Behind the difficulty of recruiting on the blockchain: the number of job seekers reaches 7 times the recruitment demand

Source of this article: Beijing News Network , original title "Behind the" false prosperity "of blockchain talents"

Author: Beijing News reporter Li Xiang Ling Su season proofread

As you can imagine, one day in the future, the results of the hospital examination will be fully shared, and the patient does not need to repeat the examination; every charity donation you have is traceable, and you don't have to worry about entering your personal pocket …

These scenarios are expected to be realized through decentralized, open and transparent blockchain technology.

• Blockchain emerges like a tiger? Thoughts on the Fourth Wealth Mania
• U.S. digital asset supervision still follows the lawful and orderly principle. In 2019, the "toll station" model will be opened to embrace innovation
• Popular science | Zou Chuanwei: Global stablecoins and central bank digital currencies

On October 24th, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee conducted the eighteenth collective study on the development status and trends of blockchain technology. Overnight, blockchain became a hot topic again.

In fact, blockchain is not new. As the underlying technology of bitcoin, it has already attracted attention with the madness of bitcoin. In 2019, after the chaos in the "currency circle" was rectified, the blockchain market gradually returned to rationality, but the application prospects of the blockchain in the financial, manufacturing, medical and other industries are still beyond doubt.

However, the unavoidable reality is that there is a shortage of blockchain talents in the market today. Although there are many job seekers, there are not many people who really understand technology, concepts, and experience. Compound high-end talents are rare.

It ’s hard to get the right people with high pay

"A lot of people just like the high salary of the blockchain industry." A Beijing technology company official said that some job applicants' resumes were well written, but after the actual inspection, they found that their abilities did not meet the requirements at all.

The person in charge recalled that in October of this year, they posted information on the recruitment of blockchain product managers on the Internet, requiring that they be familiar with the principles and application scenarios of blockchain technology, and interact with the research and development team to promote product launch. To this end, they pay a monthly salary of 20,000 to 45,000. Later, more than 30 resumes were received, but no one was found suitable. "A lot of people don't understand what a blockchain is."

In this regard, a headhunter said that from the core technology development to operation, the enterprise's demand for blockchain talents involves all aspects, but there are very few people who can match the post, which is not a good idea.

Behind the "recruitment difficulties" is the industry's desire for talent. This can be seen from the popularity of major recruitment sites.

The reporter used "blockchain" as a keyword to search on a recruitment platform, and hundreds of recruitment information appeared. Recruiting companies include both entrepreneurial companies and Internet giants. Among the recruitment requirements, technical positions are the most common, followed by operations and products. For example, among the positions that Jingdong is hiring, there are blockchain development engineers, blockchain technology experts, and blockchain innovation product managers. The minimum monthly salary starts from 20,000 and the highest can reach 60,000 yuan.

According to the "2019 Blockchain Talent Supply and Demand and Development Report" released by Zhilian Recruitment, the average monthly salary in the blockchain field has reached 16,317 yuan, which is nearly twice the national average salary.

Even so, real blockchain talents are still in short supply, and many places have joined the "grabbing war".

In May 2017, the Guiyang National High-tech Zone released the "Ten Blockchain" policy. For outstanding blockchain technology talents, they can enjoy corresponding living allowances and talent apartment treatment after being identified as high-level talents. May 2018 In order to attract high-level talents to settle down in Hangzhou Blockchain Industrial Park, the purchase subsidy can be up to 3 million yuan. In August of the same year, Yangpu District of Shanghai proposed to give a rent subsidy of up to 100,000 yuan to the core high-level talents of blockchain technology for a maximum period of 3 years …

There are many people but they do not match the needs

Faced with the large demand in the market, many job seekers have entered the blockchain industry, but there are not many talents who truly meet the requirements, and the market supply is showing a state of "false prosperity."

In 2018, the unit price of bitcoin exceeded 20,000 US dollars. Blockchain technology has become hot with the development of digital currencies, attracting a large number of job seekers. BOSS direct employment data shows that in the first two months of 2018, the demand for blockchain-related talents increased by 8.7 times compared with the same period in 2017, and the supply of talents increased by 235% year-on-year.

At the same time, phenomena such as "speculation of coins", issuance of "air coins" of no value, and pyramid schemes under the banner of blockchain appear. A blockchain practitioner said that when the price of coins rose sharply, many people poured in, but most of them were engaged in peripheral work that had nothing to do with blockchain technology. In a sense, these people are not the talent needed by blockchain technology companies.

After the chaos in the "currency circle" was rectified in 2019, the demand for recruitment returned to rationality. According to the "2019 Blockchain Talent Supply and Demand and Development Report", in the third quarter of 2019, the number of hiring blockchain-related talent companies and hiring decreased by 53.68% and 51.71% respectively year-on-year, and the number of job seekers still reached 7.12 times the recruitment demand. The scale is far greater than demand. According to the 2018 survey data of Zhilian Recruitment, the stock of blockchain talents only accounts for 7% of the demand.

