Nov 16, 2025 
19 mins to read History's Reckoning: When Web3 Recruitment Meets Market Cycles
It reminds me of Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis, when I had just transitioned from Morgan Stanley into the crypto space. Essentially, the current UI Engineer recruitment fervor mirrors that of 2017 during the DApp boom. In the latest data from MyJob.one, salary premiums for this role have reached 40%, but interestingly, qualified candidates have decreased by 12% compared to the previous quarter.
Looking back at the past three market cycles, it's evident that each technological stack iteration reshapes the talent demand landscape. For instance, the requirements for Developer Relations Lead recruitment have evolved from purely technical evangelism to becoming a "diplomat of the ecosystem"—requiring proficiency in both ZK-Rollups and community governance protocols, which brings to mind the circumstances of Ethereum's early builders in 2015.
Strategic Breakdown of Six Key Positions
1. UI Engineer: The Vanguard Winners
On the MyJob.one platform, UI Engineer recruitment demand has grown by 67% month-over-month, with 80% of job descriptions adding "native Web3 design thinking" requirements. A candidate who made the switch from Instagram told me: "Designing wallet interfaces today is like building financial infrastructure—it challenges traditional internet paradigms in ways you can't imagine."
2. Developer Relations Lead: The Ecosystem's Glue
In a recent case for an L2 protocol, the decisive factor in choosing our platform over competitors for the Developer Relations Lead recruitment was their policy allowing team members to dedicate 50% of their time to open-source projects. This highlights that top talent increasingly values long-term value accumulation.
3. Operations Specialist: Undervalued Value Gap
An interesting phenomenon: Operations Specialist recruitment budgets actually increase during bear markets. A CEO of a DeFi protocol confided: "We cut our marketing team but expanded operations last year, and now each of them manages $30 million in TVL." This confirms my observation—operations roles are becoming the "implicit CTO" of projects.
4. Head of Trading: The Institutional Entry Signal
Over the past three months, Head of Trading recruitment demand on MyJob.one has surged dramatically, with 87% of positions coming from licensed entities. A candidate brought in from Citadel's options volatility model directly reduced a new employer's LP risk exposure by 26%. The mobility of such talent often signals deeper structural changes in the market.
5. Design Director: The UX Arms Race
After completing the Design Director recruitment for a wallet project, its CEO shared an insight: "Our testing revealed user retention rates inversely correlate with the number of steps in the private key management process." This has led top design talent to now supplement their skills with cryptography courses—cross-disciplinary requirements that didn't exist three years ago.
6. Ecosystem Associate: Unexpected Power Center
The most dramatic evolution is seen in the changing standards for Ecosystem Associate recruitment. Last year, a candidate offered a position for organizing a 500-person DAO vote on Discord; this year, equivalent roles require experience with grant allocation decisions. This shift perfectly reflects the downward trend of Web3 governance power.
Cycle Survival Guide: Three-Layer Advice for Job Seekers
Layer One: Skill Portfolio Investment
- UI Engineer: Three.js + Smart Contract Debugging Capabilities
- DevRel Lead: Subgraph Construction + Proposal Writing
- Head of Trading: CEX/DEX Arbitrage Algorithms + RegTech Knowledge
Layer Two: Mindset Upgrade
A design director transitioning from Google to Web3 shared: "Here, the sample size of an A/B test might be smaller than what a community influencer's tweet can impact." This cognitive shift often requires a painful adaptation period of 6-12 months.
Layer Three: Cycle Positioning Ability
Observing MyJob.one salary data reveals that Head of Trading recruitment quotes peak during bull market cycles, while Developer Relations Lead recruitment value emerges during bear markets. Truly savvy job seekers develop their own "talent market thermometer."
War Warnings for Veterans
The most dangerous signal is the emergence of "experience leading million-DAU products" requirements in Design Director recruitment—clearly a relic of internet-era thinking. Remember, MetaMask's daily active users are still only 30 million. Such unrealistic standards only exacerbate talent misallocation.
Another red alert comes from an institution's Operations Specialist job description requiring "familiarity with configuring RPC nodes for 20+ chains." Based on my experience, such demands either stem from projects burdened with technical debt or indicate HR personnel who fundamentally misunderstand the essence of operations work.
Final Thoughts: A Venture Capital Philosophy for Careers
Over twelve years, I've witnessed too many fleeting career trajectories. Those consistently landing quality opportunities on MyJob.one typically adhere to three principles: (1) Deepening expertise in one new paradigm every 18 months (2) Allocating 20% time to grassroots development (3) Building cross-cycle professional networks.
As I often tell candidates: In Web3, your GitHub contribution history matters more than your resume, wallet interaction records are more authentic than degrees, and the ability to continuously learn—this is the true hard currency of this industry.
