Working in web3: which employment style fits you

Transcript

what's up friends welcome to web3 Academy a place for entrepreneurs creators and marketers to explore and learn how to use web3 to transform business models and create thriving communities enjoy this next episode [Music] gmgm what's up web free friends it is web3 Academy I am Jaybird coming at you from Whistler Canada and we've got a deep dive for you today uh today's Deep dive is an article written by one of our community members shout out to Ox Ryoma this article is all about working in web 3 and I'm gonna walk you through this

article add a little bit of my own flavor there's a lot of conversation happening around working in web 3 how to get a job in web 3 what are the different types of opportunities in web 3 web 3 is opening up so many different new types of ways of work ways of human human coordination as a result of tokens and all of the blockchain Technologies just really it's opening up so many new opportunities for for different work Styles and what I love about this article is that it's really about the demystifying work in web3 uh understanding which employment style is

best for you which I think is a really important topic because there is so many different ways to get work in web3 but you need to understand um which style fits uh fits your skills best fits the way that you work best fits your lifestyle best um because you want to set yourself up for success and that's what today is all about before I get into it a couple quick things number one as always if you can please please please give us a review on Spotify or apple uh I know it's annoying when podcasters ask for this but I can't tell you how much

of a difference it makes for us and even more importantly how much of a difference it makes for the web 3 community and for web3 onboarding as a whole uh we've got it on board a billion people with web3 and if you just take a few seconds and give us a rating I hope you'll give us a five star uh but uh but be honest give us a rating we appreciate any rating we appreciate any feedback much appreciated um one more thing if you are seriously looking for a job in web 3 I really want to help you please reach out to me join our Discord uh link to our Discord if you're not you're in there is in the show notes or if you already are in our Discord uh at Jaybird and that's me and

drop me a line and I will gladly do a 30 minute meeting with anybody one-on-one 30-minute meeting with anybody who wants to work in web 3 I'll help you with your resume I'll help you with networking meeting people in the space I want to get more great talent into this space and I am more than happy to give any of our community members my time to helping you get a job whether it be in a dow or whether it be in a corporation or whether it be starting your own business any any of those I'm here for you I'm here to support you as are many other people in the community as well uh so yeah uh do not hesitate to reach out

happy to give you my time uh and help you on this this journey uh okay so let's begin with the question the question is which employment style is best for you in web 3 the web 3 Industry is booming in terms of adoption awareness and development everything is in an all-time high except for prices unfortunately attention is highly present in the markets right now and a lot of developers and creators are adopting web 3 to build their products and services there are endless amounts of nft

projects Dows blockchains oracles and so on being built and developed on a daily weekly basis something that naturally creates a lot of job opportunities and if you haven't made the jump from web 2 to web 3 or from quite frankly whatever industry you might be in Into web3 You may be asking yourself how to do it and more importantly why to do it uh well the why is pretty simple in my mind there are a few benefits that perhaps will easily convince you to make the switch number one better pay and I want to be clear about what I mean when we say better pay it doesn't necessarily mean more upfront money uh depending

upon where you're going in web 3 particularly if you're going to a Dao there is not going to be more upfront money it actually will be often less upfront money the reason I believe that there is better pay and I know that Ox ryomi believes that there is better pay in web 3 is because of tokens and tokenomics and the opportunities to have ownership and governance over the things that you are working on so better pay does not necessarily mean more USD in your pocket this month unless you're going to go to a coinbase or an open C unless you're talking about

one of the super well-funded web3 businesses uh centralized really web3 businesses um unless you're talking about one of those or you're a developer with a very specialized skill and you're thinking about going to uh a sushi swap Dow or a maker Dow one of the larger Dows that has large Revenue coming in the pay is not going to be more in USD terms where it's going to be more is in your opportunity to make more long term because you're going to earn tokens and when you earn tokens you are not just earning uh the potential to have money from those tokens your own your your

earning ownership and ownership can lead to much more money down down the line so so that's number one reason to switch to web3 Jaws better pay number two remote work for sure I I I've said this for the longest time there is no greater value in your career in your job than Freedom if you can find a career that enables you freedom and what I mean when I say freedom I mean a few things one freedom to live wherever you want to freedom to take the afternoon off because you want to go spend it with

