Become a Blockchain Specialist: Get Certified and Find a Job in Blockchain
Table of Contents
Blockchain technology has been prospering over the years, and as enterprises dive into the technology, blockchain specialists have become one of the most promising and rewarding jobs in the space.
However, a high salary comes with greater responsibility and a demand for professional knowledge, and there are several skills that you will need to polish before applying for the position. This article explains the role of a blockchain specialist, the skills you need, and the best blockchain certifications and courses to master blockchain technology.
Benefits of Working as a Blockchain Specialist
There are a few reasons that make blockchain specialists a decent job. Since the job is demanding and requires a high level of blockchain knowledge, the market is not saturated, so it will be easy to land a job if you meet the requirements. Another benefit of working as a blockchain specialist is the competitive salary.
The salary for this occupation is one of the highest in the blockchain space. According to CryptoJobList, the global average salary for blockchain specialists is $95,000 per year, but if you are more experienced, your yearly salary can surpass $150K.
What Do Blockchain Specialists Do?
Blockchain specialists, one of the most demanding positions in the blockchain space, are blockchain experts that possess profound knowledge of blockchain technology but, at the same time, are proficient in developing blockchain-specific business models. Being a blockchain specialist is a lifelong learning process.
You might start as a blockchain technical expert focusing on blockchain architecture, security, or other technical coding skills. After a few years, you might work at the managerial level or even try to get yourself seen in the blockchain space, and then you will need to be prepared for more challenges ahead.
In general, a competent blockchain specialist will need to:
- Understand thoroughly what blockchain technology is.
- Know how to convey the value of blockchain technology and how it can help a business, given the resources and knowledge of the company.
- Be able to pinpoint the unpractical or unreasonable parts of any blockchain projects and detect scammers that paint a rosy picture of their unrealistic projects..
When being promoted as a manager, blockchain specialists also need to:
- Know whether the projects are applicable given the technical and human resources of the team, how much time is needed to develop a specific blockchain project, how many team members should be involved to get the job done, and which team members should work on what aspects.
- Understand the potential risks and challenges that the team might encounter.
- Choose the right project to work on and focus on what truly brings value. Think about how many people you can impact with this blockchain project and how many people will be willing to pay for this solution.
After five to seven years of working as a blockchain specialist, you should learn to become a speaker and let yourself be seen in the blockchain space.
- Know how to showcase what you know, your experience, and your worth and value as a blockchain specialist.
How to Become a Blockchain Specialist?
Becoming a blockchain specialist is not an easy task, you will need technical and business knowledge as well as interpersonal skills to master the job. But basically, the things you need to do to become a blockchain specialist are similar to what you have to do to become an expert in any other technology.
“If you are looking for a shortcut, you will never become a true blockchain specialist. Think of it as a marathon”
– Yves-Michel Leporcher, Blockchain Expert at Renault
– Yves-Michel Leporcher, Blockchain Expert at Renault
European Tech School’s lecturer and Blockchain Expert at Renault Yves-Michel Leporcher, shares his takeaway on how to become a specialist:
-
- Repetitive practice: This may sound like common sense, but it is impossible to master a skill without practicing, but few people have the patience and perseverance to keep learning. To get familiar with the technology, you need to keep learning, testing, practicing, repeating, and going through all the try-and-error. You will be able to detect the problems or bottlenecks of a blockchain project only if you have studied and tested it yourself before.
- Receive timely and accurate feedback: While repetition makes you master and understand your topic, the feedback from the right people prevents you from doing useless tasks. You can make immediate changes to optimize your performance. Find a mentor that has more advanced knowledge than you and is working on the topic on a daily basis to guide you.
- Create an environment to practice: The training to become a blockchain specialist requires reproducibility, and an environment that allows you to engage in deliberate practice is essential. For developers, you can use Ganache, the private Ethereum blockchain network, to test your smart contracts and execute commands for free.
- Go beyond your limits: After learning, practicing, testing, and optimizing, you have to step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself with new skills. You will never master guitar if you keep practicing the same song, and you will never become a blockchain specialist if you do not learn something new.
Specific Skills You Need to Become a Blockchain Specialist
Let’s have a look a little deeper into some specific skills you can practice and test to become a blockchain specialist.
Technical Skills & Blockchain Knowledge
Study Different Blockchain Platforms
Different blockchain platforms can have distinct consensus mechanisms, feature different characteristics aiming to solve different problems, use different programming languages, and function differently.
Therefore, understanding their differences and which platform is most suitable for a specific situation is one of the important jobs of a blockchain specialist. To fully understand the platforms, you can start with the whitepaper of these blockchain platforms and identify the characteristics and use cases.
European Tech School lecturer Marta Piekarska-Geater, Senior DAO Strategist at ConsenSys, analyzes different blockchain and DLT platforms in the Certified Blockchain Expert program.
Specialize in Various Programming Languages
It is impossible to master every programming language, just like you cannot expect yourself to master English, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese at a time because there is simply no ending time for learning them.
However, programming skills are still crucial for blockchain specialists, and a good starting point can be Javascript and Solidity. The latter is influenced by C++ and Python, and is used to develop smart contracts on Ethereum.
Another advice from Yves-Michel is never trust the documentation because it is often outdated. Learn to read the codes and test them yourself! Only when you read and test it yourself can you truly understand the limitations and practicality of the projects and systems.
