My Next Crypto Venture - Getting a Job
With my early retirement one-year anniversary approaching in May I'm now wondering - is it time to unretire? Retiring early was a dream and I'm happy to have done so, no complaints in getting out of the "rat race". The first three months in retirement allowed me to spend all summer with my wife and kids. The next three months turned to taking care of my mom and mother-in-law, not how I envisioned retirement to go. At the six-month mark, needing something to feed the mind and soul. And I found it - crypto...
I've loved every minute of my journey into crypto. I've always enjoyed technology and finance along with taking on challenges. My how well crypto fell into a void in my life after I've left the workforce. I needed mental stimulation and crypto has offered no shortage of that with deep rabbit holes to explore at every turn of the page.
The problem now is two-fold. First, everyone I know is still working - poor lads. Second, while I have my stock market savings paying the bills I want more to put into crypto with all these wonderful opportunities presenting themselves. Imagine all the DeFi I could explore and invest in with earning coming in I could direct 100% into crypto.
The questions now include what aspect of crypto to move into and how to go about it? Do I go the technical route, coding blockchain? I do have some light coding in my background. Do I go the marketing and sales route? I've got years of experience there up to the VP level. How about management? I've have a MBA and resume to go that route as well. How about writing? I've written about sports for years but got burned out there, however, crypto is a whole new industry for me to learn and express myself. I've really enjoyed blogging here on read.cash and other platforms, perhaps that could be a path to pursue.
I'm also tempted to just start my own crypto company. I've started and ran multiple businesses throughout my life and the emerging crypto industry has all sorts of opportunities. Starting a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) would be interesting to say the least. Then again, working for a DAO would be an adventure and a great way to break into crypto.
So how much would someone make working in crypto? I've made a couple of career changes throughout my time and when I've started over I never worried much about how much I was earning, rather my focus was on how much I was learning. The more I learned, the more I earned later on. I would take a similar approach and earnings wouldn't be nearly as important this go around.
Average crypto salaries:
Community Manager $50K
Finance $71K
Graphic Design $80K
Legal $18K
Marketing $75K
Product Manager $114K
Project Manager $67K
Sales $49K
Social Media $50K
source: web3.career
So how does one find a crypto job? Like the non-crypto world there are job sites out there dedicated to crypto jobs. There are also many traditional job sites like LinkedIn and Indeed that have plenty of crypto positions listed on them. I've often had the best luck with networking and making the right connections. This can be tough in a new industry, but now I have my feet wet it is time to start spreading my wings and making connections.
Honestly the possibilities in crypto are endless. If you have experience in any industry you can pretty much start bridging that to crypto. As I mentioned I ended my career in the sports industry, think about all the connections you are hearing lately there as it ties to crypto. When I began to think just about the spaces between sports and crypto my mind became overwhelmed. Crypto will eventually touch just about every aspect of life.
Where to look for crypto jobs:
Yesterday my journey began as I built a crypto focused resume and cover letter. I fired these off to a couple of positions to see what sort of response I get. I'm in no rush and realize how lucky I am to be in the position I currently find myself. This process is as much about finding what I really love in crypto as much as anything else. I need to focus and come up with some goals and a plan before getting to serious in my search, this is the next step necessary to move forward. This will probably be a bigger challenge than actually finding a job in this every expanding industry.
While technology jobs grew at a rate of 98% last year according to LinkedIn, jobs with terms like "Bitcoin," "Ethereum," "Blockchain" and "Cryptocurrency" grew by an incredible 395% in 2021. The crypto industry is growing like crazy and it need help.
Really it is not just about making money, it is about making a contribution to the space I have come to love. I envision future working environment much different than the one we have experienced in the past. The pandemic started a trend of working from home and crypto jobs fit squarely in this new reality. Decentralized organizations with people spread throughout the world will become much more mainstream. I also believe people will have multiple jobs, some might call them side hustles, rather than one job and I'd be very open to exploring multiple roles going forward.
I actually see investing in crypto and DeFi as a job in itself. I'm building a passive income through various platforms and strategies including staking, lending, master nodes, mining and yield farming. Crypto allows you to basically be your own boss and start your own investment/finance company. Now I'm simply looking to add non-passive income streams as well. This feels like the path I should take now, any advice would be appreciated.
