How do I get started working in cryptocurrency? Do I need a blockchain degree to work in the crypto sector? We’ll go through all of that and more in our article below.
Table of Contents
- Why Should You Work in Cryptocurrency?
- #1 Open Doors for Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Experience
- #2 High Salaries
- #3 Flexible Work Arrangements
- Who Do Crypto Companies Want to Hire?
- #1 Advanced Degree
- #2 Crypto Short Courses
- #3 Internal Educational Programs
- What Should You Do If You Don’t Have a Computer Science or Engineering Degree?
The cryptocurrency industry is exploding, and the employment sites are bursting with crypto opportunities.
A lot of college students and graduates are asking how they can start a career in crypto. Do they need a degree in blockchain technology to work for a crypto firm? Or should they do a more general degree and follow it up with some short courses in crypto?
In 2021, the crypto and blockchain industries had a breakout year. This led to more people becoming interested in these industries.
According to the World Economic Forum’s calculations, the crypto and blockchain sector expanded by almost 200% in 2021. Because of this rapid development, crypto and blockchain companies now need a large number of bright, hardworking college graduates for a variety of positions.
In reality, the number of jobs available in this field has been on the rise. According to TechRepublic, crypto and blockchain firms increased their job advertisements by 118 percent last year compared to the previous year. Graphic designers and communications graduates are needed to manage their media campaigns. To build their underlying infrastructure, they require AI engineers, software engineers, and blockchain engineers.
Business, product, and operations managers are important for keeping things running. This is also true for jobs in the crypto world. Thousands of people are looking for these jobs, and college graduates and professionals are interested in working in this field. In fact, job site Indeed reports that user searches for crypto and blockchain positions spiked last year alongside the number of postings themselves.
Why, then, are today’s graduates seeking employment in crypto?
Why Should You Work in Cryptocurrency?
People want to work in crypto for a number of reasons. The first reason is that it is an incredibly fun and exciting sector to work in.
#1 Open Doors for Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Experience
The first thing to consider is that college graduates with crypto and blockchain expertise will have far more possibilities open to them as they progress in their careers than those who do not have such background — this is because crypto and blockchain are rapidly embraced in almost every sector.
Almost three-quarters of senior executives surveyed agree that their organization would be less successful if it didn’t use blockchain technology and digital assets.
Why? Because blockchain and cryptocurrency are revolutionizing the way businesses function in a variety of industries. As a result, any graduate with an understanding of blockchains and cryptocurrencies will have an advantage over other applicants for positions.
Another distinctive advantage of crypto-native college graduates is that they do not necessarily need to work in the crypto industry throughout their lives. They could also apply their particular talents and expertise to other industries.
With time and experience, college graduates with crypto expertise might be able to move into more senior decision-making roles These positions may assist businesses in adopting blockchain technologies and evolving their operations to take advantage of the new decentralized era of the web.
#2 High Salaries
Salaries in the crypto and blockchain space are much higher than average, no matter what job you are looking for.
Technical jobs, such as blockchain and backend crypto developers, pay between $70,000 and $200,000 a year according to Cryptocurrency Jobs.
Customer-focused employees also make good money. Community managers and customer service personnel earn between $55,000 and $120,000 each year in salaries.
After all, the blockchain industry requires creatives as well, who may make a decent living. Graphic designers in the crypto sector frequently earn more than $70,000 a year.
#3 Flexible Work Arrangements
While working at the forefront of the next technological revolution while also learning about cutting-edge innovation and earning a decent wage, the crypto sector offers students a number of smaller advantages, one of which is remote work.
Because cryptocurrency roles are typically remote, they’re ideal for students or graduates who need to work around school hours or other obligations.
It may also help those students who wish to combine their courses and seminars with a part-time job to gain practical expertise.
Students who work or study in developing countries can also benefit from working in remote crypto jobs. They can earn a salary that is much higher than what they could earn by working a regular job paid in the local currency.
Who Do Crypto Companies Want to Hire?
Crypto companies, at least those in the early stages, are looking for bright, diligent individuals with understanding or training in nearly every field.
Don’t think that only programmers, AI builders, or software engineers can find jobs in the crypto industry. There are many other types of jobs in the crypto industry that don’t require a strong technical background. You don’t even need to know much about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
The notion that you need to be a college-certified cryptocurrency specialist or have a degree in blockchain to work in crypto is mostly true, but it’s not entirely accurate.
In other words, businesses in the crypto sector, just like every other industry, require people managers, creatives, communications experts, publicists, and all the rest of the jobs in every other sector. Many of these individuals won’t need or even have specialized crypto expertise.
So don’t be scared if you’re in college but have never heard of Solidity, or if you don’t know what an NFT is! There are so many different crypto job opportunities outside of the technology sector nowadays that as long as you can grasp the fundamentals, you can work in cryptocurrency!
#1 Advanced Degree
Crypto jobs don’t always require formal education. Universities have started to offer crypto and blockchain-related courses, but most of these universities are not running full-time blockchain, fintech, or crypto courses. They are only running modules or classes that students can study as part of a more general degree, like computer science or software engineering.
It’s not necessarily a negative thing that colleges do not yet provide comprehensive blockchain or cryptocurrency courses if you’re a student now — or in the future.
