Crypto job seekers pay for employers' past excesses

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

Crypto job seekers are paying for employers' past excesses.

State of play: "This is the brutal correction," Adam Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Braintrust, a talent networking site, tells Axios.

What they're saying: Job experts in crypto tell Axios that employers have the upper hand, though it wasn't too long ago that candidates did.

Zoom out: Downsizing is not just happening out of necessity — a penalty for overhiring and for paying outsized salaries to compete — but is also being seized on by bosses as a chance to cut under the cover of layoffs trending across tech, Jackson said.

With fewer roles open and a growing pool of job seekers, startups — firms with 100 people or fewer — are looking for "hustlers" and "self-starters" when it comes to bull-market roles like marketing and sales, crypto startup adviser Ryan Andersen, who specializes in hiring for Layer 1s and Layer 2s, said.

Those coming from Big Tech might also find comp packages notably less sweet compared to 18 months ago. (Read more about that below.)

On the bright side: Developers are still in demand — plus privacy guys, cryptographers, and systems engineers, Nako Mbelle, founder and CEO of Fintech Recruiters, tells Axios.

Months ago the industry couldn't get enough. "Accelerators went nuts. All of 2021, salaries went nuts. Sales, product, marketing," Miller said.

The intrigue: Some CEOs have justified cuts, pointing to a hot growth strategy during the 2020 to late 2021 hiring spree, but Miller wonders how true that was in hindsight.

Tokens became a big part of the deal in the crypto world's hiring boom, which was an enticing proposition when prices were high.

Between the lines: Altcoins like solana (SOL), avalanche (AVAX), and polkadot (DOT) are trading at a fraction of where they were at 2021 peaks — down roughly 90%.

Today, "you throw tokens in there, and a lot are hesitant about taking the risk — well they all can't go back to Big Tech, plus the total packages aren't there," Andersen said, referring to the days when tech offered potential hires equity in the company.

The intrigue: "I like hiring in Europe," he said. "The candidate in New York or SF is gonna try to squeeze $5K to $10K more off the base salary as you get to closing saying 'the cost of living is high' — it's a turnoff to employers."

The bottom line: "The fact that the SEC named a bunch of tokens as unregistered securities has a chilling effect on the space — it's probably making it less attractive for talent," Braintrust chief Jackson said.