Openings for blockchain related positions have surged since the second half of 2017. Last November saw it in all-time-high demand. Roughly 300k vacancies were filled in a half year, among which many are taken by professionals from private equity and venture capital field, according to data from a headhunter company.

The popularity of blockchain technology pushes up the demand of blockchain jobs, large companies and startups alike are looking for developers and architects in the field of blockchain development all over the world. During the first five months of 2018, there are 4,500 openings for blockchain-, bitcoin- and cryptocurrency-related positions, increased by 151% compared to that of the whole year 2017 and only 645 such vacancies in 2016, according to LinkedIn data.

PE/VC professionals flood into blockchain

Zhang He, who left the private equity company a month ago to work on blockchain project incubation as an investment counselor, frankly said

“Most PE/VC practitioners throw themselves into blockchain considering the tough turn of the primary market. The primary market has not gone well so far this year, fundraising is particularly difficult and we are losing confidence on it.”

Blockchain jobs are always well paid, it is another reason for talents to flow into this field. Blockchain-related postings of the Q1 2018 on Liepin (a famous recruiter company in China) have tripled compared with the same period in 2017, and blockchain technologists are offered with an average annual salary of more than 300k yuan ($47k), higher than payment (200k yuan) in the finance and internet sectors.

Wang Jing, who used to be in charge of marketing jobs in a venture capital company, has resigned for entrepreneurship in blockchain space early this year. In his view, blockchain startups are more likely to be gazelles.

High pay leads to low fidelity

Recruitment requirements show that companies prefer to hire people for technical positions with internet background or financial investment, such as blockchain system engineer, blockchain architect and product manager, blockchain operator, marketing, PR and reporters are also wanted. Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou are where demand is strongest for blockchain talents.

It’s reported that blockchain technologists are averagely offered 300k yuan a year. While Zhang He said most newcomers could not get paid that high, fat salary is for professionals with skills though they are not quite on available.

“It is quite easy to make career change in blockchain sector for the surging demand. I got the job via casual chats in a WeChat group, without any recruitment procedures. As such, the industry is in a chaos and staff have comparably low fidelity.”

“Staff in companies with some fame are inclined to be poached with high pay lures.”