Recent reports show that the traditional market is on a decline with major employee cutbacks and demand in the crypto job market despite the crypto crash. Many crypto startups are actively hiring for crypto-related positions rejecting the common speculation that crypto might decline. Crypto-specialist recruiters claim that they haven’t experienced any downturn or negative impact on crypto-related job opportunities.
The crypto and blockchain companies have been slowly emerging as a rivaling industry against traditional tech corporations for the past few years. Compared to the tech industry, blockchain companies have managed to increase their revenue with time.
The Tech industry that once boomed in business during the pandemic is now facing a hard time in reaching its target revenue due to a decrease in demand. As a result, many tech giants such as Meta, Twitter, Uber, Amazon, and Robinhood have announced staff cutbacks and low hiring rates.
Meta paused its recruitment process and lowered the headcount of existing employees to recover from the revenue loss. According to CNBC, a Meta spokesperson elaborated on Meta’s decision by saying, “We regularly re-evaluate our talent pipeline according to our business needs and in light of the expense guidance given for this earnings period, we are slowing its growth accordingly.”
Similarly, Netflix, an entertainment platform that reported record-breaking revenue during the pandemic also faced a plunge in its revenue. The streaming service terminated contracts with around 150 mainly U.S.-based employees.
Even Amazon, the biggest eCommerce company reported being “overstaffed” when it quickly hired employees during the pandemic due to consumer increase.
Not only the tech industry but also the crypto industry also saw a sudden decline in the hiring process. Coinbase, which recently briefed about a $430 million loss in its Q1 report is also re-evaluating its initial decision of tripling the headcount in 2022. Coinbase chief operating officer Emelie Choi said the company will “slow hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals.”
Seeing that a big crypto platform like Coinbase is freezing its job hiring process, many new outlets and other sources believe that the crypto industry has slowed down. However, crypto-specialist recruiters disagree with this speculation.
The founder of Crypto Recruit, Neil Dundon claimed “We have not seen a slowdown in crypto hiring. We are as busy as ever.”
The crypto industry is seeing its prime time with hiring opportunities across the world. He also added: “We have a team based globally across the US, Asia/Pac, and European regions, and demand is equally as high across the region.”
In contrast to the tech industry, the crypto world has been facing a massive crisis following the crypto crash. Many companies suffered from the loss of the digital market but they are firm on its standing. The reason is quite simple, the blockchain industry is still in its initial years, which means many startups and small companies are still operating based on venture capital (VC) funding.
Last year, the blockchain industry recorded billions of dollars in investment. The venture capitalists were deeply involved with fundraising rounds for different NFT projects and crypto companies. According to the 2022 Q1 report by the CB Insights’ State of Blockchain, blockchain startups raised $9.2 billion worth of venture funds, which is more than double what they raised during the last quarter of 2021.
Therefore, the crypto startups can maintain their status due to those investments.
The founder of Proof of Search, Kevin Gibson, says, “The vast majority of quality projects were funded last year so [they will] continue to build & hire. There was such an imbalance of talent to role that any pull back from pre-funded projects will not be noticed.”
When asked about the declining job opportunities within the crypto industry, Gibson said, “[I’ve] only heard of two companies letting people go. This may change in the next month but any slack will immediately be taken up by well-funded quality projects. As such as a candidate you won’t notice any difference… if you do lose your job you will also have multiple offers pretty quickly.”
This indicates that even if an individual is let off from one crypto company, they have a huge chance to be rehired by another company quickly.
Furthermore, traditional Tech companies are also transitioning their business to the blockchain. This means crypto-related jobs are most likely to increase in the coming years as the demand for blockchain peaks.
Gibson says, “At a minimum, most forward-thinking tech companies are allocating some budget to […] look at how they might incorporate blockchain into their existing models […] Not only are more companies venturing into this space but candidates are flocking over as traditional tech downsizes.”
In the past, the blockchain industry was highly dependent on Bitcoin prices. If the BTC dropped, the market would also see a sudden decline in crypto hiring. Now, the blockchain industry is much more mature and calculative with its approach to the market. Every company reevaluates its position and comes up with various possible strategies to overcome crises to remain stable, and this is why the crypto hiring process is also stable.
When asked whether the continuing bear market will affect the hiring opportunities, Gundon contradicted by saying he sees no sign of this happening as the blockchain industry has now learned its lessons from the crisis back in 2018.
Final words
Crypto-related jobs will remain in demand in the coming years based on the current stable job market conditions.
Furthermore, since the investor community is always looking for innovative projects that can bring them profits, traditional tech companies might struggle to impress them compared to blockchain which has managed to grab venture capitalists’ attention by introducing new technologies and business possibilities.
As the blockchain industry continues to rise, the world will see huge job openings with high-paying positions in various fields in the future.