your kid or you want to go see some Art Exhibit that really in lights you up and inspires you so remote work offers a lot more freedom and that is so so valuable number three reason to work in web 3 is to contribute to the fastest growing industry and really I I've said this from the beginning um if I were to go back to school I went to business school I graduated in 2008 um I was and what I did was I went into management consulting because that's what business school students do it was either iBanking accounting or management counseling blah big corporate or suit and title work every day did that for a

few years what I should have done at the time is I should have gone into the fastest growing industry at that time and at that time in 2008 the fastest growing industry ironically was web to Tech uh there was some of my friends who went to Shopify who went to Spotify who went to Amazon who went to Facebook and at that time they were not big businesses and quite frankly it didn't make sense to me why these friends of mine were going there but I'll tell you what because they went to these growing Industries two things happened one most of them got equity in these businesses and which has led to a lot more money long term and two they all became

experts much faster than I did because they were joining and the same thing is true about web3 right now if you join web3 right now within six months you can be one of the smartest people in the space because it's so young so you have the opportunity whereas if you go work in an industry that's been around for 10 20 50 100 years depending upon what you're talking you know you're talking about insurance or banking Finance accounting all these like archaic um archaic might be the wrong word all these older Industries you're never going to be the smartest person in the room until you're 40 years into your career whereas if you join web 3 right

now you have the potential within two years a year even to be one of the smartest people in the room because it's so young and that cannot be underestimated that has huge potential for anybody long term to build a successful career and to build a successful position of expertise which makes you valuable and makes you in demand so let's jump in to what it means to work in web 3.

first of all let's establish what values you must subscribe to in order to work in web 3. you must keep in mind that this space is all about decentralization ownership and governance it's all about exploring new ways of working building and using the internet subsequently your employment should subscribe to all of these values one thing that we can that all of us can agree on assuming we're all web Theory Fanatics and I know we all are what's up friends is that we all want to get our feet wet in this space space and support the industry however at the moment the only way to fully work in web 3 at a fully using the living to the words that I mentioned above of decentralization

ownership and governance is to do so through a dow that is the only way to get a to join a fully decentralized organization where you can both have ownership and governance that you can only get that through a dow right now but the industry is still relatively new and early so the infrastructure the organization models and the entire concept of a dow has a lot to improve until can sustain itself and the thousands of contributors this is not the only way you work in and contribute and learn in web3 there are some alternatives you could work for a web 2 company servicing web 3.

you could work for a centralized web3 company a coinbase uh a um uh a wonderful um a uh one of those larger I can't think of any other examples right now but there's many centralized web3 companies I mean a16z would be a one of the largest fundraisers funding those large web 3 companies um or you could provide your web3 skills through being a freelancer great way if you're the freelancer way is more if you're trying to get your foot in the

door and you don't necessarily have the expertise of the skills yet you could go the freelancer route and of course you can work for a doubt so let's talk about these employment methods you can better understand them and you can make the best choice for yourself in terms of which one fits you the best because as I said before fit is so important when you're just selecting your career and selecting your job we spend 40 plus hours a week I mean if you're in web 3 you're probably spending 60 to 80 hours a week on your job so you better love it and get better fit with who you are first let's talk about working in a dow a decentralized autonomous organization if you really want to embrace decentralization and live a web 3 life you can dive into working for a Dao a

dow is an entity that is code Centric with human input at its peripherals it is a smart contract or a system of autonomous smart contracts in a nutshell the code theoretically does it all and people interact with one another to make sure the entity works correctly while growing and functioning appropriately this method of cooperation entails contributing collaborating with other Dow contributors contributors to function as a coherent unit without any Central Authority you are a contributor not an employee I'm going to say that again you are a contributor not an employee big difference right as an employee you have much more safety and much more guarantees as a contributor or

actually as an owner which is really what you are when you work in a dow you have much more opportunity but you also have much more freedom you have much less structure and much less systems you have to be if you're going to work in a dow you have to be a self-starter you have to be capable of getting yourself going because there's not going to be as much structure and it's going to be more on you to create the opportunities you can see it as a web 3 native concept where governance and improvements are done through proposals employees are autonomous and there is no hard hierarchy have you heavily popularized popularized by D5 organizations the concept of a dow has quickly risen in

