edit | Wu Blockchain about blockchain
Colin, founder of Wu Blockchain, talked with Sam and Miya from Xinjincheng HR about interesting things about recruitment in the crypto. Xinjincheng has been engaged in headhunting and recruitment in the blockchain field since 2016, and has successfully helped more than 2,000 candidates find jobs.
The audio-to-text conversion uses GPT, so there may be errors. Listen to the full podcast:
Microcosm:
https://www.xiaoyuzhoufm.com/episodes/662be5345fb33c1b2bd0887d
Youtube:
https://youtu.be/BD7Alf8_hp8
Distributed positions are becoming less and less, with Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Shenzhen having the most centralized offices
Sam: Distributed office was once a mainstream model in the crypto, but it is now gradually decreasing. Through our summary, we found that remote office was more common in China in the early days, and then the business expanded to Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong and other places. As for now, there are not many companies in China that truly support remote office, and only a few still maintain this model. Most companies either require employees to work in a centralized office or adopt overseas mobile office methods. One of the main reasons for the reduction of distributed office is that this method is relatively inefficient and difficult to manage. In addition, we have also encountered some problems, such as some remote employees are actually part-time, and even there are cases of impersonation.
There are many people who impersonate others, and some even outsource their work.
Sam: In some cases, some people even outsource their work and do other things themselves. We have indeed come across these situations. As for the changes in centralized offices, from multiple locations in China in the early days to gradually moving to Singapore, now due to cost issues, many companies have moved to Thailand, Malaysia and other places. Hong Kong and Shenzhen have also formed a connection. The bosses or executives of many projects are in Hong Kong, and recruitment activities are carried out in Shenzhen. This model is still quite common now.
Miya: Let me talk about some interesting cases we encountered. For example, one time, a candidate asked another person to interview on his behalf. We found this when we checked the identity information through WeChat and other means. Although some people in the client company knew about this situation, they seemed to accept it by default because the cost of remote work was relatively low. In addition, some project parties sometimes used the resumes we provided to recommend to other companies, which made the rules very confusing.
Sam: Let me add another case where we were harmed. There was a senior technical leader in the industry who became the CTO of a company and also set up a small headhunting company on his own. We worked with him to recommend talents for him, but he was actually using our services to serve his headhunting company for free. We later discovered that all the resumes of the talents we recommended were actually forwarded through his headhunting company first. In the end, this CTO was fired by the company, and the problem was solved by HR for us.
Many executives, employees, and colleagues work outside the company, and some even open their own companies.
Sam: For some positions in the crypto, especially BD, this remote work model is particularly prone to abuse because they are not often in the company. They often use their own resources to serve their own company first, and then provide the remaining resources to the company they are currently working for, or even work part-time in several companies at the same time. This is one of the reasons why more and more companies are now requiring centralized offices, because this allows better management of employees. As for the theft of company assets, we have only heard about it and have not encountered it directly. This situation may be more common in the West, such as remote workers suddenly stealing company assets after gaining the trust of the company. But in the Chinese community, such cases are relatively rare, perhaps because the laws and regulations are stricter, or the culture is more cautious. Our company mainly recruits mid-to-high-end positions, such as department director level or expert level positions above P6 level, which are more common in the crypto. For example, OKX adopts a similar job grade system to Alibaba, while Binance has its own set of standards.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for people with a pure Web2 background to enter the blockchain industry. A background in crypto is required.
Sam: In the early days, especially between 2017 and 2018, it was very difficult for us to try to recruit talents from outside the circle. But after the Dragon Boat Festival in 2022, the attitude of the entire industry towards talents from Web2 changed, and they raised the threshold for entering this industry, especially the need for relevant industry experience. Therefore, starting from 2022, despite a lot of layoffs in the Internet industry, Web2 talents who wanted to enter the crypto found that there were almost no opportunities, especially for non-technical people. This is mainly because the crypto is relatively independent, and employers are more inclined to recruit people with industry experience. So, although we needed to supplement talents from Web2 or other traditional industries to fill the talent gap in the early days, the situation has been very different since the bear market, and the industry has begun to lay off employees, and it is difficult for Web2 talents to have the opportunity to enter this circle.
