How to Hire and Create an Expert Blockchain Team

It can be difficult to know what to look for in potential employees when the work they'll be doing is brand new. You don't want to exclude potentially qualified candidates based on their knowledge of or experience with the subject of your company, so you can't just list "experience" as a requirement. You have to be able to look past direct experience and be able to hire the right people who have the skills to learn what they need to learn to succeed with you. One such up-and-coming field is the blockchain industry, a rapidly growing group of companies and employees that has just begun to take off. Part of the success of these companies is their ability to successfully create an expert blockchain team, despite the limitations of a budding field.

Don't ride solely on experience.

In an up-and-coming field like the blockchain industry, you want to be more open-minded about direct experience. It's a lot easier to teach a skilled employee what they need to know about the blockchain supply chain than it is to teach someone who knows more about blockchain a whole new, complex skill. If you go off years of experience alone, there's also no guarantee that your employee will even have the ability to learn the skills they need to play their role. So instead of asking for direct experience with blockchain, you can create an expert blockchain team by looking at how your potential hires' skills and experience will translate into their new role.

Someone experienced in software development or design developers with a deep interest in blockchain technologies are more likely to become great blockchain developers than less skilled individuals, even with blockchain experience. Of course, you want your potential employees to be literate in the field, but that doesn't mean they should have to have worked in it already if they can demonstrate to you how their work history qualifies them for the role and what it will bring to blockchain projects. This is a great question to ask at the interview stage, and will give you a sense of the person's ability to adapt to a new industry.

Pay attention to the attitude.

Speaking of adapting to a new industry, when you're trying to create an expert blockchain team from scratch, one of the most important things to look at is their attitude and fit within your company's culture. Even the most highly qualified employee, technically speaking, will not be an asset if they don't fit well in the industry or support the aspirations of your company. There are two sides to this: first, you want your team members to work well with each other and with you. But, more importantly, you want them all to believe in the work they're doing, putting genuine passion into every blockchain project and task.

Look broadly.

Blockchain technology is fairly recent, and, obviously, the field is very tech-based. This is why the standard HR/recruiter routes to hiring within the blockchain space might not actually be your best bet for bringing in the best people. Instead, you should consider taking to the internet to find individuals who demonstrate their knowledge of blockchain applications on forums, or are working on projects that indicate that they might be a good fit for your company. And, while it can be a tedious task to sift through the "fake" experts, you can always go to freelancing or blockchain consulting for blockchain projects, and develop a working relationship with qualified people that may lead to full-time opportunities. That route, though it has its downsides, allows the hirer to test out a potential employee's development services before either of you have to make a long-term commitment

In order to create an expert blockchain team, you might have to go past the limits of your city or even state. Although the industry is growing, many of the best blockchain developers and other qualified individuals might be able to be a valuable part of your team from afar. Opening up remote hiring as an option will make it easier for you to find someone who can talk about blockchain in plain English, and you'll have a much larger pool in which to find the absolute best.

Put in the time to train.

No matter what role you're hiring for, it's absolutely crucial for every company to properly train and orient their employees. When you go to create an expert blockchain team, you have to make sure all of your employees are on the same page in terms of the company's mission statement and goals. But, even more importantly, this gives you the opportunity to work up from scratch with skilled employees who don't have very much experience in the industry. By committing to comprehensive training, you give yourself more room to hire the most qualified people who will bring the most to the team by not limiting yourself to the small number of potential employees that have already worked with blockchain.

Diversify your team.

When you go to create an expert, full time blockchain team, it's easy to get distracted by the "main" functions you need filled, and hire a bunch of qualified software developers, for example, but leave other roles unfulfilled. When you set out to build your team, you should look at the different roles you will need filled, both immediately and in the future. And this goes back to what I mentioned before: experience isn't everything.

There are some roles that require a deeper understanding of the blockchain industry than others, and, of course, you want all of your employees to have at least a working understanding of the field. You need people who know 10 things everyone forgets about Bitcoin. But your payroll guy certainly doesn't need to know as much about it as your software developers. So it might benefit you to, in this case, hire someone with the best skills relevant to their individual role, rather than a blockchain expert with no accounting skills.

In addition, you should try to fill any gaps in knowledge or expertise by hiring developers with different skills. You don't have to have employees who are experts at everything as long as you can cover your bases with a number of employees who, together, can take care of any task or project you set to them as a whole. Likely, the software developers and blockchain developers you hire will have their own strengths and weaknesses, and that's fine. A well-rounded team can have expertise in Ethereum development, Bitcoin, or any other niche. The best blockchain companies are those with enough different skill sets to cover all their bases.

Keep growth in mind.

There are signs Bitcoin will stay around for decades, so you also want to keep growth in mind as you begin hiring. There may be some, even many, roles that you don't need at the beginning, but will be crucial down the road. The success of blockchain technology companies demonstrates the potential for growth that you might face, even for brand new start-ups. So while you might get away with a bare-bones crew at the beginning, you should always be looking ahead and making sure your team has all the features your company needs to grow, expand, and succeed in the ever-growing market of blockchain technology. Your blockchain team may, in fact, be the very reason your company takes off in this way.