popularity and you can find Dallas catering to a wide variety of topics and purposes within a dow or multiple Dows Your Role will change depending upon the organization's needs ongoing projects and your compensation will change depending upon how others perceive your work and or how urgent the project is to the organization to reward its contributors further efforts a dow May distribute governance tokens stable coins cryptocurrencies or other means of compensation it's an important thing to realize if you're going to work for a dow your compensation will not be standard corporate compensation you work for a corporation you're going to get paid in your local currency USD Euro whatever your local currency is

that's where you're going to get paid in you work for a dow you are going to get paid in their token so if you work for sushi swap you're going to get paid in their token of your work for Bank list now you're going to pay it in their token uh if you work for maker now you're going to get paid in in their token right you also may get paid in stable coins or uh or or perhaps Fiat although incredibly unusual or you might get paid in other cryptocurrencies and then you you also will likely get paid in when you get paid in their token you're also receiving governance tokens so it's important to understand the compensation because you need to think about what you need for your lifestyle if you need to be making as much money

as possible right now you want to be careful if you're looking at a dow to understand what the potential cash flow that you can make is if you're more willing to take a risk right now and you can put aside the money for later then a dow is a great opportunity unlike standard web 2 jobs you don't necessarily need to commit to one organization you could give out several hours to different Dows and get compensated accordingly generally contributors find one main doubt to be active in and lightly engage in others in their spare time this is another great point I talked about this before Freedom if you want freedom Dows are going to give you the most Freedom you can manage your own schedule you can work as much or as little as you want so

tons of freedom endows I would say be wary of Dow fatigue if you decide to commit to many organizations you can burn out pretty easily don't commit to too many adding on to the freedom of commitment Dow contributors are free of choosing their workplaces contributors can work from anywhere as long as they get the job done this gives them a lot of freedom as I said well it may sound fun to work for a doubt there is a high risk related to it it is still a relatively new work model and there's still a lot of iteration to go through before any mainstream adoption for instance legal intricacies taxes and a lack of insurance are a few of the things that may stop people from joining

a dow full time here's an example of a well-functioning Dao dorg d-o-r-g a software development company registered as a blockchain based LLC that builds down related software on the blockchain there'll be a link in the show notes to check out dork well dorg is one instance of a doubt infrastructure there are many ways that organizations could set up to set up Dows I'm not going to get into the legal side of setting up daos but if anybody wants to discuss that give you a shout I've had many conversations with that about that recently and it's a fascinating subject check out the coordinate platform

contributors are displayed on a graph in a grid-like manner and when whenever a project gets done other contributors rate their experience working with each other thus members of the organization are compensated according to their efforts in the community and there's a spreadsheet that I'm going to link to in the show notes where you can see an in-depth list of dows to participate in super helpful so if you want to check out Dao's we've got a spreadsheet in the show notes where you can see a whole bunch of different Dows and you can check them out and see if there are any are would be of interest to you how does one work for a Dao you may ask be involved and actively search for

communities be curious proactive and look for doubts that are servicing causes or topics that you are fond of seek for the admins or moderators of these groups and be open about your willingness to add value to the community becoming a valued member comes from providing Insight skills and initiatives that are helpful for the community and with the right opportunity will come with the right compensation in various Discord channels there will be prompts and call to actions for individuals who want to get involved Community calls onboarding sessions amas the list goes on get your skin in the game don't be afraid to reach out and get chilling my advice to everybody is to try to join one Dao it is an incredible learning experience into the infrastructure of

web3 and the opportunities be wary it is unless you are joining a very well established and well set up Dao they can be completely chaotic because you have a whole bunch of people all working together all trying to figure things out so they do require it's a much different way of joining an organization when you join a typical organization you go you do an interview and they make you an offer a Dao is the opposite at a Dao you go and you actually get to interview the Dao because you can cruise around you can

see all the operations of the Dow usually it's on Discord or many other platforms that Dows are using and there's so many tools in the Dow space where you can go and you can just join you can join you can join any governance call you can learn some Downs require you to have tokens in order to enter the Dao and so that might be restrictive and you might decide okay I don't want to pay for tokens in order to enter the dial and that's fine start with a doubt and there are many Dows where you do not have to pay buy tokens to enter one great example is our Dow we are webto Academy is currently launching a doubt and we're figuring her to go if you want to experience a Dao come on into web3 Academy check it out you can

