There are more and more crypto job openings
every day, and making a career move into crypto is becoming commonplace.
But we've noticed that there isn't a clear guide
for college students and fresh grads who want to get into the space,
which is why we put together this video explaining the best ways
to learn
about cryptocurrencies and blockchain and why you should actually consider
a career in crypto.
But before we get into that,
my name is Trev, and here at CoinMarketCap,
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And let's learn together a guide to Crypto for College Students.
The World Economic Forum estimates that the crypto and blockchain sector grew
by nearly 200% last year, and it's not showing any signs of slowing down.
In other words, crypto is a high growth industry,
and as a result, crypto and blockchain
firms are in desperate need of smart, hardworking college graduates.
And in fact, Tech Republic reports that crypto and blockchain companies
increase their job positioning by 118% last year when compared to 2020.
They need gifted A.I.
software and blockchain engineers to build their underlying infrastructure.
They need savvy communications and pure majors
to run their media companies, and they need industrious operations,
product and data office managers to keep the cogs turning.
So no matter what you studied in college, crypto companies need you.
So why work in crypto?
Well, there are a number of reasons graduates want to work in crypto.
First and foremost is
that it's an incredibly fun and exciting sector to work in.
Number one, crypto and blockchain experience open doors
and college graduates
with crypto and blockchain experience will have many more opportunities
open to them
as they advance in their careers than graduates without a crypto experience.
And this is because crypto
and blockchain are being rapidly adopted in practically every sector.
In fact, a Deloitte survey found that 73% of senior executives agree
that their organization would be less competitive
should it fail to incorporate blockchain technology and digital assets. Why?
Well, simply because blockchain and crypto are streamlining the way businesses
operate in seemingly every sector, and therefore knowing how blockchains
and cryptocurrencies work will give any graduate
a noteworthy advantage over other candidates for jobs.
Also, crypto native college grads don't necessarily
need to work in the crypto space for their whole careers.
They could take their unique skills and experience to other sectors as well.
And in time with some experienced college grads with crypto
experience could position themselves for senior decision making roles.
And these roles could help organizations to adopt blockchain related technologies
and evolve their businesses to capitalize on the new decentralized
era of the web number two above average salaries.
Salaries in the crypto and blockchain space are well above average,
pretty much regardless of which job you're looking for.
According to cryptocurrency jobs, technical roles like blockchain
and back end crypto developers earn between 70 and $200,000 a year.
Customer focused staff earn good money to community managers and customer
support staff earn reportedly between 55 and $120,000 a year.
Of course, the crypto sphere needs creatives
as well, who can also earn a respectable paycheck graphic designers
working in crypto, for example, often earn upwards of $70,000 a year.
Number three, remote and flexible working.
Besides working on the forefront of the next tech wave, learning
about the revolutionary new technology and earning a decent salary.
The crypto space offers a number of smaller
benefits to students as well, one of which is remote working.
A significant percentage of crypto roles are remote,
making them perfect for students or grads who need to work around school hours
or any other commitment.
Remote working also benefits those students who want to balance their
lectures and seminars with a part time job to gain some experience while working.
Students working or studying in developing countries can also benefit from working
in remote crypto jobs
as they can earn a salary far beyond what they could actually hope to earn
by working a salary position paid in the local currency.
So who are crypto firms looking for?
Well, crypto firms, at least those out of the startup phase,
need smart, hardworking
people with experience or qualifications in seemingly every specialty.
You shouldn't make the mistake
of thinking that only crypto jobs are up for grabs for programmers, A.I.
builders or software engineers.
And don't go thinking that all crypto jobs require a strong technical background
with a robust knowledge of the inner workings of blockchain
and cryptocurrencies, while on some level there's truth to that idea.
The truth is that you don't need to be a college certified crypto expert
or have a degree in blockchain to land a job in crypto.
Crypto firms, like every other sector need people, managers, creatives,
communications experts, PR specialists in all other roles in every other sector,
many of whom won't necessarily have or even need specialist crypto knowledge.
So don't be deterred if you're in college, but you've never heard of solidity
or even know what an NFT is.
There's such a wide variety of crypto roles in non-technical fields today.
That as long as you can grasp the basics, you can work in crypto.
So number one university degrees.
While many crypto jobs don't require any formal education,
universities around
the world have begun offering crypto and blockchain related courses,
and yet most haven't launched full time blockchain fintech or crypto courses.
Instead, they're running modules or classes that students can study as part
of a more general degree, like computer science or software engineering.
The fact that universities don't offer comprehend that blockchain
or crypto courses just yet isn't necessarily a bad thing.
If you're a student now or will be in the future.
You don't need to study
a crypto specific degree to work in crypto even in technical roles.
Just like how journalism degrees aren't
usually specific to the business or politics sector, a general software
or computer science degree would be perfectly adequate in most crypto
roles, even if the course itself doesn't cover crypto.
And as most universities aren't offering degrees specifically in crypto, crypto
firms aren't usually looking for a degree specific to blockchain or crypto.
In fact, many don't require a degree at all.
