Dec 07, 2025 
16 mins to read Insights from Historical Cycles: Structural Changes in the Web3 Recruitment Market
Reviewing the past three market cycles, I've found that the talent mobility patterns following each cryptocurrency winter are remarkably similar. Essentially, the current recovery trend for Technical Services Engineer recruitment reminds me of the technical readiness period before Ethereum's explosive growth in 2017. From a strategic perspective, positioning talent development paths in the ZK technology stack now is as historically significant as preparing for smart contract development in 2015.
It reminds me of the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis in Wall Street, where the same confusion孕育ed different opportunities. While traditional financial institutions were laying off employees massively, high-frequency trading teams were quietly expanding. This structural change is being replayed today in the Quantitative Trader recruitment market—CEX quantitative teams are downsizing, while DEX market makers and on-chain data analysis companies are aggressively hiring.
Talent Value Investment: Which Positions Offer Long-Term Alpha?
The Everlasting Value of Foundational Technology Infrastructure
After analyzing data from the MyJob.one platform over the past three years, I'm certain that Security Engineer recruitment demand demonstrates cross-cycle stability. This reminds me of the blockchain audit experts recruited by the Japan Financial Services Agency after the Mt.Gox incident in 2014—they later became industry standard-setters. True value investing tells us that security is the lifeblood of the digital asset ecosystem.
The New Premium of Productization Capabilities
Currently, Product Owner recruitment salaries have increased by an average of 47% compared to the previous cycle, a number that's quite meaningful. Those who experienced the ICO bubble remember that the product managers who could truly transform white papers into user experiences eventually became co-founders of unicorn companies. The surge in demand for Product Assistant positions also indicates: the industry is transitioning from technology-driven to product-driven.
A Paradigm Shift in Sales Talent
Fascinatingly, the job descriptions for Sales Development Representative recruitment are undergoing fundamental changes. Traditional "closed-ended questioning techniques" are being replaced by "community governance participation," which reminds me of the sales team genetic transformation during the transition from traditional investment banks to internet券商. Under the new Web3 business logic, the best BD talent are often those technical salespeople who can resolve community disputes using smart contracts on Discourse forums.
Career Development Quadrants: Maintaining Competitiveness Amid Fluctuations
- Technical Depth × Industry Breadth: Excellent Technical Services Engineers need to understand both EVM fundamentals and specific vertical business logic (such as DeFi or GameFi)
- Quantitative Ability × On-Chain Insight: Top-tier Quantitative Traders are already combining MEV strategies with Governance voting
- Security Mindset × User Experience: The next generation of Security Engineers must be able to explain zero-knowledge proofs in language ordinary users can understand
- Sales Techniques × Technical Understanding: Outstanding Sales Development Representatives need to be able to interpret commercial value from GitHub commit histories
Strategic Advice for Job Seekers
Based on my 12 years of observation in both traditional finance and Web3, now is the perfect time to build long-term career assets. Those who joined Coinbase's security team during the 2018 bear market became sought-after CSO candidates for various exchanges in 2021. Similarly, those choosing to specialize in ZK-Rollups technology as Technical Services Engineers today may become key players in the Layer 2 wars of the next cycle.
Key Observation Metrics for the Next 12 Months
- Proportion Change in Security Engineer Recruitment between "Smart Contract Auditing" and "Traditional Penetration Testing" positions
- Frequency of MEV, Flashbot keywords appearing in Quantitative Trader recruitment JDs
- Trend in Salary Ratio between Product Owner and CTO positions
- 普及度 of DAO Governance Experience Requirements in Sales Development Representative recruitment
