Blockchain is one of the highest in-demand, candidate-short industries. But the demand doesn’t just apply to developers (who are paid very handsomely). We’re seeing demand for industry knowledge across the board: receptionists, shipping clerks, security guards, stock brokers, and marketers.

A mining company is seeking a public relations manager who understands how recording gold sales on the transparent and audible digital ledger will reduce theft, fraud and murder in conflict mining regions. An investment firm is hiring sales managers who can explain how customer trading gains will be deposited in their digital wallets in real time and available for immediate withdrawal at an ATM.

Bank clerks, travel agents, and shipping clerks will directly transact and track loans, hotel bookings and large cargo shipments with clients and suppliers in secure ecosystems using proprietary tokens to access the secure network. It’s happening now.

If blockchain is the fourth industrial revolution — if smart contracts are going to eat the world — job seekers need to be prepared. A worker would not have survived the first industrial revolution without machine tool skills or the information revolution without computer skills. Those who learn faster (and are self-aware enough to know how they learn) will have a leg up.

The Blockchain Salary Premium

The shortage of blockchain engineers will soon spread across all disciplines — marketing, finance, logistics, and more. On indeed.com, over 500 blockchain developer positions in the United States, 200 in the United Kingdom, and 90 in Singapore need to be filled. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Our organizational structures, functions and even governance structures are changing. Non-tech workers should understand basic blockchain functions such as the role of smart contracts in executing business functions, cryptography in providing security, and mining in transaction processing. If you are a marketer, aim to understand token economics and how incentives and rewards work in DApps.

Austen Allred is the founder of Lambda School, which has trained tens of thousands of programmers. He says that beyond the superficial hype, developers need to understand the tech under the hood. In other words, what are we actually talking about when moving crypto from a to b? The innovative training school is seeing high demand for its graduates that know how to work on smart contracts. Lambda’s fee structure enables it to accelerate training in high demand skills and the school provides free training upfront. Students who obtain a job paying $50,000 or more then pay a portion of their salary towards the tuition fee.

Even a basic blockchain certification course can boost your pay. Software engineering salaries are boosted 20 percent for understanding how crypto works, says Allred. Blockchain engineers are the highest paid software engineers, making on average between $150,000 and $175,000 annually, according to Hired. The average software engineer without Blockchain training, meanwhile, makes $137k. Those who continue to climb the education ladder to the position of Blockchain research scientist are being offered $270,000.

Perhaps the faster road to getting that purple lambo isn’t throwing money around with wild speculation, but hard-work, dedication and a good education. There’s a thought.

Blockchain Courses for the Non-techie

Coinbase recently reported that universities around the world have seen a dramatic increase in the number of blockchain and crypto-related courses available. This is good news, and students around the world will be ready to fill the talent gap. But what about the rest of us?

The good news is that online courses make it easy to become “blockchain certified,” while setting flexible study times that fit into your busy schedule. And since Blockchain platforms share in the revenue, you may even make money while training and job searching. Not a bad deal.

B21Block.com is gamifying education on the blockchain and cryptocurrency. When you take one of its six learning blocks, comprising close to 1,000 lectures, you are eligible to receive monthly coin airdrops. You’re getting paid to learn.

A good place to start is the B21Block prep course for blockchain certification. By becoming a Certified Bitcoin Professional, you can show potential employers that you have blockchain smarts. Other courses offered cover blockchain and Ethereum developer skills, cryptocurrency investing and trading, and blockchain game development. B21Block.com was founded by bitcoin education pioneer Ravinder Deol, who has become a popular blogger educating “non-technical newbies” on cryptocurrencies.

Another blockchain certification, 101Blockchains, allows you to become an enterprise blockchain professional, and is geared towards business professionals who want to learn how to talk to the talk.

Get Started

To learn more about how you can use blockchain skills and knowledge in your career, you can join blockchain career groups on LinkedIn. Hub.Careers has a popular blockchain subgroup. Search Blockchain job boards such as the CryptoJobsList or Coinmonks which has a blockchain-focused job board.

Before you land an interview, attend a blockchain seminar or conference — or two. Read Blockchain news to keep up to date. Tell them something they don’t know. Send them a list of 10 ideas to improve their business. Once you’ve got a little bit of experience under your belt, jump in. As one crypto founder said, “the potential that blockchain has on our lives is huge and luckily, it’s still day one.”

Aim to find projects that inspire you and work on them as a volunteer — contribute to their github repo, make suggestions, write blogs and be a constant learner. Projects really appreciate community feedback so if you are supportive, proactive and constructive, projects will start asking you to play a larger role.

And lastly, be ready for a rollercoaster lifestyle.