AMAZING

Employer interest in hiring bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain roles is on the upswing again, after experiencing a downturn along with bitcoin market, but job seeker interest has yet to rebound, according to new data from job search site Indeed.


Between February 2018 and February 2019, the share of job postings in these fields per million on Indeed increased by 90%. However, the share of job searches per million decreased by 67%, the data found.

SEE: IT leader's guide to the blockchain (Tech Pro Research)Taking a longer term view, interest around bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain jobs is still up: When expanding the view from 2016 to 2019, the share of job postings in these areas increased by 4,086%, and the share of job searches increased by 553%, Indeed found.


Job seeker interest in bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain jobs spiked around January 2018, when bitcoin prices were fluctuating, Indeed found.


Image: Indeed
Demand for blockchain jobs has now outstripped candidate interest, the data shows, demonstrating that while the initial hype around these careers has died down for job seekers, companies are still looking to fill key roles including cryptocurrency analyst, cryptocurrency trader, and bitcoin full stack developer.

These 10 companies have had the highest share of job postings per million for roles related to bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain over the past year:

• Deloitte
• IBM
• KPMG
• EY
• Accenture
• Cisco
• JP Morgan Chase
• Microsoft
• Conduent
• ConsenSys

In terms of location, the metro areas with the most job postings in these fields include San Jose, San Francisco, New York, Austin, and Seattle, the data showed.

Blockchain jobs pay above the US median salary, a past Glassdoor report found: Open blockchain-related jobs on the site last year offered a median base salary of $84,884 per year.

To learn more, check out these TechRepublic cheat sheets on blockchain and bitcoin.

Next Big Thing Newsletter

Be in the know about smart cities, AI, Internet of Things, VR, autonomous driving, drones, robotics, and more of the coolest tech innovations. Delivered Wednesdays and Fridays

“Big Four” professional consulting firms Deloitte, KPMG and EY are all in the top five when it comes to posting blockchain job ads, according to new data from Indeed.com.

The employment site released its latest figures for job postings relating to blockchain, cryptocurrency and bitcoin in the U.S. on Thursday, with the data covering the period from February 2018 to February 2019.

Topping the table was Deloitte, with IBM and KPMG in second and third place, respectively. EY and Accenture (another major consulting firm) came fourth and fifth, also respectively.

Deloitte’s top placing is perhaps not surprising, as the firm has been very active in the blockchain space, participating in trials, developing products and offering services around the tech.

The consulting giant has previously said: “We envision that [Deloitte’s] ever-evolving and nimble team will build upon our past success in helping our clients, which includes 92 percent of the financial service companies listed on the Fortune 500 list, to hone their blockchain-backed offerings,” he said. 

Indeed.com’s data also shows that of all the financial firms, JPMorgan has placed the most ads for blockchain staff over the last year. While its chairman and president, Jamie Dimon, is notoriously skeptical of bitcoin, his company is actively preparing for a future where blockchain is a key part of financial infrastructure and notably revealed its own in-house cryptocurrency in February.

No other Wall Street institutions made Indeed’s top 10.Discussing the data, Indeed.com economist Andrew Flowers told Forbes that it’s “notable that there’s a lack of financial and banking companies hiring for something that’s made to replace money.

”Microsoft and ethereum development studio ConsenSys also made it to the top 10, according to Indeed’s data, in eighth and tenth place, respectively.

Flowers further said the last year marks the first time there have been more job postings than searches – likely because of the decline in crypto prices, as Indeed has previously suggested.

The data shows that searches per million on its site for roles involving blockchain, cryptocurrency and bitcoin declined by 67 percent during the period, while the share of job postings per million increased by 90 percent.

Back in November, another Indeed.com data report showed that the number of blockchain job postings increased by 25.49 percent from October 2017 to October 2018.San Jose, San Francisco and New York are the cities with the most blockchain postings, Indeed’s latest report concludes.

Deloitte image via Shutterstock 

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Square CEO Jack Dorsey said he wants to hire a few cryptocurrency engineers and a designer, to conduct work that will contribute to advancing an accessible, Internet-based financial system that benefits the greater community.

The new employees be able to work from wherever they want, report directly to Dorsey, and can even be paid in Bitcoin, if they so choose.“I love this technology and community.

