Blockchain
Wu Shuo founder Colin, and Newgen HR Sam and Miya had a chat about some interesting stories in the cryptocurrency industry. Newgen has been working in the blockchain field since 2016 and has successfully helped over 2,000 candidates find jobs.
Sam: The number of distributed jobs is decreasing, with most companies now focusing on centralized offices in Shenzhen, Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Distributed work used to be a mainstream model in the cryptocurrency industry, but it has gradually decreased. We have found that remote work was more common in China initially, and then expanded to Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong. However, there are now only a few companies in China that truly support remote work. Most companies either require employees to work in a centralized office or adopt a mobile office approach overseas. One of the main reasons for the decrease in distributed work is that it is relatively inefficient and difficult to manage. We have also encountered some issues, such as remote employees working part-time or even impersonating others.
Sam: There are also cases where people outsource their work and focus on other things. We have encountered such cases as well. As for the shift towards centralized offices, many companies have moved to Thailand, Malaysia, and other countries due to cost considerations. Hong Kong and Shenzhen have also formed a connection, with many project owners or executives based in Hong Kong while recruitment activities take place in Shenzhen. This model is quite common now.
Miya: Let me share some interesting cases we have encountered. For example, one candidate asked someone else to attend the interview on their behalf. We discovered this when we checked their identity information through WeChat. Although some people at the client company were aware of this, they seemed to accept it because remote work is cost-effective. Additionally, some project owners sometimes use the resumes we provide to recommend candidates to other companies, which makes the rules more chaotic.
Sam: I’ll add another case where we were harmed. There was a senior technical leader in the industry who became a CTO of a company and also started his own small headhunting company. We collaborated with him to recommend talents, but he was actually using our services for free to benefit his own headhunting company. We later found out that all the resumes of the candidates we recommended were actually forwarded through his headhunting company. Eventually, this CTO was fired, and the HR department helped us resolve the issue.
Sam: In the cryptocurrency industry, there are many executives, employees, and colleagues who work outside and even start their own companies. This remote work model, especially for business development (BD) positions, is prone to abuse. They often use their resources to serve their own companies first and then provide the remaining resources to the company they are currently employed by or even work part-time for multiple companies. This is one of the reasons why more and more companies now require centralized offices, as it allows for better management of employees. As for cases of stealing company assets, we have only heard about them but have not directly encountered them. This situation may be more common in the West, where remote workers gain the trust of a company and suddenly steal its assets. However, in the Chinese community, such cases are relatively rare, perhaps due to stricter laws and regulations or a more cautious culture. Our company mainly recruits for high-end positions, such as department directors at P6 level or expert-level positions, which are quite common in the cryptocurrency industry. For example, OKX adopts a job ranking system similar to Alibaba, while Binance has its own standards.
Sam: It was very difficult to recruit talent from outside the industry, especially during the period from 2017 to 2018. But after the Dragon Boat Festival in 2022, the industry’s attitude towards talent from Web2 has changed. The entry barrier has increased, especially in terms of relevant industry experience. Therefore, since 2022, although there have been many layoffs in the Internet industry, Web2 talent looking to enter the cryptocurrency industry has found almost no opportunities, especially for non-technical personnel. This is mainly because the cryptocurrency industry is relatively independent, and employers prefer to hire people with industry experience. So, even though we needed to supplement our talent pool from Web2 or other traditional industries in the early days, the situation has changed significantly since entering the bear market. The industry started downsizing, and it became difficult for Web2 talent to enter this circle.
Sam: I have always believed that this industry has high educational requirements. It is essentially a combination of financial technology and blockchain technology. Traditional financial industries already have high educational requirements, and combined with blockchain being a relatively new technology, the educational requirements are naturally high as well. Even for front desk positions like marketing and operations, overseas study experience is often required, especially if you are in BD and need to interact with foreigners or overseas markets. So, the educational requirements in this industry have always been strict. I don’t understand why some people think that this industry has low educational requirements. In fact, many bosses in the cryptocurrency industry have high educational backgrounds or have studied abroad. They have certain requirements for education. Moreover, as the industry shifts towards overseas markets, the demand for English and even other languages has increased. This is crucial for effectively conducting international business, especially during the bear market when business mainly focuses on contract trading and requires coverage of more overseas markets.
Sam: In terms of language requirements, besides English, we also have a strong demand for Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and even Persian. These demands are mainly because these countries have a large number of cryptocurrency users, so there is a great need for these languages. For those who want to enter the blockchain industry, whether they are university students or already working professionals, if you are a technical person, you can utilize the blockchain knowledge or related skills you learned in college, especially now that many universities offer blockchain-related courses. This field particularly needs blockchain development talents, whether it’s for public chains, Layer2, or other technologies like ZK (zero-knowledge proofs). If you are a non-technical person, improving your language skills, whether it’s English or other minor languages, is crucial for entering this industry. These skills are key to entering the cryptocurrency industry. In terms of job openings, there is a high demand for technical and market resource development (BD) positions. For applicants, even internship experience is important as it helps you accumulate relevant industry experience. There are many excellent WEB3 project teams in China, and even working in large consortium chains is a good opportunity to gain experience.
Miya: As for interesting things, we encounter many minor incidents during the recruitment process every day. For example, today at lunchtime, I encountered a strange situation where a candidate with a monthly salary of 100,000 RMB was already in the offer stage, but he insisted on spending 10,000 RMB of his own money to buy a computer (although the company would reimburse him) and argued with me for an hour.
Miya: In the cryptocurrency industry, there is indeed a relatively high percentage of resume fraud, and many resumes may have some exaggeration. Although there are still many honest people, there have been cases where the difference between the before and after versions of a resume is significant. Some larger companies use specialized third-party background check companies or headhunting companies like us for industry background checks, but this is relatively rare. Smaller or less formal companies may not conduct such checks.
Sam: We once received a candidate’s resume, and he sent different versions of his resume to different consultants, a total of five versions, with different names even. In the cryptocurrency industry’s remote work environment, the probability of resume fraud is indeed higher because there are relatively few companies conducting background checks, and the cost of fraud is lower. However, as the industry becomes more formal, I advise candidates to appropriately enhance their resumes but never fabricate information. This industry, although seemingly large, is actually quite small, and everyone knows each other. Once you leave a bad record, it is possible that no one in this industry will be willing to hire you again.
Sam: Token incentives are now less common, mainly because tokens may not be valued highly in the current bear market. Although we may be in the early to mid-stage of a bull market, the discussion of token incentives is relatively rare. In the early days, more than 50% of companies would discuss token incentives in recruitment, but now we are encountering fewer cases, perhaps only for a few high-level executive positions. This situation also reflects the industry becoming more formal, and companies prefer to provide direct salaries or sell tokens to investors because it is simpler. Therefore, it is becoming more difficult to experience overnight wealth through token incentives like in the early days.
Tags:
Blockchain
Wu Shuo blockchain real
Cryptocurrency industry
Headhunting
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https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LTeUBoACBeOx7jtPOmxNgw
Note: The translation is a direct and accurate translation, and the content does not necessarily represent the author’s opinion.