For one the Web3 industry has seen slow adoption in terms of new emerging products over the course of the last couple of years since we entered the bear market. In terms of Hype Cycle standing, in 2024 much of the industry’s emerging tech might just be have almost trough of disillusionment and closing into the slope of enlightenment. BTC's winning approval from the SEC for spot trading in January 2024 paves the way for future investment inflows to greater levels. This is good news as the industry gets to bounce back from the image that got tarnished post FTX crash.

Survival of the fittest

While the influx of VC capital has not been on a fast lane as one would expect, the time right now for crypto firms bootstrapping and expanding runaway is really an opportunity. Also as a job seeker in this area, knowing the volatility the industry experiences makes up for a challenge. Nevertheless, there are abundant opportunities for those looking to transfer their talent and skills into a wide array of crypto businesses.

Like with life resilience in times of crisis sets you apart in Web3.

Paths with top Web3 jobs

Let’s take a look at how you can break into this industry that is starting to enter the era of mainstream adoption. It’s key to understand that technical skills are by far the skills that are most in-demand because the industry needs developers to build new and innovative products. Different blockchains can possibly deploy different programming languages from each other and sometimes can even be unique to their own operational needs. Let’s take a look at top best available jobs in the industry.

Community Manager (Nontechnical)

As a community manager, you are primarily responsible for your company’s marketing efforts. This role usually involves drafting press releases based on key company developments and distributing them to media outlets and social media channels. Your typical day revolves around understanding the development of new technology and communicating its benefits to your community on Discord, Telegram, or Twitter channels. Competency in English is key to success since most Web3 startups use English as their main business language. Making announcements in a timely manner and scheduling them using CRM management is key to efficient community management. Modes of communication can range from newsletter distribution, press distribution, designing landing pages, blog posting, and social media posting.

Additional responsibilities may include capturing leads from advertising campaigns through Google ads, native advertising in a campaign and funneling new leads to conversion into customers in cooperation with the sales team. Depending on the nature of your business, if you as a B2B firm require new clients, online marketing campaigns are not just a need for you, but a key building block in the digital world. In a more B2B2C or B2B business model, you may even need to find a sweet spot between lead generation and retaining your existing community members by engaging them on socials.

Salaries for mid-level community managers in Western Europe can range between 50K and 60K euros. Other variables, such as location and level of responsibilities, may factor into determining the salary.

Product Manager (Semi-technical)

As a product manager, an affinity to computer science is a plus if you are looking to optimize the development of current SaaS product at your Web3 company. Having strong communication skills and familiarity with agile methods such as scrum and strategic decision making are important to succeding in this job role. Research techniques in knowing what technological adoptions competitors or partners make, and implementing prototype development in cooperation with the development team is a part of the job. Usually an academic background in software engineering is common for a professional seeking to assume a role like this. Specificity to knowing the unique nature of networks and developing an understanding of how they are unique in their own ways is a must. The mechanisms of networks like Solana, Cardano and Ethereum are very different from one another.

In a product role, you realize the importance of your role’s interplay with the roles of others in marketing, UX, business development, application and infrastructure development. Your feedback solicitation is key to prioritizing which development tasks get executed, which feature integrations need to be made, and in which order. A product manager must possess an aptitude for building blockchain technologies and monitoring the market and customer demands. For example, a Product Manager in Web3 gaming will need to be ready for interplay such as by interacting with the community, gathering feedback from stakeholders, mapping out the UX strategy with front-end and design teams, and writing blog posts about product features. Understanding a user, their persona, and their buying behavior and looking out for their security on the decentralized are also the pillars a product manager must not forget to pay attention to.

Software Engineer (Technical)

A software engineer in this role is responsible for implementing and maintaining products, specifically focusing on blockchain-related infrastructure and software products. They work in an agile team of experienced software engineers and are involved in designing and defining the products they build. Their typical day includes participating in sprint planning, creating tickets, implementing features, testing code, finding bugs, conducting code reviews, and ensuring the production of robust and reliable software products. Opportunities are vast for anyone with a background in back end, front end, blockchain development or simply just a full stack developer looking to juggle between them all.

The engineer must have a background in Computer Science or a related field and development experience. If they are involved with Solana, experience with Rust programming language will be required. If they are working with a product developed on Ethereum, then Solidity programming knowledge is needed to work with smart contracts on that network. Whereas Cardano deploys Haskell and its subset language Plutus Core in smart contract development. Engineers should have hands-on experience with tooling and be proficient in Git and Github. Additionally they must have strong attention to detail, the ability to work independently, critical thinking skills, and the habit of implementing thorough unit tests

Nice to have skills include experience with cryptography or security, understanding compilers, Layer 2 chains, and virtual machines like EVM or SVM.

In terms of compensation and perks, the engineer can expect competitive pay of over 100k euros per annum. On top of that we advise you to negotiate performance bonuses, remote work with flexible hours, paid time off (there is a minimum obligatory time you are entitled to in Western Europe), equity options, and the opportunity to work from anywhere.

How to land a top Web3 job?

In the blockchain space you may never know where the next opportunity might come from. With several startups popping out it’s a really modern industry that defies traditional recruiting at times. Most established blockchain firms such as Consensys, Chainlink, Cardano, Solana and Ethereum have job boards where they post new openings. When it comes to startups and scaleups joining their own communities and showing initiative can be a gamechanger in getting noticed by management to get considered for a position in their company. You should start by learning about the skills that are most in demand by recruiters and then develop those skills you currently lack. Even if you are just starting out starting by educating yourself on the skills that are in demand can build a strong case for you.

We wish you luck in your job search! While there are many roles available in this industry, we have only touched upon some of the most commonly available ones that are popular. Each blockchain has its own set of unique needs and requirements. We suggest that you start by growing your network in the area and starting meaningful conversations with people you would like working with.

Boost your career with top web3 jobs