Ethereum recommends finding bounties on Bitcoin
and attending hackathons to anybody looking to work with the world's
largest smart contract platform.
But if you definitely want to study
Cryptoassets or blockchain building a college, you have options.
CoinDesk has helpfully put together a list of the top 50 universities
around the world currently offering crypto related degrees in courses.
The National University of Singapore currently
tops the leaderboards with Melbourne University of Institute of Technology
and UC Berkeley taking second and third places.
Several other universities have opened research centers
dedicated to exploring blockchains in crypto assets.
So keep an eye out for blockchain and crypto degrees.
But what to do if you've already got a degree
or you don't want to fork out 80 grand to go to college?
Well, that brings us to number two, which is short courses.
So those of you who have already had a degree or you know
you're on a budget should definitely check out crypto short courses.
The thousands of crypto
short courses on offer today provide college graduates and people
without degrees an easy path into crypto without breaking the bank.
And some of them are even free.
In fact there are so many short courses available that working out
which courses you should take can actually require some hefty research.
Most short courses take between two and six weeks to complete and can be split
into two categories University run short courses and commercial courses.
First, let's take a look at university short courses.
In addition to offering crypto specific degrees, a number of universities
have begun offering short courses covering all manner of crypto.
Subjects like building tabs and blockchains from scratch.
And more than a few universities are already offering these courses already.
So Wharton and Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, New York University and MIT
have all launched crypto short courses, and that's just in the States.
Oxford, and Cambridge universities in the UK both offer crypto courses,
as does Zurich University in Switzerland and the University of Melbourne
in Australia.
So keep in mind
that while some of the short courses run by universities are affordable,
they do cost and for the most part a few thousand dollars.
But don't worry if you don't have that kind of cash
laying around,
there are plenty of skill learning websites that offer fantastic courses
that don't break the bank, and three of which are Skillshare, Udemy and Coursera.
Each of these platforms provides courses covering everything you could ever know
about crypto and blockchain, from crypto mining and rig building
to creating smart contracts with solidity and building blockchains from scratch.
And like I said earlier, if you're a parent
or you're on a tight schedule, you can complete short courses
as and when you like, even if you're working a full time job.
So as you can see,
whether you're a college grad interested in a crypto career or a student
looking to broaden your horizons, taking some crypto short
courses will definitely help you land a killer crypto job.
And that brings us to number three, which is internal training schemes.
Lastly, let's take a look at a relatively new way for college grads
to sink their teeth into crypto internal training schemes.
Internal training schemes, which are also called in-house
or sometimes on the job training schemes or positions
where a company pays you to train and work with them.
And unfortunately,
internal training schemes are pretty rare, especially in the crypto space.
Only a handful of companies offer them today, and one of which is actually Visa
right now.
Visa's advertising for a number of positions
on its new crypto rotational program, which last for 18 months.
Successful applicants will work with three different placements in Visa's
crypto product and crypto solutions and Digital Partnerships Department.
So as you can imagine, landing one of the positions on a Visa's team
would be an amazing opportunity to learn about DeFi and its stable
coins and loads of other crypto subjects, all while getting paid.
Obviously being paid to learn about and work in crypto is ideal,
but as we said earlier, a placement schemes
like visas don't really turn up every day and competition is obviously fierce.
But still, if you can land a spot on one, then you will be leaps and bounds
ahead of the competition.
So what do you do if you're not an engineer?
Or computer science major?
Well, a lot of courses
we've looked at so far are targeted more at students or professionals
looking for technical roles like developers or software engineers.
Well, what should you do if you're a content creator or a product
manager or even a business development executive who wants to break into crypto?
Well, if you've fallen into any of these categories, we recommend
you start with some of the free courses or learning materials.
And one of the best places to start is CoinMarketCaps own Alexandria Library.
The Alexandria Library is the home of all of the information
you will ever need about cryptocurrencies from basic topics
like what blockchains and entities are and how they work to advance
concepts like technical trading patterns and smart contract programing languages.
You can find it all in the Alexandria Library, and if you're a non techie
who wants to learn more about crypto,
then Alexandria is a perfect place to start your crypto journey.
Just head over to the Alexandria website, click learn, then choose either
the crypto basics or how to guides tab and just start reading
you'll be a crypto expert before you know it.
And alternatively, you can actually check out
some of the explainer series on our YouTube channel, including our
How To and simply speaking into what is a series.
Like we said earlier, the crypto space is an incredibly exciting
and rewarding place to be in right now.
And as for the path for each college student wanting to work in crypto
and as we've said earlier, it really depends on the kind of role that you want.
If you're a student looking for a tech role in crypto,
you can either do a degree which allows you to study crypto
or you can do a more general degree and do some short courses on the side.
If you're a college graduate looking for a tech role in crypto,
you should check out some of the free courses to start with
and then move on to some of the paid university short courses.
And if you're looking for a non tech role in crypto, you just need to start
learning about crypto by taking some free courses
and then move on to some short courses if you feel that it's still necessary.
Still, no matter where you want to work in crypto, know that you have options.