"Now in the market, experienced programmers are basically engaged in the development of core blockchain technology." Xia Li, Director of Tsinghua x-lab Blockchain Lab, introduced that the professional background of blockchain technology talents is computer related disciplines. the Lord. In fact, from a technical perspective, blockchain talents can be divided into two categories, one is the underlying supply chain talents (the core platform technology development of the technology platform), and the other is the application development talents. "If there is a special training channel, it may be difficult, because at this stage it is mainly self-learning."

Xia Li said that blockchain technology is an application technology and has broad application prospects in the financial industry, manufacturing, and government management. Therefore, it also requires consulting talents who have vertical industry experience and blockchain-related knowledge, and control specific The project manager of the landing and output of the project and the theoretical research talents.

At the same time, Xia Li pointed out that blockchain technology is a multi-disciplinary and cross-domain technology. The specific application requires the compound talents who understand both technology and industry, but such people are currently scarce.

Zhu Jianming, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Information Technology, Central University of Finance and Economics also holds the same view. He believes that if you want to apply blockchain technology to different industries, relevant personnel need to understand both the underlying technology and the specific business logic of the application scenario. However, the contradiction now is that people who understand technology do not necessarily understand industry, and people who understand industry do not necessarily understand technology. High-end blockchain talents are rare.

Popularization of knowledge in college courses

"Blockchain involves the integration and innovation of multiple technologies such as computer technology, P2P networks, cryptography, and consensus mechanisms." Zhu Jianming introduced that as the blockchain rises to the national level, facing the imbalance between supply and demand of blockchain talents, Training and education will also be valued.

It is understood that the earliest blockchain courses in the world can be traced back to 2013 and were offered by the University of Nicosia. The "American Blockchain Education Research Report" released by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and others shows that as of August 2018, 42% of the 50 world-renowned universities currently offer at least one course related to cryptography or blockchain , 22% of schools provide more than one.

Specific to China, including Tsinghua University, Central University of Finance and Economics, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, more than 10 domestic universities have successively offered blockchain-related courses.

Central University of Finance and Economics is the first university in China to offer blockchain-related courses. In July 2016, the Central University of Finance and Economics and Beijing Century Internet Broadband Data Center Co., Ltd. launched a blockchain project, established the first joint laboratory based on blockchain in domestic universities, opened a blockchain course, and compiled a textbook " Blockchain Technology and Application.

"We believe that blockchain is a good technology, which may have a huge impact on the financial field and is very suitable for students of financial schools." Zhu Jianming introduced that at first, this course was only an elective course for undergraduates of the School of Information. The major is set as a compulsory course. Now it has become a public elective course in the school and is very popular with students.

In September 2016, Tsinghua University opened a course called "The Cognitive Basis of Beyond Disciplines". Blockchain, as the most cutting-edge innovative application of a distributed and integrated worldview, was systematically explained. Xia Li said that at present Tsinghua University has some courses involving blockchain content, but has not yet become a major.

In addition, some universities are also training through school-enterprise cooperation. Yang Jun, vice president of the education and training institution Huobi University, introduced that their cooperation with Xiamen University is mainly carried out through training classes, combining cases to let students understand what is blockchain, the development trend of blockchain, and application scenarios.

"At present, there are only a few in-depth professional studies involving blockchain technology, such as cryptography and information security." Zhu Jianming said that as far as the cultivation of blockchain talents in domestic universities is concerned, it is still at the stage of knowledge popularization.

Future development is competition for talent

 

"Blockchain technology research and industrial applications in various countries in the world are also at an early stage of development, and no country has an absolute advantage." Zhu Jianming said that China's blockchain technology research is in sync with other countries in the world and will develop to a great extent It depends on talent supply and reserves.

How to train university blockchain talents? Zhu Jianming believes that we should start from two aspects. One is to strengthen the training of professional and technical personnel such as computer and information security, and to add courses in the direction of blockchain research to train composite talents; Knowledge can help all parties cooperate to complete the application landing.

It is understood that China already has a good foundation for the development of the blockchain industry, and Tencent, Ant Financial, Huawei and other companies have started relevant practices in the fields of electronic bills, copyright protection, and product traceability.

In November this year, the "Blockchain White Paper (2019)" released by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology showed that in terms of industry applications, 38% of global blockchain companies are currently concentrated in the cryptocurrency field, and 23% of companies are focused on blockchain technology Internet and finance are the two most widely used fields. The number of blockchain companies in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom ranks among the top three.

Zhu Jianming said that although the application of the blockchain has landed, it is still in its infancy. Except for Bitcoin, there has not yet been a "killer" application, and it will continue to be explored in the future.

He also pointed out that the future development of blockchain technology will become the support of other technologies. For example, the development of artificial intelligence must be based on large amounts of big data, and blockchain can ensure data credibility. The deep integration of blockchain with big data and artificial intelligence can create favorable conditions for more new applications.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!