Come together to explore the Web3 talent trends
As graduation season approaches in June, many fresh graduates are considering the Web3 industry as an option for their career exploration. With the increasing popularity and standardization of the industry, professionals from various industries are also transitioning and viewing the Web3 industry as a new direction for their careers.
If you want to enter the Web3 industry, how should you prepare yourself? How can Web3 teams find suitable talents to contribute to their growth? How can companies embrace innovative technologies and build their own Web3 teams? The May edition of “Block Times Gathering” focuses on three main areas: talent market trends, company strategies, and talent cultivation, inviting you to become a key player in the Web3 era.
Further reading:
[Block Times Gathering] Why isn’t blockchain used for electronic voting or concert ticketing?
What are the hottest job positions in the Web3 employment market?
Li Yu-Hsuan, a consultant from JobMenta by Yourator, first shared insights into the job market trends in the Web3 industry. In the current Web3 job market, Li Yu-Hsuan observed three types of job positions with the highest demand. The first is Compliance officers, which is also a position that many would expect. In the past year, regulations have become more stringent, and Web3 companies can hardly operate without this role. Therefore, many Web3 companies actively seek the help of headhunters to find suitable talents for compliance positions. However, Li Yu-Hsuan pointed out that compliance talents are not easy to find because these professionals are usually risk-averse and conservative, and are not willing to join a rapidly changing industry. Additionally, Web3 companies hope to recruit talents from the traditional financial industry, but talents in the financial industry are more focused on stable career paths and have a lower acceptance of risks, so they are generally reluctant to switch to the Web3 industry.
The second type is software engineers or developers, which are in high demand in both the Web3 and Web2 software technology fields. Li Yu-Hsuan also observed that when Web3 companies recruit app engineers, they no longer emphasize the distinction between iOS and Android, but prefer talents with Flutter or React Native skills.
The third type of job position is related to market expansion, such as marketing and community managers. However, compared to the first two types of positions, the demand for these roles is relatively low in recent times.
Web3 talents need to possess certain essential qualities
Li Yu-Hsuan pointed out that the ideal candidates would be those with relevant industry backgrounds, especially professionals with previous experience in the Web3 or blockchain fields. However, candidates with experience in fintech or the financial industry are also highly valued by Web3 companies due to their deep understanding of financial knowledge and operational logic.
The second important quality is foreign language proficiency. Since Web3 companies usually operate in international markets and have multinational teams, good foreign language skills are crucial. In addition, Web3 companies often need to absorb a large amount of international documents and information to stay synchronized with the global market, making language proficiency an absolute requirement. Of course, the specific language requirements vary depending on the position, but overall, this is the basic expectation Web3 companies have for candidates.
Challenges faced by Web3 companies in talent recruitment
MaiCoin’s Chief Operating Officer, Chen Ming-Hui, shared insights into talent management and strategies in the Web3 industry from a corporate perspective. Chen Ming-Hui stated that the virtual currency industry has an urgent need for talents, but unfortunately, this demand has not been fully met. To address this issue, MaiCoin actively collaborates with various universities. For example, the company has collaborated with National Taiwan University to organize a job fair, where they showcase MaiCoin’s job opportunities, requirements, and brand to students.
In the process of cultivating their brand, apart from expanding business and partnership relationships externally, it is also important to find talents to join the company. In addition to searching for professionals with extensive experience in the workplace, academia is also a good source of talents. After all, many universities now have blockchain and virtual currency-related clubs, which are the targets of MaiCoin’s active engagement. Chen Ming-Hui hopes to discover and cultivate more young talents who are passionate about the virtual currency industry through collaborations with universities.
Three challenges in recruiting talents for Web3 companies
Chen Ming-Hui also pointed out three major challenges in the recruitment process.
The first challenge is that the virtual currency industry is highly technical, and negative news has created misconceptions, causing potential job seekers to hesitate to enter the blockchain field.
