Competition Heats Up at Bitcoin Job Fair

Plug and Play Tech Center played host to the second annual Bitcoin Job Fair this Saturday, an event that brought industry startups big and small together with a new wave of job seekers for a busy all-day affair.
More than 20 companies including 21 Inc, BitPay, BitGo and ChangeTip filled a conference hall crowded with roughly 350 job seekers of all ages and interest levels.
Plug and Play FinTech director Scott Robinson said the biggest contrast to 2014’s inaugural event was that participating startups were better capitalized and farther along in product development.
Robinson indicated that this may have, in turn, put more pressure on job seekers who were competing for companies with specific needs.
He told CoinDesk:
“This event had higher quality. They were very specific about who they were hiring and how they were hiring. They were the better companies that were able to survive, much more mature and tactical in terms of how they were hiring.”
The assertion was supported by the majority of companies, which demonstrated a willingness to prioritize the quality of the applicant over the nature of the position.
“We’re looking for talented people, period. It’s not necessarily looking for a job description. We’re a startup, we’d rather bring on highly talented individuals who can wear many hats,” Catheryne Nicholson, CEO of bitcoin API developer BlockCypher, said.
Nicholson’s comments were echoed by other attendees like BitPay software developer Greg Zigler, whose company was on-hand seeking to court tech experts.
“We’re looking for someone who loves bitcoin. It’s not just a day job,” Zigler added.
Elsewhere, the event saw talks given by startups including Ciphrex, CoinBeyond and 21 Inc, as well as a panel session featuring Paul Vigna and Michael J Casey of The Wall Street Journal.

This post was published at Coin Desk on April 20, 2015.