join calls you can participate and then you can decide what next steps you want to take the one thing you need to know is if you are joining a doubt it is not going to be the structure that a corporation is going to be it's much more on you to take the initiative which requires a certain type of person so Dows aren't for everybody but again I would highly recommend that everyone gives it a shot because it can be something that you do just even a couple hours a week in the beginning and who knows it might grow into something bigger but even if it doesn't grow into any bigger you're going to learn a ton about the potential human coordination of tokens and the web 3 space that's just gonna allow you to be a leader down

the road okay second way you can work in web3 is working in a web 2 company that is servicing web3 regarding the current standard employment infrastructure in our society your highest chances of working in web3 will probably be to get a job in a web 2 functioning company offering services to onboard other web tube companies into web3 think of it as working in web 2.5 since in those scenarios you would be salaried or working on a per hour slash annual basis with or without benefits and insurance Pension Plan Etc examples of this I mean basically I think any web 2 company is essentially

an example of this as long as they are planning to go web3 themselves so like Facebook is an example of this or a web 2 company that is serving web3 as an example of this like a consulting firm or an agency a marketing agency that sort of thing um so there's there's several several examples of this or um accounting firms that are servicing web three all examples of this this is going to be in the web 2.5 space but it's a great way to begin to work with web3 if you prefer the security and again this comes back to what your needs are in when you're looking for a career and you're looking for a job you really need to think about what are your needs right and if your needs are security and stability and a constant paycheck then

this is the better option for you he would have a direct Superior and the work environment would be one of a web 2 company but your main task would revolve around web3 initiatives hopefully although it would be a bit of a mix for instance with auditing firms such as the big four or Tech Giants such as meta and Google starting to cover web3 topics being hired as a web free consultant engineer analyst is a perfect example of working in web 2 servicing web 3. the reason why this would not be considered working about three is because the decision making and data ownership is centralized you as an employee do not own the data you produce the decision making is done by a leader whether it's governance style does not apply in this context although I will say we are still

learning the best governance style so then web 3 dials are fabulous and wonderful but tokenomics and voter engagement uh are all fit challenges that everybody is facing so both pros and cons on both sides you will be contributing to the adoption of web 3 by putting your skills to use in the industry by key but keep in mind that true decentralized work is fundamentally different from working at a company that works in web too in order to get employed in web 2.5 as we're calling it The recruitment strategy is straightforward Network upskill and sell yourself within your communities with relevant individuals recruiters Executives just like you would try to find a job in web 2. as cheesy as it may

sound your network is your net worth if servicing web 2 web 3 in a web 2 company interests you here's some skills that are very much in demand right now blockchain development particularly solidity and rust technology Consulting research and research and Analysis marketing UI ux design Community Management and much more during this bear Market this type of job will be perfect for those who enjoy the standard nine to five and want to commit to web3 while keeping the employment advantages of a web 2.

and I'll say this again I said this before if you don't have a network but you need help getting one hit me up if you want help getting a job in web3 I am here to support you join our Discord send me a message reach out I will do a one-on-one call with you okay third way to get involved in web3 and get a job is working as a freelancer for web 2 or web3 company with web3 related services if freelancer is an individual that sells their services to companies that are in need of a specific service for a specific period of time under a contract this model is great for two different types of people it's really great if you are don't have a ton of experience and

aren't at the point where you can apply to the job that you your dream job so it's great to start get your foot in the door and gain experience it's freelancer is also really great for the the hyper experts it's also really great for the people who are top of their class experts in what they do and can charge themselves out at very high rates for a specific service that is in high demand yeah in this context a freelancer could cater to web3 focused companies without being part of the of its permanent full-time Workforce they are hired contractually for a specific project autonomously how would you go about freelancing web 3 easy by going on Fiverr upwork and other

freelance job boards such as web 3 gig aggregators you can easily shill any skill that is relevant to web3 and get noticed there create your profile make a draw board explaining your product service and or skill and you're good to go as for your compensation you can negotiate between getting paid in crypto Fiat nfts Etc or a combination of those well working on projects you find interesting without committing to a full-time position the working environment is ideal for those who want to be their own bosses and choose their own hours here are a few examples of relevant skills for web3 Freelancers Community Management content creation design Consulting sales development business development white paper writing and so many more

