How a ‘massive labor supply shortage’ is affecting crypto firms

CryptoRecruit founder, Neil Dundon, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the shortage in crypto jobs and what is in store for the cryptocurrency market's future as volatility and government crackdowns continue.

Video Transcript

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BRIAN SOZZI: The crypto winter may be upon us, but that hasn't iced the red hot market for crypto jobs. The big banks are actively searching for talent as they expand into crypto. And media businesses are looking for credible humans to write about all this crypto stuff.

Let's chat more about the crypto job shortage with Neil Dundon, who is the founder of Crypto Recruit. Neil, good to-- good to see you here. So how severe is this job shortage?

NEIL DUNDON: It's-- it's pretty severe at the moment. We've lost two or three months. Specifically, we've had about hundreds of jobs rang in from multiple companies across the space. So we're actually inundated at the moment. Our heads are spinning at the moment trying to find the staff.

So there's a massive supply shortage at the moment. It's a simple supply and demand issue. We have a whole team based globally. These-- these companies will pretty much hire anywhere in the world, and we're still struggling to find these people. So in one way, it's a good problem for us. In another way, it's-- it's not so good, so yeah.

MYLES UDLAND: So Neil, let's break it down a couple different ways. Let's start with the technical side of the equation. What are the technical skills that you guys find are the best fit for-- when you're working with a client, you know, what did they want, and how readily available are some of those folks with the technical skills on-- on the crypto side?

NEIL DUNDON: Well, cryptos are just sort of software projects. So basically, what they're looking for-- probably 60%, 70% of the jobs are in software development. So you've got your front end, your back end, you blockchain developers were huge spike in the therom base developers.

So we see some different blockchains like Polkadot or Kusama that are built, smartchain, blockchains. They're looking for people, but really all the demand is across the ethereum. So we're looking for solidity developers, specifically, a huge amount of incoming requests for solidity. The rest of the jobs are, you know, across other areas, marketing and products. But yes, predominantly in tech, so, yeah, yeah.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah what are some of these jobs pay?

NEIL DUNDON: Well, good question is how long-- is how long is a piece of string, really? We're not recruiting anything less than 100 grand. But typically, even a year ago, you might find that some of these solidity developers would have been looking for, say, for example, 100 grand.

Right now, they're probably looking for anything from 180 to 200 grand. So you know, if you want to make some money as a developer, you know, learn how to code solidity. We're talking anything from 150 to 250 for good quality smart contract developers at the moment.

MYLES UDLAND: And then, you know, two parties to this one, Neil. I mean, what is the-- are these folks coming from, you know, your traditional kind of you graduate. You're a good software developer, so on and so forth.

You go to Google. You go to Facebook. You go to these big names that we know. Are folks coming from those companies? And then also, what's the appetite from the people you're working with to bring in to companies to take a chunk of their pay in Ether, in Bitcoin, and other things like that, or do people still like fiat?

NEIL DUNDON: Yeah. So crypto is still on the sidelines. It's not fully normalized yet. So you know, you need to take a bit of risk to come into this space. And I think you're finding-- we're hearing stories of developers who are moving over to projects. They may take a slight hit on their base salary, but they'll take a good portion of that within tokens.

You hear stories of people turning into millionaires within weeks of joining companies because these companies will then launch their token on the market, and then it'll go up 10x, 20x. And the developers who've come on into those businesses are all of a sudden earning 20x their salary. So I mean, the stories are crazy.

So you know, if you're a little risk averse, this is probably not the industry for you. But if you want to make some money and take some risks, it's an exciting place to be for sure. Yeah.

BRIAN SOZZI: But Neil, why do you think the market hasn't cooled down now that we are, in fact, in a crypto winter?

NEIL DUNDON: Well, since the 2017, the market was quite different. There was a lot of opportunities out there, as we know. And I think it's well documented there were a lot of scams out there. There still are scams at the moment, but I think the building blocks and the fundamentals of crypto are a lot different now than they were three years ago.

These are just software projects. It's just another element of the economy. I think there's a lot more belief in blockchain going forward. And it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. But it's just another sector of the economy, and it's performing well.

And I think we've hit-- you know, it feels like we've hit a floor in terms of price or close to a floor. Don't quote me on that. But certainly from a jealous perspective, it feels like we-- you know, we can only build from here.

MYLES UDLAND: And then Neil, I'll finish with a-- an industry, a nerdy question for you, a selfish question for you, if you will. The media space, the crypto media space has certainly changed a lot and is changing a lot.

Are you working with firms on that side? What kind of dynamics are you seeing there? We hear things through the Grapevine? On how competitive that can be. Are you focused on that at all, or where are you putting your attention?

NEIL DUNDON: Well, we don't-- we know there's a lot of, you know, stuff going on in the media space, especially in crypto. No, where-- if I'm honest, we're purely focused on building blockchains and smart contract platforms. But-- but I hear what you're saying. Yes, there's a lot going on in the media space. It's not an area, though, that we're too focused on, if I'm honest.

MYLES UDLAND: That's smart of you to stay in a sustained growth area, Neil.

NEIL DUNDON: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's it.

BRIAN SOZZI: Neil, If you're looking for contributors, I got people on Twitter that could write 15 reasons to buy Bitcoin. You just let me know.

NEIL DUNDON: Oh, you sent them on over. Yeah. [LAUGHS] I'll be happy to talk to them.

[LAUGHTER]

BRIAN SOZZI: I'm sure. I'm sure. We'll leave it there. Neil Dundon, the founder of Crypto Recruit. Good to see you. Have a great weekend.