Hello!
A breakdown on what works and what doesn’t in crypto hiring.
We’re in the heart of stage 2 of this bull market.
As someone who has hired 100+ people in crypto over the last 6.5 years, I have a lot of thoughts on how the job market changes through these cycles.
If you thought crypto prices are volatile, just wait until you study the crypto labor market. This impacts founders, employees, first-time applicants, HR departments, college graduates and more.
I’d like to use this post to try to help one group: those trying to get a first job in crypto.
Right now companies are hiring for just a few, high priority roles. Most of these roles are engineering, design and product related. If you don’t have these skills, it can feel impossible to get a job in stage 2.
But stage 3 is where it gets crazy. Crypto companies bring out their hiring bazookas. I’m not talking about just adding a couple of roles to their job boards — these companies will launch dozens of roles at a time. You’ll see 100-person startups launching 50 roles in a month.
Ask any founder at the end of 2024 about their main challenge, and 10 out of 10 will tell you it’s finding the right talent.
So why won’t you get a job if everyone is hiring?
Let me take you behind the scenes of what goes on in the mind of a hiring manager.
I’m astonished by how many applicants submit resumes that aren’t formatted, spell our name wrong, include typos in their email and more. These problems weed out +50% of applicants.
We receive hundreds of applications for each role. We get so many seven-paragraph emails. I’m sorry, but no one is reading that. Don’t waste time with a cover letter.
Instead, write 4-5 sentences total on your background, why you’d be perfect for this role and your experience with crypto. That’s it! Nothing else.
In an ideal world, we’d hire someone who has a perfect background and knows a lot about crypto. Unfortunately, this happens about 5% of the time.
Often, we’re choosing between a candidate who has a perfect background but is new to crypto vs. a candidate who has a solid background but loves crypto.
You need to demonstrate your crypto knowledge. Demonstrating this knowledge does not mean telling the recruiter that you’re “passionate about this industry because it’s going to revolutionize the world.”
Instead, it’s “I’ve been posting on Farcaster and Lens. I minted these NFTs. I listen to these podcasts religiously. I’m active on Crypto Twitter.”
At a bare minimum, get on X. Post everyday. Create charts and threads on podcasts.
Creating high-quality content is the best way to land a crypto job.
Too many applicants send cookie-cutter applications. Do something different to stand out.
One applicant sent us a video tearing apart our Twitter strategy. They ended up running our socials for two years.
One applicant built an entire Blockworks ad sales deck from scratch. They’re now crushing sales.
One mistake I keep seeing, especially with ex-bankers and consultants — don’t apply to work in “strategy.” The strategy role you want doesn’t exist.
Pitch why you’d be amazing for a specific role that exists at that type of company. Get hired, crush your job and then contribute to the company’s strategy.
I’ll end with this: Crypto is the most open industry in the world. It’s the only industry where there are still no experts. In nearly every other industry, you need several years of experience before you can be seen as influential.
But you have to commit. You have to build the network, listen to the podcasts, interact on the apps, attend the conferences.
If you do that, you’ll succeed. And yes, we do use jargon. Lots of it. But that jargon works as a litmus test to see if you really get the social layer of the industry. Because that’s the most important layer of them all.
Good luck out there.
— Jason Yanowitz
Source: Jason Yanowitz – blockworks.co