According to Upwork, an employment site that specializes in freelance workers, blockchain developers now rank second (robotics specialists are first) among the top 20 fastest-growing job skills, with job postings for skilled talent in this area having more than doubled this year. These blockchain specialists are demanding as much as $115 per hour for their services.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Bitcoin cryptocurrency developers registered in as the third fastest job skill.
For some additional insight on these trends, BTCManager interviewed Carlos Gomez. He is the Senior Recruiter at CryptoRecruit, a Sydney, Australia-based boutique recruitment firm for the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Industry. Here is what he had to share.
Tell us a little about your Background
My background is actually in Finance (CPA Australia). I have performed a wide range of roles within European, North American and Australian organizations during my almost 20 years of professional experience. But honestly, it wasn’t my financial curiosity that led to my interest in blockchain technology.
How You got Connected with the World of Blockchain?
I was enrolled in my last semester of Law School three years ago and was exploring new areas of Law to specialise in once I finish my qualifications. In doing so, I found during a Google search, something called “Smart Contracts.” That phrase immediately caught my attention given its connotation and potential application to Contract Law.
As it turns out, the path of Smart Contracts led me Ethereum and that is where I discovered the amazing things that we can do with a technology called blockchain. What’s funny is that I’m one of those rare individuals who actually discovered Ethereum first before learning about Bitcoin.
What Excited you about this Discovery?
The most fascinating characteristic about bitcoin and the other thousands of cryptocurrencies that already exist is that it is not all about technology. Rather they do involve strong components of economic theory, philosophy, politics and even more important, a lot of common sense.
What Led you to Launch Crypto Recruit?
As I mentioned before I am passionate about all things crypto. I invest a percentage of my spare time researching projects, ideas, ICO’s and pretty much anything that has the name crypto on its web domain.
That’s how I founded CryptoRecruit. It took me less than five seconds to click send to an application for people interested in becoming recruiters in the crypto world.
A couple of hours later, I received a phone call from Neil Dundon the founder of CryptoRecruit. Neil is an experienced entrepreneur who has been involved in the recruiting industry for quite a long time. It took us pretty much a couple of days to get everything organised for me to join his network of talented recruiters.
The firm was created by Neil in September 2017 and currently has recruiters located in Sydney and London but we do serve clients from all over the world.
How do you Find Talent to fill Client Needs?
Since we are a niche and specialised firm, our clients contact us because our focus in the crypto industry and not based in our physical location. They see the value of hiring specialists who understand their requirements and have the necessary skills to go and shake the earth to find the talent they need to boost their projects.
Our portfolio of clients, include companies located in the US, England, Germany, Russia, Estonia, Netherlands, Singapore and Australia.
Can you offer a Brief Overview of the Global Need for Crypto Professionals?
If you have been connected to the web recently, it is almost impossible to miss all the media attention that bitcoin and crypto in general is attracting. Early adopters in this industry have been working really hard to push their projects out for the last couple of years but I think the traditional world is now going to be exposed to what we are doing.
If you think that 2017 will be remembered as the year of bitcoin and crypto, just hold on tight and buckle your seat belt because 2018 is going to be exponentially superior in terms of number of ICO launches, crypto exchange users and people in general looking to make their first steps into this world.
As a result of that, we are going to see (we are seeing it already) an amazing number of investors, founders and entrepreneurs putting their ideas together to launch their blockchain businesses in the first half of 2018. To be able to do that, they will require experienced engineers, programmers, marketers and business professionals with the right mix of skills to move their companies from pre ICO phase into developing and delivery phases.
What Niche Specializations are you seeing the Greatest Demand? What Countries?
The most demanded positions at the moment are; ICO advisors, Full Stack engineers, Front-End and Back-End developers in languages such as C++, GO, Rust, Python, JS and Solidity in locations such as the United States, England, Singapore and Germany.
And What two or three Emerging Trends are Having the Greatest Impact on this Recruitment Space?
Here are a few:
- The number of companies needing talent is considerable higher than the number of specialist people with the right skills available to be hired. Demand for jobs in this space clearly exceeds the supply and hence the pressure in remuneration. I believe this is due to the fact that talented professionals who possess the skills in blockchain believe (quite rightly) that they can run their own companies as opposed to waiting to be hired by someone else,
- There is no clear concentration of startups in the blockchain industry in an specific geographical place. Of course, the usual suspects (California, New York, London, Germany and Singapore are leading the way) but they are closely followed by Russia, Texas, Florida and Australia. At the end of the day, we do believe in decentralization, don’t we?
What is the Crypto/Blockchain Environment currently like in Australia?
Every time I look out the window here in Sydney I am impressed with what we have achieved in this country when it comes to crypto and blockchain, considering our relatively small population.
We have a thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurs, professionals and enthusiasts in our two largest cities (Sydney and Melbourne). But one of the things it will amaze you the most is the maturity shown by our federal government in regards of the crypto industry.
I can say that Australia is one of the most bitcoin/crypto friendly countries in the world right now. Please allow me to list a few things sponsored by the governments in Australia at both Federal and State level:
- The issue of clear guidelines to eliminate double impacts when it comes to Value Added tax in the transactions involving bitcoin,
- Directions and instructions on how to generate Initial Coin Offerings,
- Sandbox licensing agreements to allow start-ups to test their products during a limited period of time without the burden of expensive licensing requirements,
- Taxation ruling to show taxpayers the tax treatment of their investments in cryptocurrencies and,
- The ability to invest in cryptocurrencies as part of our Self-Managed Retirement Funds. My favourite!
In Conclusion, What do you see on the Horizon in terms of Recruiting Demands for 2018?
In the first half of 2018, the gap between the demand for crypto jobs and the supply is going to get bigger. I can see the number of ICOs growing at a larger rate than the number of people with the right set of skills.
In the second half, the trend is going to start to converge due to three main reasons:
- The main street attention that bitcoin is generating is going to push the number of crypto enthusiasts up,
- An important number of educational institutions are starting to offer crypto- and blockchain-related courses with various formats aiming to skill up professionals in this industry and,
- In the latter part of 2018, the released of a number of new technologies that will allow coders in major languages such as Python and JS to develop projects and Smart Contracts without the need to learn Solidity from scratch.
The post Blockchain and Crypto Developer Demand Soars: Carlos Gomez of CryptoRecruit Speaks appeared first on BTCMANAGER.
Author: BTCManager.com
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