The second challenge is that job seekers who are unfamiliar with virtual currencies may face many challenges when entering this industry, which can come from themselves, their families, friends, and the overall industry environment. Job seekers need to understand and accept the nature of the work they are getting into and confidently introduce their roles in the virtual currency industry when questioned by others. However, due to the relatively short history of the virtual currency industry, with Bitcoin being only 16 years old, there is still no unified standard or regulation globally for this industry’s development. Therefore, job seekers need to face self-doubt and various challenges in team collaboration after entering this field.
The third challenge is external communication. In terms of anti-money laundering regulations and cybersecurity, the virtual currency industry has not yet established comprehensive norms, which creates doubts among many people about this industry. Additionally, there are many fraudulent activities carried out under the guise of company names in the market. Therefore, it is necessary to learn how to communicate with the outside world, clarify misunderstandings, and defend one’s own and the company’s reputation.
Chen Ming-Hui also highlighted an interesting phenomenon, where many people believe that joining the virtual currency industry can quickly make them wealthy and allow them to profit from speculation. However, she emphasized that the industry requires individuals with a deep understanding of technology and the market, rather than mere speculators.
Web2 talents are also suitable for Web3
Li Yue, the Director of the Digital Application Department at China Trust Bank’s Digital Technology Division, shared her views on Web3 talents from the perspective of transitioning from traditional finance to blockchain.
In Web3, the infrastructure is decentralized, which means that even if a platform’s server crashes, as long as the data exists on a blockchain like Ethereum, data and interactions can be restored.
In contrast, Web2 primarily operates through centralized platforms, such as e-commerce websites. E-commerce adapts traditional retail to the interactive nature of Web2 networks, especially in terms of data analysis, such as conversion rates, which improves efficiency. While traditional retail also has the concept of conversion rates, e-commerce utilizes online data for centralized marketing and operations, resulting in better results than before.
Li Yue pointed out that talents from both of these domains can contribute to Web3. The first important group is highly skilled technical talents who are familiar with blockchain and decentralized technologies. However, these technical experts are often financially independent and difficult to attract to companies. The second group is experts from Web2, such as e-commerce and online marketing professionals, because skills from retail or other fields are equally applicable to Web3.
Similarly, in the financial field, Li Yue believes that many Web3 finance experts are also outstanding in traditional finance. Therefore, the strengths of Web3 talents are not limited to the Web3 field but are based on their deep experience and expertise in finance or their original fields.
Li Yue also emphasized that Web3 talents need to possess diverse skills, similar to skill trees in games. These skill trees include staying up to date with the latest digital financial news, participating in projects, and executing and learning professional knowledge in different fields. He stated that a major characteristic of the innovation field is rapid market changes, so talents need to have the ability to quickly adjust and adapt.
Web3 requires a diverse range of talents
Peng Shao-Fu, the Chairman of the Taiwan Blockchain University Alliance, used survey data to illustrate that approximately one-third of job opportunities in the cryptocurrency industry are concentrated in exchanges. However, these statistics are not comprehensive because Web3 has a characteristic that many jobs are not formally accounted for.
For example, many people form teams with a few friends to engage in cryptocurrency trading activities. Although they do not register as a company, they form an entity, and some refer to themselves as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
Additionally, there are many temporary project teams in the Web3 field. These teams may consist of smart contract experts, front-end and back-end developers, and talent for external communication. They accept payment in cryptocurrencies such as USDT when taking on projects, which is not captured by traditional statistical methods. Therefore, despite the significant presence of exchanges in statistical data, many Web3 jobs are scattered in informal teams and projects.
Looking at the data from LinkedIn, blockchain-related skills were listed as one of the popular skills in 2020, with a majority of positions requiring STEM backgrounds and fewer talents from humanities backgrounds entering this field. However, Peng Shao-Fu believes that the situation is changing over time, as talents from humanities backgrounds gradually find their place in the Web3 field.
Overall, the working environment in Web3 is like a startup company, requiring a diverse range of talents. From technical experts to marketing professionals, and legal consultants, various professionals are needed to support operations. Therefore, not only talents from finance and technology backgrounds have opportunities, but experts from other fields can also find suitable roles in Web3.
