$2 trillion plus. Thats the total market cap of crypto assets on blockchain in 2021 according to Coinmarketcap, a leading price-tracking website platform cryptoassets.
The crypto asset and blockchain products industry has grown massively despite the absence of regulations across the world. And the rapidly changing industry has given rise too many jobs.
And the numbers are there to be seen.
On an average, there has been an increase of more than 50% in active job openings as compared to last year according to a report by staffing services firm Xpheno.
Another report by one of the premier trade bodies for IT industry in India, Nasscomm, pointed out that more than 50,000 skilled individuals are currently employed in the crypto assets industry in India. The report further stated that they expect around more 30% jobs to come up in the industry in the next few months.
Similarly, job listings platform Indeed stated in October this year that, there has been a surge of more than 118% since 2020 in blockchain and crypto related job postings.
The same report states that job postings related to software development, marketing, management, compliance and Legal and HR has seen a massive uptick since the last one year. Apart from that, jobs related to Junior full stack developer,Graduate software developer,Blockchain legal assistant, Junior developer,Content writer, Research analyst, Social media manager, Assistant editor,Investment analyst, Research associate, Venture capital intern, Junior portfolio analyst, Datacenter technician,Mining process engineer, Junior marketing assistant etc are massively on the rise.
The industry is hiring people from diverse backgrounds. There are companies who are looking for talent who have had some inroads into crypto and there are others who are hiring people who have little to no background in blockchain and cryptos.
One of the best approaches by founders in the market has been to hire people who are the closest proxies in the non technology roles. Foe example, one founder of a crypto company mentioned that “We do not have people say in the legal side – So we look for people who have worked in the copyright or IP laws. It’s an exercise that benefits us.The training on blockchain happens on the job for certain roles. “
Other significant sectors who are hiring in the crypto job market are Banking, Information Technology, Government services,Finance,Accounting,Insurance and Retail.
And most of these jobs are not settled in any one major city. Lot of companies in crypto are open to work from anywhere in the world. A Singapore based founder who did not want to named pointed out that many companies in blockchain are offerings jobs where the candidate can stay and work out of anywhere. “Candidates prefers cities which have lower taxation, cheaper rentals and access to airports.”
Similarly, in the US, apart from San Francisco, Austin, and New York who have have added the highest number of crypto jobs, other cities like Oregon, Colorado, and Utah are gradually adding more and more crypto jobs.
Closer home in India, many blockchain companies are hiring folks who are situated in Tier 2/3 towns and even in hill stations. Another founder from Delhi pointed out that they are working with developers who are from Tier 1 African cities.
Most of the jobs are posted on platforms like LinkedIN, Indeed, cryptojobslist, pompcryptojobs among many others. Lot of folks have landed up jobs by just commenting or reaching out to founders on Twitter or LinkedIN. For example, take the case of Colton Sakamoto, Co-Founder of PompCryptojobs. He got the opportunity to build the platform with Anthony Pompliano by tweeting a meme to a tweet posted by Pomp.
Another way of getting into the ecosystem is by attending hackathons where you get to meet some cutting edge people working on newer crypto products. Certain founders use such events to hire the right talent on the technical side of things.
Apart from hackathons, job seekers can also attend crypto and blockchain related events for networking and chances of landing up a job from such events is also high. Whether it is a small meet up or a large scale event. Networking with new age industry leaders will help one land up a job or at least make one aware in terms of where the industry is heading towards.
There are two sites which regularly post events on crypto – Eventbrite & Blocksocial
But job seekers with no technical backgrounds can also enter this field, learn on the job and contribute or create new products and platforms in blockchain.
Salaries
In terms of salaries, aacording to a report by https://cryptocurrencyjobs.co/salaries/ average salaries are as follows
1. Blockchain developer ($136,000)
The lowest being $55,000 and the highest being $200,000.
2. Solidity developer ($127,500)
The lowest being $80,000 and the highest being $200,000.
3. Engineer ($127,000)
The lowest being $51,000 and the highest being $250,000.
4. Blockchain business development person ($122,500)
The lowest being $90,000 and the highest being $150,000.
5. Software engineer ($119,000)
The lowest being $60,000 and the highest being $175,000.
6. Front-end developer ($115,000)
The lowest being $45,000 and the highest being $145,000.
7. Product designer ($112,500)
The lowest being $64,000 and the highest being $140,000.
8. Back-end developer ($110,000)
The lowest being $45,500 and the highest being $140,000.
9. UI/UX designer ($107,500)
The lowest being $40,000 and the highest being $140,000.
10. Blockchain full stack developer ($100,000)
The lowest being $40,000 and the highest being $115,000.
But the market has always not been this lucrative for job seekers. A couple of years back, in 2019-2020, there were massive layoffs partly owing to a volatile crypto market, lack of regulations.
There were high-profile layoffs at cryptocurrency companies that began at the end of 2018 and continued throughout 2019.
According to a report by Hackernoon, back in early 2020, job cuts happened at companies like ConsenSys, Steemit,Shapeshift,Chainalysis,Circle,Bottle Pay,Bitmain and other smaller early stage crypto startups also winded up.
A lot has happened across each geography in the crypto market since then. The market has matured since then. More companies have come up. There has been more progressive involvements from the governments to regulate the sector across the world. From upgrades to Ethereum to gaming and metaverse companies coming up to NFTs becoming mainstream with legacy brands starting NFT divisions.
The opportunities are galore in the crypto and blockchain ecosystem for job seekers, entrepreneurs to build the next phase off internet led business.
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