Getting a job in Crypto (part 1)

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Coloring Crypto

5 min readJan 22, 2019

Coloring Crypto podcast 54 with guest Tom Hamilton, blockchain recruiter with background at SpaceX and Kernel

In part 1, we sketch out an outline, make the broad strokes and ask the questions. We’d like your input on fleshing out part 2 with the specifics, such as current answers to questions like: What does an ideal blockchain candidate look like? What are some proven communities and classes that deliver results where you both learn and put a notch on your resume? What schools, what companies and what projects are most impressive to companies and specifically for blockchain? Who are the best resources to follow? Please leave a comment below or tweet @gabecolors with our suggestions.

It’s the Great Gestation, now is the time to make that career move into the blockchain

The snowflakes have scattered. The hype has cleared. The dedicated, those that really want it, the type of applicant with grit that employees want to hire are left, and you are one of them. Not only has the crowd dissipated but the employers know the ones who are left are going to come in strong and stay strong. If you are reading this, you have weathered the storm, you are not a quitter.

From Coloring Crypto’s series on the “Great Gestation” or this viral series on “Winter”. Those in the know are declaring this a chilling time for the blockchain. Folks are disillusioned by the prices having dropped precipitously by 5 times what they were one year ago. And let’s not lose sight of the reality: layoffs are happening, ICOs have dried up, and blockchain companies are going out of business.

But if you are still of the belief, as am I, that Crypto and distributed ledger technology will have a major impact on our economy and culture (we just don’t know when) then now is the time to dive in.

Specifically, the opportunity for skilled talent is rich. As blockchain recruiter Tom Hamilton explains on episode 54 of Coloring Crypto:

“This is a candidate market” — blockchain recruiter

Start at [35:00] Visit the show notes for TL;DR Summary of Part 1 Getting a Job in Crypto

How to make a career move into the job in blockchain for engineers and non-engineers

Below is a summary of Tom’s advice:

*Make work and acquire skills*
1. Become really good
2. Learn social skills and Networking strategies
3. Be a good human being,able to communicate, and be positive

1. An encouraging word
In tech, Don’t be intimidated that others know more than you because in 6 months it will all change tom
If it feels saturated it’s not
2. Beware
Whether high season or low season, it’s your brand… guess what, those records are there for good..!
3. Self evaluate
If you are doing it because you think it’s cool, but not really passionate, you are going to fail. don’t apply for jobs you are not passionate about . hard to fake enthusiasm
Identify how much “Real experience” you have. Not just Audacity, Udemy courses… “Are you getting paid to build and deliver a product”
4. Now, action! What you can do
Make your own product
Go to the best school
If you are out of school, become as active in the industry as you can
Join the clubs
Get involved in open source development products
5. Analyze prospective company/industry
Do your homework, research the company
“Where do you want to participate in the blockchain?” Currency? Infrastructure? Which part ?
Is the company traditional tech going into blockchain? Do they already have their expertise?

Links

I’ve updated the links I found doing research prior to recording this podcast:

The most useful Medium post I found was “So You Want to Work in Crypto” but it’s also from the past summer (June 2018).

There are many niche Crypto Career Listings (these are listed in my very roughly organized order with most useful listed first):Coin Desk Careers, Crypto Job List , Coinmonks, Crypto Jobs, Crypto Recruit, Crypto Slate and Crypto Careers are current as of 2019. The count of listings for “crypto” on Glassdoor [1,126], Indeed [410], Linkedin [1410]…. and then there is always freelance sites like Upwork… Please share your experience and opinion of the best listing sites for jobs in the blockchain.

Here’s a useful infographic from May 0f 2018 embedded on Hackernoon originally on Coinlist,

Angel List | April 2018

Role: Blockchain Engineer

You’ll likely be working in Solidity (the Ethereum smart-contract language), creating custom tokens, building decentralized apps (DAPPS) or working with cpp-ethereum to build custom clients.

However, from time to time we do see request for Blockchain Engineers to build out custom blockchain applications using tools like Multichain, IBM’s Hyperledger, and even private Ethereum chains.

Comp Intel/Data Studio team at G2 Performance Agency | May 30, 2018… Josh Cottrell-Schloemer chain-mai and tokyo

We’d love your help filling in specifics (links, companies, schools, groups, people) to make the guidelines a complete resource that we can update here and include in Part 2 of the podcast.