if you are one one content creation was one that was just mentioned there if you are a Content writer please contact me we at web3 Academy and at impact digital marketing which is our marketing agency are looking to hire a content writer slash copywriter right now to join our team please send me a message in Discord or on Twitter would love to chat with you if you are a Content writer and you are passionate about web3 we would love to chat get you on the team that's your there's your end into web three uh that might be a great opportunity for anybody that wants to get into web 3. okay working for a company building web three

let's not forget that web3 is still in the making infrastructures are getting built Innovations are coming at a rapid pace and the industry is still defining itself do you want to spearhead this unique Revolution then work for a company building web 3 platforms such as openc uni swap Ave or pioneers in the space and are important contributors to the growth of the ecosystem if you have a strong Tech background or have significant experience you can transpose into Innovation this section is definitely definitely for you working for a company building web 3 can be fulfilling as your work directly impacts the industry's transformation since these companies attract a lot of attention bear in mind the competition for these roles can be challenging however there is a need for a wider

variety of skill sets for large organizations in contrast to smaller startups for instance working for a company building web 3 can be the perfect bridge for individuals currently working in the web 2 tech industry as both Industries share similar perks and benefits related to Big Tech in conclusion while working in web 3 can be daunting and confusing one thing is for sure all of us can find a job in web3 and make a living of it and quite frankly in the next 10 years uh many of us will will move this direction whether we want to or not because web3 is going to take over and disrupt so many Industries so you might as well get

started now maybe work May It Be by working for a web 2 company servicing web 3 through freelancing or working for a dow each and every one of them have their advantages and disadvantages and you will need to Choose Wisely in order to find what works best for you take the time look at a bunch of different options I can't say this enough don't take the first the first interview or the first job you get you don't need to take the first one it's like dating you know you gotta meet a couple people you got to go on a few dates you gotta test the waters you gotta try all the ice cream flavors to figure out which one you like so don't be lazy get as many interviews as you can go in as many Dows as you can and learn and see what you like and see

what fits with you web3 is a growing industry that is still young and infrastructures may not be ready yet for Mass adoption be mindful that when coming into the space and remember that being involved means you're already halfway there well three Academy for instance is a great platform to get started and one other thing that I want to mention if you are looking to get a job in web 3 one thing which of course you are if you're still listening to me talk about this one thing that is really helpful is doing online courses particularly those that give out an nft as accreditation that you've completed the course that

shows a ton of initiative in web3 if you can go to an employer or to a dow or a freelance opportunity and say hey look not only do I am I telling you I know web3 here's an nft which proves that I have completed this course which is in web 3 and in its Nature by having an nft you're obviously in web 3 and you obviously understand it so I would suggest looking for that look around there's lots of free courses that do that and there's lots of paid courses that do that uh you're going to take an opportunity to Shell our own product for a second we have a free course called The web3 Academy rabbit hole and this course is a very short course it's only about an

hour and 30 minutes of video content along with some articles and additional resources that you can read in order to enhance your learning but really what this is is this is a foundational lecture series for those who want to work in web 3 and quite frankly for those who are already working in web3 I've had people take this course who are brand new to web3 and I've had people take this course who have been in web 3 for two years and been in crypto you know since gosh since like the the last Bull Run 2017 they've been around for five years in crypto and they've taken this course and they've been blown away by the foundational

knowledge that has given them so again in the show notes check it out jump into the web3 rabbit hole thanks for listening shout out to Martin Ryoma Ox underscore Ryoma on Twitter you can find his LinkedIn show notes he's the writer of this article that I read you today he is a D5 protocol Analyst at D5 safety and a core contributor to web3 Montreal as the education lead highly recommend check him out give them a high five give them a shout out if you hear from him or if you see him on Twitter thanks for listening to everybody have a fantastic day practice gratitude appreciate everything that

you've got because we are so lucky and so blessed lots of love be well thank you for listening to web3 Academy we hope this helps you along your web 3 journey and if it does please share this episode And subscribe so you don't miss the next one by the way if you have yet to join the Discord Community you are missing out this is where all the magic happens this is where we learn where we ask questions where we network uh you want to be in there the link to join is in the description below and finally a quick disclaimer nothing in this podcast was Financial advice crypto and web 3 can be risky you can literally lose it all in fact if you invest on account of what we say you probably will lose it all so don't do that in all honesty the

point of this podcast is to remove the noise of markets and price and focus on your utility implementation anyway so you should not take any of this as Financial advice thank you friends and see you in the next one