The crypto has very high educational requirements. I don’t understand why some people think that the crypto has low educational requirements.
Sam: I have always believed that this industry has high educational requirements. This industry is essentially a combination of financial technology and blockchain technology. The traditional financial industry has high educational requirements, and blockchain is a relatively new technology, so the educational requirements are naturally not low. Even for front-line positions, such as market operations, you often need to have overseas study experience, especially if you want to do BD, you usually need to deal with foreigners or even overseas markets, so the educational requirements have always been very strict. I don't know why some people think that this industry does not require high educational requirements. In fact, many bosses in the crypto are highly educated people, or have returned from studying abroad, and they have certain requirements for academic qualifications. Moreover, as the industry turns to overseas markets, the requirements for English and even small languages are getting higher and higher, because this is related to whether international business can be carried out effectively, especially during the bear market, the business mainly focuses on contract trading, which requires the ability to cover more overseas markets.
In addition to the high level of English required, there is also a high demand for small languages such as Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Persian
Sam: In terms of language requirements, in addition to English, we also particularly need Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and even Persian. These demands are mainly because these countries have a large number of crypto users, so there is also a great demand for these minority languages. If a position does not require the ability to speak a minority language, then English skills must be very good. For those who want to enter the blockchain industry, whether they are college students or those who are already working, if you are a technician, you can use the blockchain knowledge or related technologies learned in college, especially now that many universities have also opened blockchain-related courses. This field is particularly in need of blockchain technology development talents, whether it is public chain, Layer2 or other technologies such as ZK (zero-knowledge proof). If you are a non-technical person, if you want to enter this industry, you should first improve your language skills, whether it is English or other minority languages. These skills are particularly critical for entering the crypto. Among the positions being recruited, the technical and market resource development (BD) categories are in the greatest demand. For applicants, even internship experience is very important because it can help you accumulate relevant industry experience. There are many excellent WEB3 project teams in China, and even working in a large consortium chain is a good opportunity to accumulate experience.
Miya: As for interesting things, there are actually many small things that happen every day during the recruitment process. For example, I encountered a weird thing this afternoon. A candidate with a monthly salary of 100,000 yuan had already reached the offer stage, but he argued with me for an hour because he needed to advance 10,000 yuan to buy a computer (although the company would reimburse).
There are many cases of fake resumes. I once met a person who had 5 different fake resumes.
Miya: In the crypto, the proportion of resume fraud is indeed quite high, and many people's resumes are somewhat watered down. Although there are still many honest people, there have indeed been several cases where the difference between the resumes before and after is particularly large. Some larger companies will use a dedicated third-party background check company, or ask a headhunting company like us to conduct background checks within the industry, but this is a relatively rare situation. For smaller or less formal companies, they may not conduct such background checks.
Sam: We once received a candidate's resume. He sent different versions of his resume to different consultants. There were five versions in total, and even the names were different. In the remote working environment of the crypto, the probability of resume fraud is indeed higher, because there are relatively few companies that conduct background checks and the cost of fraud is relatively low. However, as this industry gradually becomes more formal, I suggest that candidates can modify their resumes appropriately, but never falsify. Because although this circle seems large, it is actually very small. Everyone knows each other. Once you leave a bad record, no one in this industry may be willing to hire you in the future.
In the early days, 50% of the people would be given currency rights, but now it is rare, and only senior executives have it.
Sam: Token incentives are less common now, mainly because it may be a bear market now, and people may think that tokens are not valuable. Although it may be the early to mid-term of the bull market, there are still relatively few discussions about token rights. In the early days, more than 50% of companies would discuss token incentives when recruiting, but now we are exposed to fewer and fewer situations, and there may be only a few executive positions that involve this topic. This situation also reflects that the industry is becoming more formal. Compared with token rights, companies are more inclined to directly provide wages or sell tokens to investors because it is simpler. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get rich overnight through token rights like in the early days.