I’ve found it to be deeply principled, purpose-driven, edgy, and…really weird. Just like the early internet! I’m excited to get to learn more directly,” Dorsey tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.

jack✔@jack#BitcoinTwitter and #CryptoTwitter! Square is hiring 3-4 crypto engineers and 1 designer to work full-time on open source contributions to the bitcoin/crypto ecosystem. Work from anywhere, report directly to me, and we can even pay you in bitcoin! Introducing @SqCrypto. Why?11.6K9:58 PM - Mar 20, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy

4,739 people are talking about this


Square already allows people to buy and sell Bitcoin on its Cash App, which is also a mobile payments platform that competes with Venmo.Dorsey said Square “has taken a lot from the open source community to get us here,” so this would be his way of giving back to the community—while also helping to further Square’s “broader interest” of having an accessible financial system for the Internet.

“This will be Square’s first open source initiative independent of our business objectives.

These folks will focus entirely on what’s best for the crypto community and individual economic empowerment, not on Square’s commercial interests,” Dorsey wrote. “All resulting work will be open and free.”

This year the City of Lights will serve as host to one of the biggest blockchain technology conferences in the world. An estimated 3,000 attendees will gather for the Paris Blockchain Week.

The week-long event will take place from April 13th to April 19th, 2019. In addition, the innovative event will feature a multitude of events and workshops.  Technology and industry professionals are planning to showcase their blockchain achievements.

The Paris Blockchain Week Summit itself is expecting to draw more than 100 international speakers. Station F will be transforming into the world’s largest startup campus. The summit itself will be a two-day flagship event.

Hundreds of International Speakers
The major attraction of that week will be the Paris Blockchain Week Summit that is taking place on April 16-17, 2019. Hundreds of major industry leaders are attending this unique event.In addition,  key speakers include Binance CFO Wei Zhou and Blockfolio CEO Edward Moncada.

These individuals will present lectures that will touch on the latest breakthroughs in the blockchain industry. Corporate executives from various industries will also present their blockchain achievements. Speech topics include perspectives on three major topics: Technology, Investment, and Regulation.

France Taking Steps As Blockchain Pioneer
France in recent years has taken steps to lead on the world stage as supporter and innovator of blockchain technology. Therefore, the Paris Blockchain Week will serve to demonstrate the uniqueness of the French blockchain ecosystem. The event hopes to reinforce Paris as a European capital of blockchain and crypto-asset fundraising.

TAGS: blockchainParisParis Blockchain WeekParis Blockchain Week SummitStation F



Edward Maggio

Edward Maggio is the Editor in Chief for Business Blockchain HQ. He is an author, attorney and blockchain expert who uses his knowledge of commercial transactions and project management to support blockchain endeavors in Washington D.C. and New York City.

There's been a 517% increase in demand for software engineers with blockchain development skills in the past year, according to a new report from job search site Hired.

In its first-ever analysis of only software engineering jobs, Hired found blockchain development skills ranked in the top three job openings in almost every global region. Blockchain engineers were followed by security engineers and embedded engineers, which saw 132% and 76% year-over-year growth, respectively.



Hired

Mehul Patel, CEO of Hired, said the growth in demand for blockchain skills has gone "through the roof" and tops anything he's ever seen.




[ Further reading: Blockchain: The complete guide ]"It's staggering growth," Patel said.

San Francisco-based Hired culled its data from the resumes of more than 100,000 job seekers and job postings from more than 10,000 companies that use the website.Salaries for software developers with blockchain skills are as high as $157,000 in the U.S., according to the report. Outside the U.S., salaries drop significantly, but that is to be expected, as pay for software engineers in general is lower in other regions, Patel said.


Hired

In London, for example, software engineers with blockchain development skills earn as much as $90,000; in Toronto they earn up to $75,000; and in Paris, $67,000, according to Hired's report.[ Looking to upgrade your career in tech? This comprehensive online course teaches you how. ]Hired's data is not far off that of other recent job reports.

For example, job market research firm Burning Glass Technologies in December reported that blockchain developer job openings had grown 316% in the past year – creating 12,006 job openings in the U.S. alone.The median advertised salary for software developers requiring blockchain skills in the U.S. was $125,000, according to Burning Glass Technologies.


Hired

"As demand increases, so do salaries," according to the Hired report.Also, in December, LinkedIn revealed its top five emerging careers and found blockchain developer was number one.

Job listings for those who can create blockchain ledgers had grown 33-fold in a year, according to LinkedIn's 2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report. In distant second place were machine learning engineers, positions that saw a 12-fold increase during the same period.

While blockchain engineering is the most in-demand skill on the Hired marketplace, only 12% of survey respondents identified blockchain as the top technology they want to learn. Fifty-one percent of survey respondents named Python as one of their most-liked languages, while 49% cited Javascript. PHP was ranked the least favorite at 19%. 