Get an in-depth Understanding of Data Structures
Data is an indispensable element of blockchain technology, and understanding the data structure is essential for blockchain specialists. You should try to figure out different ways to store, record, send, and upload data, and learn how to cope with problems.
Handle Blockchain-specific Vulnerabilities
Security is an essential, if not the most important, element of the blockchain infrastructure. As a blockchain security specialist, you must be able to identify the vulnerabilities and risks of the network and be capable of handling the problems.
In order to do that, you will need to understand cryptography, have a deep knowledge of blockchain-based software systems, and know how to develop or test out smart contracts to find security loopholes.
European Tech School lecturer Yves-Michel Leporcher, Blockchain Expert at Renault, thoroughly explains all the possible security loopholes on blockchain networks and how to deal with attacks in the Certified Blockchain Expert program.
Business Skills
Research About Enterprise Business Models
In order to become a blockchain specialist, you not only need to have a high level of blockchain knowledge, but you also must have a deep understanding of business models.
Knowing how to implement and develop the technology is not enough to solve the problems for enterprises. Only when you understand how their business works will you be able to evaluate which technical solution better fits their needs.
Knowledge of Integrating Blockchain into Business
After you understand the business models and select the most suitable blockchain solution to enterprises’ problems, you will need to formulate new business models with blockchain technology that is cost-effective and efficient.
In most cases, your blockchain solution will have to integrate with the existing networks that the companies have, which is often complicated, so possessing both technical and business knowledge on interoperability will certainly come in handy.
Certifications & Networking
Obtain Blockchain Certifications
Getting a blockchain certification can help improve your CV and increase your chances of securing a promising job in the blockchain space. In the next section, we will further explain how to get certified and why the European Tech School is your best choice to kickstart your career as a blockchain specialist.
Build Your Professional Network
If you are new to the blockchain ecosystem, you might want to start building your network and connect with blockchain specialists who are already doing your dream job.
European Tech School lecturer Yves-Michel Leporcher shares that one of the best ways to kickstart your blockchain career is to reach out to professionals. You can ask them to explain something about their company or business models that you do not understand, share their work experience, or describe what it is like to have a job like theirs. Most people in the blockchain industry are friendly and willing to help. All you need to do is to pluck up the courage and ask!
European Tech School is building one of the biggest blockchain and Web3 learning communities in Europe. The photo was taken during the first ETS Coffee Talk event.
There is no definitive answer on the amount of time it takes to become a blockchain specialist because everyone has different skills, academic backgrounds, and inherent talents.
But most importantly, it is because learning is a lifelong process, and there is no certain time that you can call yourself an expert and stop learning. If you are looking for shortcuts, you will never become a true blockchain specialist!
How to Be Certified as a Blockchain Specialist?
The best thing you can do is to enroll in a blockchain course and start learning! Blockchain training can help you grasp key blockchain knowledge and improve your skills a lot faster than you might expect.
After several weeks, you will advance your professional development and get a certification to showcase your skills. The European Tech School’s 10-week Certified Blockchain Expert program is perfect for your blockchain journey, and we will outline the course structure and explain what you can expect from the courses.
European Tech School: Certified Blockchain Expert Program
European Tech School is a first-of-its-kind online blockchain school set to disrupt the way we learn about technology by offering immersive learning experiences to extremely motivated people.
With the 10-week Certified Blockchain Expert program, you will learn about Web3, crypto, and blockchain from the world’s best professionals, connect with like-minded enthusiasts and obtain a high-level understanding of blockchain technology and the ecosystem.
The syllabus of the 10-week Certified Blockchain Expert program in October 2022.
The course will equip you with the technical and business skills you need to become a blockchain specialist. This 10-week program starts with the fundamentals of blockchain technology, including a whitepaper analysis workshop, in which you will have to read a whitepaper of an assigned blockchain platform and several relevant resources to understand the mechanism of that blockchain, and present your research findings to the class.
The second section of the course will walk you through various use cases of blockchain and different business models. All the lectures are taught by professionals working in different fields, providing you with a unique opportunity to get a sneak peek into different blockchain jobs. Some lectures will come with small assignments, allowing you to reflect on what you have learned in class and come up with new business ideas. The professors will give you thorough feedback and ideas on how to improve your business models.
The third block of the course will dive into the profound technical aspects of blockchain technology, including the configuration of blockchain architecture, data considerations, blockchain security, and other essential technical knowledge a blockchain specialist should be proficient. You will also learn different software, hardware, and developer tools that can help get your project off the ground.
The last section of the course will be the hands-on “how-to” workshops for developers. The professors will demonstrate how to write and test out smart contracts on different blockchains, build DAOs, or develop DeFi solutions. If you have some coding experience and want to shift your career to a blockchain developer or a blockchain specialist, this section is certainly for you! If you are just a beginner, the step-by-step instructions provided by the professor will also help you install all the important developer tools and obtain comprehensive knowledge of the technology.
To learn more about the program, you can consult the European Tech School website or schedule a call with our staff if you have any questions.
Blockchain specialist is a promising job in the blockchain space, but the high salary comes with greater responsibilities and higher demand for skills. Developing the skills takes time and effort, and joining a community will make learning a lot more interesting and efficient. It is also recommended to get a certification to showcase your skills and prove yourself worthy to employers.
So, start learning, connect with people, and try our Certified Blockchain Expert program! We wish you a happy learning journey to become a blockchain specialist!
