Getting a Job at Web? 6 Top Myths, Debunked
Two leaders demystify Getting into Web3 for early and mid-career candidates.
Set to be the next evolution of the web, Web3’s explosive growth and incredible potential is drawing top talents, tech companies and capital from around the world. Many however, are still clouded by popular misconceptions. Two early adopters and leaders, Shaun Heng, head of $100 million Web3 venture-building studio Spartan Labs and Jon Russell partner at $500 million Web3 fund Crypto.com Capital shed some light on the hottest space in tech right now.
Myth 1: You should find out everything about Web3 before taking the leap.
“There is always a new chain or protocols emerging. So it is okay to know that you don't know everything.”
- Jon Russell partner at $500 million Web3 fund Crypto.com Capital
Jon: Nobody knows everything about crypto or Web3. Even people like us working in the industry have areas that we know really well, and areas that we don’t know as well. This is because the amount of information is absolutely overwhelming. There is always a new chain or protocols emerging. So it is okay to know that you don't know everything.
Shaun: Yes, the space is evolving very quickly at this point so it is really hard to keep up sometimes. In the last year alone, so many different themes were happening. In Q1, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) got really hot. In Q2, GameFi and the play-to-earn ecosystem was maturing. In Q3, there were new DeFi (Decentralised Finance) 2.0 innovations such as Olympus DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation). In Q4, the metaverse thesis was getting stronger and more people were building that space. Nobody knows what is going to happen in 2022. But it’s safe to say that while there are opportunities in FinTech and Web2, they are just not as fast or exciting. With Web3, you are actually in that driver’s seat, trying to make sense of what it actually means. Web3 means different things to different people, but the opportunity to drive the narrative and be part of that narrative is very exciting.
TAKEAWAY
Shaun: A lot of the Web3 and crypto-chatter is happening on Twitter, so if you’re not on Twitter, get on it and follow people on the crypto-Twitter space. One trick is to join a couple of Telegram channels that curate Twitter updates such as The Daily Ape by Darren Lau for a quick digest of what’s happening in Web3. That way you can speed up the learning process without wasting time reading repeated news on Twitter
Myth 2: Your CV is very important.
“When we hire, we look for someone who understands enough about crypto, and has some skin in the game.”
- Jon Russell partner at $500 million Web3 fund Crypto.com Capital
Shaun: Web3 is such a new space that you can’t really call yourself a veteran, or claim to have five or ten years of experience in the Metaverse or NFTs on your CV. So a good CV will probably only get you that first interview. What will really seal the deal is your contributions to the space and how passionate you are about it.
Jon: Some people also seem to think that a career in banking is key. But that paints a false picture. A lot of bankers don’t know how crypto works. When we hire, we look for someone who understands enough about crypto, and has some skin in the game.
TAKEAWAY
Jon: Get out there, go to events and be involved in the community. Be part of a DAO and contribute to the space, or invest in NFTs. That is the kind of proof we are seeking. In fact, a lot of companies hire from their own user base so if you are in a Discord channel or a Web3 telegram channel and are particularly active, that is also a good way to get in.
Myth 3: You need technical expertise to get into Web3.
Shaun: Different skill sets are required within the space. If you're not a technical person, you can contribute to marketing, community outreach, business development and research.
TAKEAWAY
Shaun: If you have a banking or consulting background for example, you can contribute from a research standpoint on a GameFi product, analysing the competitive landscape and what competitors are doing in terms of tokenomics. If you have a marketing background, you could spend more time on Discord, helping to moderate conversations and do marketing and community outreach. Try to spread your time across different projects so that you get a bit more exposure to different projects.
Myth 4: You need to quit your job and focus on a Web3 career full-time.
“Juggling more than one job makes you stand out from other applicants because it shows how much of a hustler you are, and how much you really want to contribute to the space.”
- Shaun Heng, head of $100 million Web3 venture-building studio Spartan Labs
Shaun: Because Web3 is very decentralised, many companies are remote-first. This means you don’t need to relocate to join a company and it is also easier to start small. You could contribute to some DAOs or NFT projects while keeping your day job, and slowly leverage your way up. That’s what I did as well. In 2020, I was holding a day job at CoinMarketCap, the largest trafficked site for things related to cryptocurrency in the world, while helping on different Web3 projects. Juggling more than one job makes you stand out from other applicants because it shows how much of a hustler you are, and how much you really want to contribute to the space.
TAKEAWAY
Jon: If you are a developer or a product manager, you can search for paid roles that do not require you to be formally hired so you can keep your day job. I believe this will soon spread to marketing and design-related roles in Web3 so more can dip their toes in while doing multiple different jobs at the same time.
Myth 5: A career in Web3 is extremely risky.
Shaun: There are many different companies at different stages. There are binances and coinbases at a very established stage. Those tend to be, for lack of a better word, the most “stable” companies at this point. If you are someone in your mid-career, with 15 or 20 years of sales, business development or product experience, these companies are less risky and are also at the life cycle where they are more likely to value people who have strong FinTech experience to build more stability. On the other side of the spectrum, you have really fast-growing and evolving DeFi products as well as younger start-ups that are riskier but offer much greater rewards.
TAKEAWAY
Shaun: It is really about figuring out your strengths and weaknesses, and leveraging on that to find the right fit within the different verticals and streams of Web3.
Myth 6: Crypto and Web3 are purely speculative. You can get rich quick with minimal effort by simply trading.
“Rather than speculation and capital chasing, I think it is more important to uplevel yourself in Web3”
- Shaun Heng, head of $100 million Web3 venture-building studio Spartan Labs
Jon: Yes, everyone on my team at Crypto.com Capital is buying tokens, especially for projects they are interested in. However, day trading on the other hand is really tough, especially this year, when the market is down. I have friends who have made loads of money, and then when the market turned, lost a lot of money.
TAKEAWAY
Shaun: In 2021, there were lots of opportunities and you could make a lot of money out of it but the question is how repeatable that will be over the next couple of years when the market is more stable.
Rather than speculation and capital chasing, I think it is more important to uplevel yourself in Web3 – understand the different technologies, projects and gaps in the space, and make sure you are actively contributing to the whole ecosystem. We need more value creators rather than value extractors at such a nascent state. If you are on the right side of the equation, you will create a much more scalable process to being successful down the road, whether your goal is to be rich, financially stable or make good investments.
3 Top Questions For Job Seekers
Rather than what’s on your CV, Shaun Heng shares his three top gating questions to filter candidates interested in Web3.
1) What is your favourite Degen story?
Shaun: How much you understand about Degen shows how plugged in you are to the space.
2) What is your favourite NFT or GameFi project?
Shaun: NFT and GameFi have only been around for the last year or so. Intimate knowledge of the project shows how fast you are evolving with the space. If candidates are still stuck in the narrative of XRP, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu Coin, it shows that they are not staying on top of evolutions within the space.
3) What DAO are you a part of?
Shaun: It is easy to join a DAO. However, if you are passionate about Web3, I want to know how much you are actually contributing to the space and not just observing on the site.
Someone who is able to answer these questions with a lot of passion, context and information is probably among the top one per cent of people who know what is happening within the space.