Another problem affecting the mismatch between the need for blockchain developers and a lack of available workers is the difficulty in finding places that offer training, Patel said. In general, one in five software engineers is self-taught, according to Hired's data."I think generally we are seeing less than half of engineers we looked at had a B.S.  degree and one fifth of them had gone through a year and a half of school.

So one-third of our engineering base are self-taught or taught through non-traditional means," Patel said. Almost two-thirds of the software engineering roles on Hired's platform didn't have blockchain in the title, but did list it as a skill. 

"So, I think the title itself is not out there yet, but folks are definitely looking for the skills," Patel said.While still relatively rare, blockchain training programs have begun to pop up and are now being offered by some of the nation's leading universities, including Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and MIT.

Currently, the easiest and fastest way to become proficient is to learn on your own or attend programs organized by blockchain vendors and industry groups, such as Consensys, Blockapps, the Ethereum Foundation and Hyperledger.

While blockchain may be a relatively new technology in terms of enterprise deployments, Patel said he's confident demand will continue to be strong for years to come as businesses begin implementing "their countless use cases" Those uses involve everything from digital identity and smart contracts to workforce management and distributed data storage.

"I think there's a deep feeling here that blockchain is the next wave of technology innovation that will underpin almost every industry one way or another – sort of like the first wave of the internet in the 1990s," Patel said. "So no, I don't think this is a temporary thing."

The blockchain technology market could top $2 billion in three years as companies, NGOs and governments understand the potential create customer trust, cut down on counterfeit goods, reduce transaction costs, and reach emerging markets.

While there are a growing number of ways blockchain is being used in banking, retail, and education, it’s still relatively difficult to learn the skills to compete for lucrative new jobs being created.

According to largest global freelancing website Upwork, blockchain is ranked as the hottest technology in its quarterly skills index.  Even with the cool down of the cryptocurrency markets, the demand for blockchain job skills grew six thousand percent in just the first quarter of this year.

Juha Mikkola, co-founder of Wyncode Academy, a coding school, said some developers are being paid double the going rate for their blockchain experience. "It's not just tech companies that need this talent, it's real-estate, non-profits, and banks," Mikkola said.

Early Blockchain Education Initiatives

Leading university computer science programs have been quick to respond. According to new research, 42 percent of the top 50 universities in the world offer at least one course on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. MIT offers a six-week online blockchain certificate program (in partnership with 2U).

 Oxford offers a similar six-week certificate program (also powered by 2U).Coursera offers a four-course specialization in blockchain. Udacity offers a six month nanodegree for blockchain developers. Courseware is supplemented with office hours with their Experts-in-Residence.

Atlanta-based Kingsland University (founded ten years ago as Social Media Marketing University) offers an accredited blockchain training program for developers. The hybrid program involves four weeks of face to face training and four weeks of project work. They are offering scholarship funds to reach students in countries where such training is not available. They claim 275,000 students in countries globally including the US, Singapore, Australia, and the Philippines. 

Kingsland also offers a two-day executive course.

Blockchain Council (@ChainCouncil) is a group of subject experts and enthusiasts evangelizing  Blockchain for global impact. They offer a self-paced training program to become a Certified Blockchain Developer. Participants learn the discipline of Distributed Ledger Technology from a vendor-neutral perspective.

A federation of trade unions in Singapore, the National Trading Union Congress Learning Hub (NTUC), in partnership with Huobi Group, announced this week a series of new courses on Blockchain for cryptocurrency enthusiasts and fintech professionals. The courses will cover the basics of bitcoin and distributed ledger technology, with an emphasis on practical uses of the cryptocurrency (see the outline of the introductory course).

Aeternity ventures sponsored the first blockchain course at SoftUni, Bulgaria, and recently launched the first decentralized blockchain incubator program which saw ten dynamic startups battle it out for $1.3 million in funding.

London-based education startup B9lab (@b9lab) launched an online Certified Ethereum Developer Training program in 2016 (powered by edX). They also offer an executive course.  Education is core to the philosophy of engineering companies like IOHK. 

Director of Education  Lars Brünjes, a Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics, is a specialist in Haskell, a functional and secure programming language chosen to construct the leading cryptocurrency Cardano. Lars has also led courses worldwide in the durable Haskell programming language in Athens and Barbados, with the best graduates from the program offered full-time positions at IOHK.Want a free introduction?

