The current job market is increasingly turning from labor focused vacancies to mainly skill-based jobs due to the exponential rate of automation in many sectors, principally in developed countries like the US and China. Since the 2017 cryptocurrency price rise the cryptocurrency market, as well as blockchain technology development, has been drawing the attention of people in many areas. When prices began to rise exponentially in 2017, the demand for jobs in the industry increased in the same way.
“We hardly ever hire from inside of crypto because most people inside of crypto are very inexperienced. You have very, very few people who are experienced who get into the crypto industry,”
said Julian Hosp, co-founder of Singapore-based crypto wallet and card start-up, TenX.
Although since early 2018 the crypto market suffered significant losses, blockchain technology has continued its adoption trend by companies in numerous fields, large companies and even consortiums of several firms. Blockchain has been applied to take advantage of automation.
The Asian labor market has become one of the most active and striking for the diverse professionals interested in this technology. Not only is there a demand for jobs for the industry, but also recruiters keep on finding personnel for the constant projects that arise frequently.
“If crypto is doing well, if people are making money in crypto, we get huge inbound from people because they feel like, ‘I need to jump on this wave (…) And then when you see crypto going down — and we saw this at the very beginning [of this year] and we’re seeing this right now — then we see that immediately the demand of people, they’re like, ‘Oh no, this is a dying industry, I shouldn’t go in there.’ So, it’s completely emotional,”
Hosp told CNBC in an interview.
The most common skills sought by recruiters are those of knowledge in the Python programming language. However, not only programmers have a place in this new ecosystem of companies. Other professionals from different areas such as marketing, public relations and operations management, have also been interested in jobs in the sector.
Despite all of this, and although job search engines in Asia show a growth in requests for this type of employment, recruiters indicate that, in fact, few professionals are adequately prepared to provide their services in tasks related to technology.
“It’s maybe after February, we suddenly see a lot of influx of talent from traditional venture capital funds … and investment banks in China. It could be said the Asian or the Chinese talent are a little slower than their European or American counterparts to come into this field,”
said Wayne Zhu, a founding partner of NEO Global Capital, the venture capital fund arm of the NEO.
The very success that the cryptocurrency market has had, above all, at the highest point of its prices, has generated this interest in the industry. However, when it is affected, motivation also decreases.
The evolution of blockchain technology and even the cryptocurrency market, are just beginning their long road of development and stability, which implies a new field of available jobs for which demand will be constant, and permanent training of professionals in the skills required to improve the industry.
By Samuel Larreal
