a16z talk about recruitment: how do you choose between encrypted native and traditional talent
Original title:When blockchain experience is essential... and when it's not
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Original language: Deep tide TechFlow
As the development of the encryption industry has generated a huge demand for talent, encryption founders need to know how to find and recruit good talent — both indigenous peoples in the encryption industry and those with traditional technological experience. However, one of the biggest problems is whether you need someone with experience in the encryption industry or someone who can learn about it. This has given rise to endless debate within the company。
The good news is that the encrypted money industry is not the first to encounter difficulties in terms of talent channels. This means that you can draw on some mature practical experience and find the right people with the right skills. The purpose of the guide is to help the founders and recruiters judge when the experience of the encryption industry is critical, when other types of experience can have the greatest impact, and the challenges and considerations that need to be addressed in the recruitment process。
In order to simplify thinking, it can be understood that there are some differences between encryption companies and traditional technology companies, but you are not creating a “encrypted company”, but a technology company, in terms of processes and best practices for finding, recruiting and entering into jobs. It is therefore important to apply the best practices that are mature and to find people with the right skills。
You need people who both have encryption skills
Empirically, it is a vital advantage for home-grown professionals in encrypted currency to be able to work immediately. High-risk projects are usually time-critical and every day is critical. In some cases, the expertise of home-grown encrypted currency is crucial. This is particularly true in positions involving block chain technology and its application infrastructure, where even the most skilled professionals may face steep learning curves。
Smart contract development is a good example. These automatically executed agreements are directly coded on the block chain, requiring precision and an understanding of decentrization logic, which is distinct from traditional programming. A loophole in smart contracts could have catastrophic consequences, even millions of dollars, and it was therefore a high-risk area where it was vital to understand the rules。
Bringing talent into an industry so steep as the learning curve may be a challenge, as candidates may need time to adapt to the nuances of block chain technology — decentrization and centralization, more open sources, etc. — and the “spirit culture” of the encryption industry, which includes different cultural termsTo the way of thinkingEverything. However, the talent of non-encrypted companies can drive the encryption industry in many areas, especially as companies begin to expand. For example, traditional professionals with a software engineering or operating background can bring with them diverse skills and a wealth of experience, which is often crafted in large software companies. These professionals, who usually have multiple jobs, are able to cope with complex internal bureaucratic systems and obstacles to facilitate project completion. This operational flexibility becomes a powerful asset in a rapidly growing multidisciplinary team in the encryption industry。
The experience of scaleing is also crucial. Traditional candidates have often been involved in product development for millions of users and have addressed challenges associated with success: ensuring that the system remains functional under extreme infrastructure loads, optimizing large-scale performance and responding to an unpredictable surge in demand. This experience is directly applicable to Web3 products, as they are shifting from a small encryption audience to a more mainstream market。
Candidates from financial science and technology companies, for example, may have important relevant experience in payment technology or financial regulations, and these may also play a role in your operations. If you are developing infrastructure or consumer applications, a large pool of talent has accumulated many years of scale experience in these areas. Consider the overlap of these experiences and assess how they can quickly master specific technologies in the encryption industry, thereby forming your ideal team. More broadly, candidates with experience in design, user experience, scalability, security and leadership can also accelerate innovation in the encryption industry, as these skills are usually specialized in fields and may even be more suitable than those without such experience。
Once the required skills and personnel have been identified (including whether they really need to have the experience of being encrypted), the next step is to go out and recruit them。
Recruit good people from any background
The biggest challenge and the greatest opportunity are actually two sides of the same coin: you're a encryption company。
For some candidates from traditional companies, encryptionVolatility of industriesRecentRegulatedUncertainty, trade terminology andCentralize the productThey may feel too strange or unattractive, or even both. But for others, the same sense of unfamiliarity and occasional instability excite them — not so much as a flaw, but rather a characteristic of the company. In the recruitment dialogue, there is a deeper understanding of how candidates view the stability and comfort of large companies and the opportunities and challenges presented by fast-growing companies. Inform them of a challenge your team has faced over the past few weeks, explain how it has been addressed and emphasize the responsibility of each team member, given the size and stage of development of the company. Their reactions may tell you how they will respond in similar situations, or at least it will let them know what the company expects of everyone when the next situation happens。
