The Web3 Hiring Odyssey: Confronting the Unique Recruitment Dilemmas in Blockchain-based Enterprises
Remote work, salary expectations, motivation, appreciation, and feedback were already some of the challenges that, as a professional in the field, I faced in any business context, and then I had to add Web3 to the equation. I have explained what Web3 is in various ways, and I will now replicate the explanation that I considered most suitable for my level of understanding, which was (perhaps still is) quite limited.
From Web1 to Web3
To explain what Web3 is, I’ll start by explaining what Web1 is, followed by Web2 (don’t give up just yet, I want to remind you that I am a psychologist, and I managed to grasp this evolution). Web1 (World Wide Web) is the first phase of the internet, which emerged in the 1990s, and it allowed us to read content, meaning it is considered a medium for distributing static information (no user interaction). A good example of Web1 is a news website, which is unilaterally fed, and the user only consumes its content.
In the early 2000s, Web2 emerged with a significant innovation: user interaction. Users, in addition to consuming content, could now write and share information/content with other users, giving rise to platforms like blogs and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, for example.
Currently, there is much talk about Web3, but what is the main evolution of this new web? This third generation of the internet allows us to be owners of our own content, enabling us to monetize it without relying on intermediaries (e.g., Youtube, Spotify, Instagram). And how do we ensure all this?
Through Blockchain technology!
Blockchain enters the scene
Another new term! What is Blockchain? Once again, I’ll explain it in the simplest way, perhaps the only way I know how. Before Web3, all information was stored in closed databases controlled by their owners (e.g., Google, Facebook), giving them the ability to alter and manipulate this information, as well as use personal data for less ethical campaigns (who remembers the Cambridge Analytica scandal?).
The Blockchain came to change this paradigm through its structure of blocks, where each block contains a set of transactions, and every user in the network has a copy of the content of all blocks since the network’s genesis. This guarantees information transparency and, consequently, data security. This is because, for these records to be altered by third parties, they would need to be changed simultaneously in all existing copies of the distributed ledger (a very complex and practically impossible task).
Now you might ask: What does this have to do with the Human Resources Department? Everything and nothing at the same time…
Directly, it doesn’t have any impact because our direct interaction is with the employees of our team, but these employees work in very specific areas directly connected to this world (developers, business developers, designers, marketers). So, what exactly changes? A lot of things.
In this article, I chose to focus on the recruitment process, as it is the first People process to be executed.
Recruitment
This process, besides being, in my opinion, one of the most important processes, now becomes the most challenging and complex. In addition to the common challenges — high salary expectations, experience in the role, soft skills aligned with the culture and position, candidate motivation, among others — we now have a series of new challenges related to:
Candidates with Web3 experience
Obviously, to enter this Web3 world, at some point, you will have to gain experience (as was my case), but many of the needs have to be fulfilled quickly, which means — ASAP. So, what would simplify things significantly? Finding someone with experience in the field. However, the area is relatively new, and there are only a few companies, so how can we guess who has experience? Since these companies are emerging and acting within a community, they end up helping each other, so it is not ethically well-regarded to “steal” employees from other companies.
Higher salaries than the ones we already know
Typically, a course in computer science/programming/engineering is heavily focused on Web2 because it is the most common and, therefore, considered the “safer” path. This means that candidates who want to enter the Web3 ecosystem often need to be self-taught. This proactive approach from these professionals requires time and dedication, and when seeking a challenge, they expect this extra effort to be proportionately rewarded. However, this world is also new for Web3 companies themselves, and although we believe that growth is assured, the available capital for most companies is still quite limited.
Recruitment channels in the Web3 space
It has been very challenging to focus the active capital research on a single platform. Until now, I used LinkedIn for all positions. However, with the increase in comprehensive recruitment platforms for Web3, this relatively small group of professionals, where, according to Github and Electric Capital, the market has around 50,000 developers within or interested in entering this world, may face difficulties in figuring out where to be active in their search for challenges. On the other hand, companies are beginning to invest more money in posting vacancies on each of the existing sites to access a small percentage of these professionals.
These are three of the major challenges I have encountered. Now, let’s go over how you can manage these challenges.
Candidates with Web3 experience
In this first point, as I mentioned earlier, the difficulty lies in finding candidates with experience while also maintaining collaboration with other companies as a basis. For this reason, I oscillate between having an inbound and an outbound strategy. Inbound, because we post job openings and hope that candidates proactively express their interest in collaborating with us. However, this often doesn’t yield a large volume of applications since these professionals are approached daily by many other companies and may not feel the need to actively search for opportunities. On the other hand, I have an outbound strategy because, thanks to our community, which is constantly engaged and nurtured by our team to foster growth, sharing, and information exchange, we can find many knowledgeable professionals who meet our needs and are familiar with LayerX’s culture, vision, and mission.
Higher salaries than what we are already familiar with
It would be very gratifying to say that we can meet or exceed the expectations of one-third of the candidates, as that would allow us to respond to the team 300% faster and reduce the recruitment time to 3 weeks. How wonderful that would be! Unfortunately, this is not our reality, nor is it for much of the industry, which is still in the phase of growth and market exploration. So, how do I address this situation? In the first contact with the candidate, I try to convey our company culture, meaning during the interview, my approach is exactly what we experience on a daily basis — relaxed and somewhat cheerful. I am not a proponent of awkward, impersonal interviews that attempt to establish a power dynamic because I believe it only drives candidates away. It is essential to remember that the premise of the company solely choosing the candidate is not applicable in today’s world. After this initial contact, we present our range of both conventional and unconventional benefits in subsequent interactions.
Recruitment channels for the Web3 world
I cannot give you a single solution because that is exactly the problem I face. However, I can share three recruitment platforms for Web3 that I have had the opportunity to explore more in-depth over the past year and a half.
The first is Wellfound (formerly known as AngelList), where we can find a considerable volume of candidates compared to others, but we believe they tend to be more junior profiles with limited experience in the field, which hasn’t been very helpful for us.
The second platform is Rviewer, another technological recruitment platform that charges an 8% commission on the candidate’s annual gross salary after they are hired. The third platform is CryptoJobList, which I haven’t had the chance to work with personally, but I have exchanged impressions with people in the field who use it. It operates similarly to LinkedIn, where the company chooses the budget it wants to allocate to a position, and the more we pay, the more visibility we get.
Finally, we always maintain our website because our Marketing team has done an excellent job promoting LayerX, which has positively impacted the number of applications we receive through the site.
In summary
This new era of the internet is not only a challenge for professionals in technological roles but also for all areas across a company. The group of people dealing with these challenges is quite extensive.
However, I believe that the attitude of collaboration, empathy, and solidarity adopted to face them has been fundamental for healthy and solid growth in such a still nascent market with enormous growth potential. This is precisely the ethos of Web3 and decentralization — growing together and stronger, adapting to the challenges posed by the market.
I truly believe we are on an excellent path, and the opportunities that will arise are boundless. So, if you share the same belief, I am fully available to assist you on this journey.
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