Start with the Blockchain Innovation podcast and Frederick Munawa’s (@FrederickMunawa) free videos. BlockGeeks has a basic tutorial. The Linux Foundation offers a free course on Hyperledger (an open source business blockchain software). The space is moving fast and some providers have come and gone, so test drive where you can and ask for graduate referrals. For more, see:

• 20 Ways Blockchain Will Transform (OK, May Improve) Education
• Imagining a Blockchain University
• Camp C-Block Introduces Blockchain Technology to Black Girls

Tom Vander Ark is an advocate for innovations in learning. As CEO of Getting Smart, he advises school districts, networks, foundations and learning organizations on the path forward. A prolific writer and speaker, Tom is author of "Getting Smart"; "Smart Cities That Work for... MORE

Information Age's guide on how to introduce blockchain to your enterprise in the face of the digital skills crisis. Looking at everything, from upskilling schemes and outsourcing to how CTOs can impact change in relation to how universities shape their degrees



With the proliferation of blockchain initiatives comes a unique need for a diverse range of skills, including engineering, app development, cyber security, and decentralised governance, to name just a few. All this makes for a criterion that is hard to meet.

Beyond all the marketing and sales hype, blockchain has managed to establish itself as a realistic disrupter in the tech space, particularly for its potential ability to transform traditional business channels, supply chains and communications.Industry titans like Mastercard, IBM, British Airways and Samsung are just some of the organisations currently spearheading blockchain initiatives, and at the same time, blockchain-based start-ups are increasing at an agile rate.

Between them, what they each hope to get out of their blockchain projects differs significantly. However, whatever their end-goal may be, they will all face similar roadblocks along the way.In this guide, I’m going to talk about some of the ways CTOs can overcome some of these hurdles.

However, instead of focusing on the limitations of the technology itself, I want to focus on one of the less talked about challenges facing CTOs and their utilisation of blockchain: finding the talent to use it.

The talent shortage in blockchain

The skills shortage relating to blockchain has become a real pain for IT leaders who desperately want to experiment with it.Of course, the lack of talent is not exclusive to blockchain, CTOs looking to incorporate things like; AI, machine learning or big data, I’m sure, know this only too well.

>See also: Closing the skills gap: Developing the next generation of STEM talent

However, with the proliferation of blockchain initiatives comes a unique need for a diverse range of skills, including engineering, app development, cyber security and decentralised governance, to name just a few. All this makes for a criterion that is hard to meet.

Overall, the estimated global revenue for enterprise blockchain applications is expected to rise to $19.9 billion by 2025 from $2.5 billion last year.

>See also: Key employer challenges for 2018 amid the digital skills crisis

According to a study by Burning Glass Technologies, blockchain-related job postings increased more than 100% between 2016 and 2017.However, the harsh reality is that organisations can’t find the talent they need, this is why CTOs need to think outside the box to make their blockchain projects succeed. 




Figure 1 – Blockchain Adoption, Worldwide. Source: Gartner (May 2018)

Blockchain-as-a-service

If something is hard to obtain in-house, one logical option is to look for external help.In the last few years, a number of blockchain based consultancies and outsourcing services have popped up.

>See also: Business process as a service can deliver improved performance too

It looks like a booming market, and it’s an option that a lot of organisations are vying for. As such, there is a lot to choose from, with major organisations like Amazon, Oracle and Baidu all offering blockchain services.

For CTOs trying to weigh the pros and cons of each of these providers – and if the wisdom of the crowd means anything – a recent study by the consultancy firm, Juniper Research, may be worth looking at. They surveyed close to 400 company founders, executives, managers and IT leaders, and identified IBM, Microsoft and Accenture as clear leaders in blockchain solutions.

In 2017, the consultancy also found that 60% of tech executives and leaders named IBM as the market leader.

>See also: SaaS, Paas, XaaS, and more: looking behind the acronyms

Of course, these consultancies are all different and depending on your organisation; some may be better suited to your needs.Here is a list of some popular blockchain-as-service (BaaS) providers to have a look at:

• IBM Blockchain Platform

• Microsoft Azure Blockchain

• Amazon’s Blockchain Templates – AWS Blockchain Templates aims to help organisations and individuals quickly create and deploy blockchain networks on AWS using different blockchain frameworks.
• Oracle Blockchain Cloud Service

• Baidu Blockchain Open Platform Chinese web search giant Baidu’s open platform sets out to provide the most “user-friendly” blockchain service.

Blockchain-related freelance network

Another option is to tap into the freelance market. Although, in this market, there is a lot of demand.Upwork, the freelance jobs site, recently stated that they had more than 1,200 blockchain openings, half of which were technical positions.

>See also: Why we will soon be paying our freelancers in cryptocurrencies

According to their report, the second most desired skill among employers in the third quarter of 2017 was blockchain development. With such demand, it can also be an expensive choice as, naturally, their salaries will be inflated.