Candidates may not know much about encryption at your first contact, but..To centralize the advantageNatural curiosity and interest are key. An important signal in the recruitment process is whether their knowledge and involvement have deepened over time: are they studying the content themselves? Do they ask more specific questions after learning new knowledge? Wait。
In order to distinguish between two categories of candidates — those who are skeptical about the encryption industry and those who are interested in the encryption industry — and to avoid wasting your time and money, to know the motivations of the candidates as soon as possible in order to ensure that they are in the same direction as your company. This is the basic principle of recruitment, but it is worth emphasizing because of its importance, particularly in the encrypted currency industry。
Each recruitment dialogue needs to be tailored to individual candidates: what drives them to choose their current jobs? What makes them stick to their role? These factors are likely to be an important part of their decision-making on this occasion. The answers to these questions begin with the first telephone conversation with the candidates。
At the end of the recruitment process, you want to recruit someone who shares the corporate vision and is passionate about your product. At the same time, your team needs to look forward to new employees; this will help you judge whether candidates are suitable for your company, regardless of whether they have experience in the encryption industry. That has always been your direction。
Since you target highly knowledge-seeking candidates, your recruitment campaign needs to be tailored to their characteristics. You can start by explaining two cultural differences in encryption:One is a “computer culture”, which views block chains as tools for building new networks to drive new computing campaigns; the other is a “casino culture”, which focuses mainly on speculation, trading and gambling。Then you can share how this new industry offers candidates a unique opportunity to reshape the future of technology, similar to the early development of the Internet。
A useful thought experiment is to try to talk about your products and companies without mentioning encryption. What problems did your company solve? What inspired you to start it? Why would it make the world a better place? This approach can help you convey corporate ideas and visions without distracting listeners from technical details。
Another good entry point is a simple question: "What do you know about encryption?" Even if you get a suspicious or negative answer — for example, a story in the news or a description of casino culture — it opens the door to you and allows you to listen to their real concerns: external factors (policy), internal factors (technical complexities), personal factors (risk tolerance), etc. You can share with many people in the encryption industry some skepticism and channel the conversation to the cool technical issues that your project is addressing。
Not everyone's main motivation is money, but you need to be ready to emphasize the financial returns of the encryption industry. Historically, top talent has been reluctant to join early companies for three reasons: (1) a high-intensity work culture; (2) poor work-life balance; and (3) lack of liquidity compensation. Even if you solve the first two problems, the third could result in you losing a large number of potential candidates。
Compared to liquidity events such as IPOs or acquisitions rare in the Web2 era, such as pay structures based on tokens, etcWage innovation can bring financial returns and liquidity to early firms. It is important that the cash/coin award scheme, which is to some extent targeted at long-term objectives, be used to ensure that employees are permanently bound to the company. Pay is a complex topic, which is clearly the most important concern of job seekers, so make sure you are well prepared to talk about it。
If you are able to implement these steps well, you will have a great opportunity to attract the best talent outside the industry to interest your company. Next, you need to help them figure out how to best perform in their daily work。
Attention on entry
Web3 companies need education to reduce their adaptation time. You've identified everyone's knowledge gaps during interviews. Use this information to design entry experiences to fill these knowledge gaps as quickly as possible。
For example, new staff may need help to move beyond the technical details of block chains and decentrized systems to understand the real problems they will address and to enhance confidence in their roles。
Regular knowledge-sharing sessions that allow new staff to interact with senior staff with more in-depth encryption experience can facilitate teamwork and allow team members to learn from each other ' s strengths. The mentoring project provides valuable practical learning opportunities by matching new members with experienced Web3 professionals. Better yet, you can structure the project so that the “unicorn” talent in the encryption industry (i.e., people with all the skills, knowledge and backgrounds) can match the new members and develop them into their own unicorns over time。
Skills upgrading and education are also necessary and will continue to be important in the evolving industry. Resources such as block chain-related blogs, podcasts and educational courses — such as how to use smart wallets, how to pledge, token economics, smart contract designs, or the basic concepts of block chains in different scenarios — are a good starting point for continuous learning. Working with mentors in mature encryption organizations can provide practical experience, while intellectual leaders in industry can provide insights, including our ownEncrypted Currency Status ReportI don't know。
The point is, whatever your new staff needs to emerge, your job is to help them learn, find or access these resources from the first day。