Even in technical careers, you don’t need to obtain a crypto-specific degree to work in cryptocurrencies.
Even if the curriculum of a general software or computer science degree isn’t designed to cover crypto, it would be sufficient for most crypto occupations, much as journalism degrees aren’t generally tailored to the business or political sectors.
Because most universities do not provide specialty degrees in crypto, blockchain or cryptocurrency, most crypto firms are looking for technical skills rather than a specific degree. In fact, many employers don’t need a college diploma. To work with the world’s largest smart contract platform, anybody interested in working on Ethereum should look for bounties on Gitcoin and join hackathons.
However, if you really want to learn about cryptoassets or blockchain building at college, there are alternatives. CoinDesk has compiled a list of the top fifty universities worldwide that now offer crypto-related degrees and courses. The National University of Singapore is currently ranked first in the field, with Melbourne Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley ranking second and third, respectively.
Other universities have established research centers dedicated to blockchain and cryptoasset study, so keep an eye out for blockchain and crypto-related degrees.
But what if you’ve already earned a degree, or don’t want to spend $80,000 studying?
#2 Crypto Short Courses
If you already have a degree or are on a budget, crypto short courses are definitely worth looking into.
Thousands of crypto short courses are currently available, and they allow people with and without degrees to get started in the cryptocurrency industry. Some of them are completely free. There are many short courses available that it might be difficult to choose which one you should enroll in!
The most basic types of short courses, which take between two and six weeks to finish, are university-administered short courses and commercial short courses.
Let’s start with university short courses.
In addition to providing cryptocurrency-specific degrees, several institutions have started offering brief courses covering a wide range of crypto topics, such as creating DApps and blockchains from the ground up.
Many colleges already provide these courses. Wharton, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, New York University, and MIT have all launched crypto short courses in the United States.
The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, as well as Zurich University in Switzerland and the University of Melbourne in Australia, all offer crypto courses.
While some university short courses are inexpensive, the most of them cost several thousand dollars.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of cash on hand. There are several skill-learning websites that provide top classes at reasonable rates, three of which are Skillshare, Udemy, and Coursera.
These platforms provide courses that cover everything you need to know about crypto and blockchain, from mining cryptocurrencies and building rigs to creating solid contracts with Solidity and constructing blockchains from the ground up.
If you’re a parent or on a tight schedule, you can take short courses whenever you like, even if you’re working full-time.
Let’s look at the data. Whether you’re a college graduate eager to enter the crypto industry, or a student searching for more subjects to study, taking some cryptocurrency short courses can really help you land a fantastic crypto career.
#3 Internal Educational Programs
Finally, let’s look at a relatively new approach for college graduates to get involved in crypto: internal educational programs.
Positions, where a firm pays you to train and work with it, are referred to as in-house training programs or sometimes on-the-job training schemes.
Unfortunately, internal educational programs are uncommon, especially in the crypto sector. Only a few businesses currently provide them, one of which is VISA. VISA is currently looking for a number of jobs on its new 18-month rotational program, which includes bitcoin.
VISA is accepting applications for three different positions in its crypto product, crypto solutions, and digital partnerships departments.
Landing one of VISA’s team roles would be an incredible chance to learn about DeFi, NFTs, stablecoins, and a variety of other cryptocurrency topics while getting compensated.
Obviously, being compensated to understand and operate in crypto is fantastic, but as we previously stated, placement programs like VISA’s don’t happen every day, and there is a lot of competition.
Still, if you can get a seat on one, you’ll be miles ahead of the competition.
What Should You Do If You Don’t Have a Computer Science or Engineering Degree?
Many of the courses we’ve looked at so far are geared toward students or professionals searching for technical jobs like developers or software engineers.
What should you do if you’re a content creator, product manager, or even a business development executive looking to enter the cryptocurrency market?
If any of the following describes you, we recommend you begin with some free courses or learning materials and one of the finest places to start is CoinMarketCap’s Alexandria Library.
The Alexandria Library is the ultimate source of information on cryptocurrencies.
The Alexandria library contains everything from the basic to the more complex, including topics such as what blockchains and NFTs are and how they function, as well as more advanced concepts like technical trading patterns and smart contract programming languages.
Alexandria is a great place to start your crypto adventure if you’re a non-techie looking to learn more about the technology.
Simply go to the Alexandria website, choose to learn, then pick either the Crypto Basics or How-To Guides tabs and get reading. You’ll be an expert in no time.
On our YouTube channel, you could find some of the explainer series, including our How-to, Simply Speaking, and What Is series.
As we said before, the crypto space is a very exciting and rewarding place to work right now. There are many different jobs in the crypto space. It really depends on what kind of job you want.
If you’re a student seeking a tech job in crypto, you can either get a degree that allows you to study cryptocurrency or something more general.
If you’re a college graduate seeking a career in crypto, try out some free basic lessons to get started, and then move on to the paid university short courses.
If you want to work in crypto but don’t have technical skills, there are plenty of non-tech jobs available. Start learning about crypto by taking some free courses and then move on to short courses if you feel they’re necessary.
Still, know that you have alternatives, regardless of where you want to work in crypto.
