPS)
- working with cpp-ethereum to build custom clients
- building out custom blockchain applications using such tools asMultichain, IBM's Hyperledger, and even private Ethereum chains
Full stack developers
If it is a Bitcoin company, you will likely need to learn how to work with the bitcoind client or similar. In case it is an Ethereum project, you will likely interact with the more common Ethereum implementations, such as:
Front-end developer
Many startups are looking to bring on front-end developers with experience in UX/UI design, often really early on.
Skills required for non-technical roles
Be able to learn fast
- quickly research
- analyze
- understand complicated technical concepts
- understand how blockchain works
Have the general understanding of the technology
- to troubleshoot problems
- to speak confidently about new technology