Talent shortage! Competition for talent recruitment in the blockchain industry is fierce

“Not only our company, but everywhere is snatching talent now”

According to Jeremy Drane, head of financial technology at PwC, the number one problem facing the blockchain industry is the shortage of talent, a statement that is also echoed by other peers.

Large professional service firms are now facing a blockchain talent shortage crisis. They are looking for talent that can meet the growing demand for products and services from global financial institutions and companies. In interviews, Deloitte Consulting, KPMG and PwC all said they are currently recruiting and training talents in the relevant field.

Eric Piscini, leader of Deloitte’s Global Center for Cryptocurrencies, said:

"Deloitte plans to hire more than 25,000 people in 2016, including talent in new areas of the firm."

Drane also likened the current environment to the early days of the internet, when companies were training and developing talent for a nascent technology.

Drane told CoinDesk:

“Who among the young people graduating from universities has a strong interest? What kind of training programs should be arranged? These are all things we need to explore on our own.”

Eamonn Maguire, managing director of financial management at KPMG, echoed Drane's view, saying the company was building its own talent internally while also seeking external expertise.

“We hope to develop blockchain-related talents from within the company, but we are also recruiting outside the company. After all, it is not easy to get such professional talents.”

Cross-disciplinary talents

Drane also said a big problem facing the company and its peers is that qualified professionals are sometimes too specialized.

PwC is looking for people with both technical and business knowledge so they can develop and commercialize blockchain technology.

Drane said:

“We’re looking for talent across all disciplines, and there aren’t many of those.”

So, this is an important reason why PwC decided to work with industrial technology companies, including Blockstream, Digital Asset and Eris Industries.

Piscini said Deloitte is hiring for diversity, and that for blockchain, it’s not just a technology issue.

“We are looking for very specific skills in this industry, especially in cryptography, construction, software engineering and integration.”

Startups are also affected by the lack of talent because they need to raise the bar for hiring. For example, when veteran bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik and investor Matt Roszak founded blockchain services startup Bloq, they knew that recruiting top talent was a top priority.

Roszak stressed from the outset that Bloq would be committed to maximizing the benefits for its employees by allowing them to work on a decentralized basis.

Roszak told CoinDesk:

“Salary, equity, unlimited vacation, and work-life balance are really the key.”

Michael O'Loughlin, head of blockchain development at CGI Group, believes that talent shortage is one of the challenges facing the financial industry. While support for blockchain technology continues to grow, banks and consulting firms are also facing the problem of losing talent.

“The legacy systems, the wire transfer systems, the people who support our software in the bank are retiring, and there’s no talent to replace them.”

As for how blockchain could benefit, Deloitte’s Piscini may not agree that the industry as a whole will benefit from these challenges anytime soon.

Piscini believes that the challenge of recruiting talent is not unique to the blockchain sector:

“The talent shortage problem exists in many fields, not just blockchain.”

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/consulting-firms-hiring-blockchain-talent/
By Pete Rizzo
Compiled by: Kyle
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/lack-of-blockchain-talent)