>See also: Rise of the IT freelancerAccording to CNBC, the hourly pay rate ranges from $50 to more than $200 in the US. However, high hourly pay rates may be worth it, especially when you take into account how quickly the technology is becoming a valuable part of tech.If you are interested in learning more about how to access the freelance market, I’ve put together a list of some of some popular blockchain-related freelance hiring platforms.

• Upwork 

• Toptal

• Dream – This is a marketplace for high-end blockchain talent and has already handled thousands of projects collectively worth over $8m.
• Codementor.io

New-collar workers

Given how blockchain is an emerging technology, it is somewhat self-evident why relevant skills are hard to source. However, despite the complexity of blockchain, depending on what an organisation wants from this type of technology, you may not necessarily need people with degrees from the top universities.

Sometimes all that is required is a little bit of training.

>See also: Prioritising skills in the digital age

Jobs of this sort of often referred to as “new-collar careers”. A new-collar worker is an employee who develops the core soft skills required to fulfil a role through means outside of traditional education.

The term was coined by IBM’s CEO, Ginni Rometty, in relation to “middle-skill” occupations in technology, such as cyber security analysts, application developers and cloud computing specialists.

According to Rometty, speaking on CNBC: “For the future, there are many jobs that can be done without a four-year degree. In some of our centres in the United States around a third of our folks don’t have four-year degrees.”

>See also: Should IT recruit attitude rather than skills?

I think this sounds like an interesting option for very evident reasons, in that as the IT industry continues to evolve, it is critical to bring in young and diverse talent.

However, if you are going to open your company to “new-collar workers”, it is vital that you put in place a structure that will help them upskill and give them opportunities to contribute in fields like blockchain.

In-house training schemes

Some companies, like IBM, have taken this into account with their blockchain projects, and perhaps their strategies can be an example for all CTOs.IBM, who is recognised as a leading blockchain vendor, have used an in-house training scheme to attract and retain talent.

The company also has an internal blockchain community boasting more than 5,000 active members.

>See also: Breaking down training barriers with technology

An interesting part of this initiative is how it offers certificates, so employees can then display their skills on their resumes or LinkedIn profiles.I think this is an important feature which not only encourages participation by way of offering recognition; it also helps IBM understand the type of skills they have.

>See also: 5 benefits of using webinars to train new employees

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, UK employers are spending less on training than other major EU economies.

Although this statistic doesn’t relate solely to blockchain, it does point to a basic attitude problem when we think about the skills gap.CTOs should look into how they can upskill their existing staff. This means they should consider educational platforms that can help, and they should remember that education doesn’t end in the classroom.

Make blockchain open

While universities across the world create thousands of courses, fustratingly, graduates still struggle to link their degrees to careers. For example, in the UK 11.7% of computer science graduates spend six months unemployed after completing their degrees, despite the huge demand for them. I think this points to a good reason for why CTOs and recruiters need to rethink how they currently engage with educational institutes.

Hope may be on the horizon with the recent launch of the Institute of Coding. With funding from the UK Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England and elsewhere, the IoC, led by the University of Bath, aims to bring together a consortium of more than 60 universities, national and international corporations, SMEs, industry groups and experts in non-traditional learning professional bodies to bridge the divide.Information Age recently spoke with their director, Dr Rachid Hourizi, who explained how CTO’s can work with them to develop the type of teams they need. 

He said: “We are keen to develop new courses, so if you’re a CTO of a company and you just can’t get the kind of educated staff you need, or there are soft skills that are not being developed, we are enthusiastic to hear about how we can help.”

>See also: Interview with Dr Rachid Hourizi, Director of the Institute of CodingIn relation to blockchain, I also spoke with Professor John Domingue, Director of the Knowledge Media Institute at the Open University, who is currently working with IoC to better link blockchain education to the needs of industries.

He said: “With the IoC, we are developing courses that can bridge the demand from the workplace. We will introduce new blockchain courses in an agile and flexible manner, that means having people being able to learn while at work.”

>See also: Open University unveils FutureLearn MOOC platform“With the IoC we are also designing a new accreditation framework in-line with industry, this will be a way of mapping skills in a fine grain manner in key areas of blockchain, and other channels, like AI and cyber security. We then take this framework and we map it so students will have a life-long accredited learning record.

One can then link this record with jobs that may be available.”“Connected to that, some of our partners at the IoC and IBM are developing an automated career coach which we want to help link a students course to a career.”

“We at the Open University have been speaking with Reed and I think it signals to a future where learning will be more linked to the workplace.”