As headhunters, what we see come across our desks leads us to believe that those who can translate code into practical business applications will ultimately prevail over those who choose not to ever get “technical.” Only time will tell of course.
But if you’re a millennial and reading this, get to your nearest coding bootcamp or online course Codacademy https://www.codecademy.com and learn the coding basics. There’s an entire industry that has sprung up to meet the needs of people who don’t have the time to go back to school. Blockchain University http://blockchainu.co and various other coding bootcamps cater to non-technical people who have a desire to learn code without quitting their day jobs.
We also recommend Coding Bootcamps like these found here http://www.skilledup.com/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-coding-bootcamps-the-exhaustive-list . Try getting your current employer to pay for for these courses under your company's training and education budget allocations if you're employed.
In our view, FinTech has created more developer roles (Javascript and Python in particular) than we currently have graduating and in the current labour pool. So taking Python courses sounds like a good investment from where we stand.
We're also convinced that we’ll start to see critical shortages of positions like cryptographer and distributed systems engineer. Here’s a typical software engineer job description at a Blockchain startup. You can use the list of skills that as a guidepost when selecting your courses. Senior Backend Engineer, FinTech Startup
Required Skills: Linux/*BSD ; RDBMS; SQL, RESTful Services, Git, Github, Unix/Linux, docker
Recommended Skills: Python, Flask, Tornado (or similar) ;Bitcoin/cryptocurrency ; Financial technology and Web application security.
Your cryptocurrency peers are also a great source of exactly where to start on your blockchain career journey. Go to an Ethereum DevCon or any other cryptocurrency conference and mix and mingle with people who are currently doing what you wish to be doing.
On the other hand, what if you’ve never coded in your life and you don’t see yourself beginning now. My question to those who feel this way is this: where do you want to be in 3-5 years? Only you can answer that question. If coding isn’t your thing; that’s like a merchant in the early 1800s saying reading and writing isn’t his thing. As long as he can count his money and not get taken for a ride; who needs to learn how to read and write?
We can also see the insanity of this line of reasoning. Learning how to code doesn’t mean you need to be the one pounding out the code day in and day out. Just like reading and writing doesn’t mean we’re all novelists and journalists. The importance of being able to effectively communicate and understand others’ point of view, is the reason we’ve all learned to read and write. Coding isn’t any different.
The ability to code as a Manager means you can challenge your developers and call them out on things that someone with no coding knowledge cannot do. You'll also be able to read papers like Vitalik’s Buterin’s Ethereum Whitepaper and get a good grasp of why there’s so much excitement around the technology.
About Fintech Recruiters www.fintechrecruiters.com
We are executive recruiters who specialize in the Financial Technology (Fintech) niche which includes Blockchain, payments, lending, financial crime, risk, compliance, fraud detection, governance software/ IT services talent in the US, Canada, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and key Fintech European cities.
Check out our Fintech Career Virtual Summit http://www.fintechcareersummit.com with recordings of leading Fintech and Career experts to learn more about the space.