Hiring and Getting Hired – The New Decentralized World

Written by Rakhi Singh

With just over a decade of history, Crypto ecosystem has grown in popularity in the public eye. Cryptocurrencies have outgrown global biggies like Apple & Microsoft in market capitalization (over $2 trillion and counting). In recent years across the world, adoption of this new ecosystem has followed the same path. People investing in cryptocurrencies are currently estimated to be 10% of the global population – and with this scale of growth – how will this affect the new wave of leadership hiring and engagement ? 

This is the first in the series of multiple pieces we at CNA International @CNA Growth would be writing about our experience of global hiring in this highly demanding space.

So who is hiring ? and how ? and for whom ?

Hiring Organisations – Broad categories :

* Traditional Payment companies : @visa , @MasterCard, @paypal

* Social Media / Tech / Content Companies creating / getting in meta verse : @facebook @oculus, @ Microsoft,@Amazon,@Nvidia ,@waltdisney

* Traditional brands going up the NFT route : @gucci, @louisvuitton ,@nike

* DeFi : @airswap, @metamask , @equilibrium, @augur , @makerdao, @compoundfinance, @dharma , @harbor , @uniswap, @aave, @compound, @harvest finance

* Crypto Exchanges : @coinbase, @binance, @kucoin, @ftx, @gate.io, @kraken, @bitfinex etc. In India we have @wazirx, @CoinDCX, @coinswitchkuber

* Game Development Companies : @decentraland, @robolox, @UnitySoftwareInc

* NFT Platforms : @dapperlabs, @opensea, @rarible, @raremint, @kalamint,@superrare, @mintable, @nifty gateway @foundation 

* Consulting, Creative and marketing agencies : @x10, @firecask, @1nft @TokenMarketing.io, @Crowdcreate, @Crynet, @coinbound

What are they looking for :

1. Technology : 

• Blockchain Developers : Solidity is among the most important skills for smart contracts on chains like Binance and Ethereum. Web Technologies like React Native, NodeJS and Javascript are also in demand
• Game Developers
•  Data Scientists : Machine learning specialisation and understanding of decentralized finance and protocols

2. Finance & Compliance

• Legal and Compliance
• Crypto Trading
• Digital and Crypto adoption transformation 
• Government Liasoning

3. Marketing 

• Community Management
• Strategic Partnerships 
• PR : Outreach and engagement is key to the new ecosystem to drive new user acquisition and stay clear of controversy. Organisations are looking at leadership talent with a knack for digital first content. 

4. Other functions are like HR

How are they hiring ?

As the ecosystem is small – and very focussed, a great place for entry level hiring is community platforms like discord ; however for leadership hiring, there is a lot of focus on hiring executive search Firms.

How do they pay ?

While the leaders and bigger organizations compensate the key employees in fiat currency; paying in crypto is like a norm in this space. This is the classic “practice what you preach” mindset which we see some resistance in – specially in countries like India – but we don’t think this will continue for long.

Are you interested in this space ?

Being well versed in the blockchain / web3 landscape is a great starting point. Technology folks could start by understanding smart contract protocols and learn Solidity and create some work on open source platforms ; and senior leaders from business side can start getting familiar with this new wave.