Blockchain development has taken the leading position at hiring the most talented programmers in recent times. Based on Upwork’s reports, from the end of 2017 through the beginning of 2018, blockchain engineering was second amongst the most demanded skills in labor markets. Based on the estimates of ComputerWorld, blockchain developers in cities like New York, Boston and Silicon Valley earn on average $158k a year. This is more than 10% higher than the average pay of software developers. The number of opening positions have also grown by 115% from 2016 to 2017.
However, the average job seekers, including students and employees of tech companies, still have many questions regarding professions in the blockchain Industry.
The most prevalent questions are:
+What are the most needed positions in your company?
+What do you believe is the biggest misconception about blockchain technology?
+For people still studying in school, how can they best prepare to get a job in this space?
+What non-technical jobs do you feel are in demand for the blockchain space?
To answer these questions, we interviewed 6 leaders in Blockchain industry:
U Network project lead Ben EI-Baz; NEO’s head of R&D Malcolm and global development director Chen Zhao; Coinbase senior recruiter Charlene A. Delapena; ICON Co-founder and Foundation Council Min Kim as well as Consensys’ community leader Annelie Chavez.
(If you want to skip the Q&A you can go directly to the end of the article for more information on the Blockchain Career Fair)
What are the most needed positions in your company?
U Network：Product managers, front-end developers, blockchain developers, global community growth and global marketing director.
Neo: Core blockchain development engineer — there are many good developers, but few who can work on protocol level development.
Coinbase: As it relates to university recruiting — our immediate need is software engineering for both internships and new college grads.
ICON:We are growing rapidly so need help all around. However, current top priority is finding experienced product managers that previously started and launched actual project.
Consensys:
The most needed positions for ConsenSys at the moment are project managers, full stack developers (knowledge of Solidity is a plus), smart contract auditors (Solidity required), marketing, and community managers.
What do you believe is the biggest misconception about blockchain technology?
U Network: Blockchains solve specific problems, not all problems. All the hype surrounding blockchain is because many people haven’t thought in detail about the suitability of using blockchain as a solution vs using an alternative technology for the solution. After a few years, specific use cases will be validated and people will better understand successful and failure-prone applications of blockchains.
Neo: That all blockchain tokens represent technology or company value. The vast majority of tokens represent a current or expected future utility. In my opinion, blockchain projects that focus on maximizing token value are more likely to fail, while blockchain projects that focus on maximizing token utility are more likely to succeed.
Coinbase: We believe that the biggest misconception around blockchain technology is that it’s a pipeline for illegal activity and susceptible to constant security breaches.
ICON: The real fun is in the blockchian technology, not cryptocurrency.
Consensys: One of the biggest misconceptions about blockchain technology is that that everything needs a blockchain and that business processes can be improved, universally, with the implementation of blockchain solutions. It’s likely that different blockchain solutions will exist simultaneously and will function like enterprise intranets until interoperability takes off. Once that happens, these enterprise intranets will be able to interact with wider enterprise communities outside of their own blockchain solution.
For people still studying in school, how can they best prepare to get a job in this space?
U Network: Get involved in projects by either contributing code, commenting on code, or interacting with projects in other ways.
Neo: Start already now, contribute to open source projects, for example NEO. You will get a track record in Github if you are a developer, or build a name for yourself in the community if you are focused in any other area.
Coinbase: For people still studying in school, how can they best prepare to get a job in this space? We recommend students do research around the crypto and blockchain space so they understand why digital currencies will create a much more open financial system for everyone, globally.
ICON: Best practice is by doing. There are many ways to get involved in the space. It can be a blockchain project, conference organizer, white paper reviewer, or even trading. The point is that when you start somewhere, you’ll begin to network with others, and you’ll find new opportunities.
Consensys: The best way to prepare for getting a job in the space would be to get involved on your own and educate yourself on current happenings and developments in the industry (ConsenSys Media is a great source of thought leadership). The blockchain space is new and diverse, be creative and create your own opportunities with supplemental blockchain education. Attend and even start a Meetup, connect with people across all industries and learn more about how blockchain may or may not overlap with different fields, find problems you can solve and solve them with a dApp, enter a hackathon or an incubator, such as ConsenSys and Topcoder’s Decentralized Impact Incubator. There’s no tried and true path into the blockchain space, so choose your own adventure and enjoy yourself in the process!
What non-technical jobs do you feel are in demand for the blockchain space?
Neo: Product management, economy and politics researchers (for game theory), cryptography experts would be preferred.
Coinbase: What non-technical jobs do you feel are in demand for the blockchain space? We believe that non-tech roles within legal, finance and business / strategy development will be in demand for the blockchain space.
ICON: I know that there are a lot of job in “community management” or “marketing.” Stay away from those. Look for opportunities in business development, project management, and investment funds. Basically, find opportunities to be more hands-on with the actual product.
Consensys:Project managers, marketing, sales/consulting roles, designers, writers (especially if you can document Ethereum or translate esoteric information for wider audiences) and lawyers. We need people to find and create the demand for blockchain solutions. Not a lot of people understand the benefits of decentralization and some may not even realize how vulnerable our current centralized systems are, and how vulnerable we are made by them- if you can start that conversation with someone from outside the tech space and end the conversation with them understanding the benefits and drawbacks of decentralized alternatives to our centralized world- then you can create your own opportunities in this space.
Much of what the blockchain industry is building enters uncharted legal territory, so lawyers interested in working on shaping new standards and regulatory frameworks should consider exploring blockchain. Strong legal counsel is imperative for innovative technologies that seek to have lasting social impact.