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NFT Jobs, A Comprehensive Guide On Getting Started

 

By Nerly Shammah Nov 06, 2023

 

With several NFT marketplaces consistently developing new products and service enhancement, the NFT industry remains a competitive asset class space within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

 

 

If you're looking to pursue a career in this industry, here's a comprehensive guide on how to get started and tips for scaling up as an industry-respected NFT professional.

 

 

Understanding NFTs And Its Industry

 

NFT is an abbreviation for non-fungible tokens and they represent digital assets that are cryptographically protected on blockchain networks. NFTs are unique to themselves and cannot be traded interchangeably due to their non-fungibility.

 

The fundamental design of NFTs puts them in various real-world use cases including digitizing art collections as NFTs, issuing certificates as NFTs, selling tickets as NFTs, membership subscriptions and a whole lot more. While to the vast majority of the industry and individuals around the world looking in, NFTs may seem art-centric, this is only because it has been mostly leveraged by the art community as a new form of creative monetization. 

 

The NFT industry cuts across various establishments and has widely been discussed to have the potential of revolutionizing global asset trades in addition to fungible asset tokenization which is positioned to bring fractional asset ownership and trading to the blockchain. 

 

The NFT industry is vastly rewarding to not only product developers but also to investors and collection traders. In fact, NFT flipping(trading) has been a widely practiced skill through the explosive adoption of non-fungible tokens. 

 

That said, a career in the NFT industry to many, just as NFT itself has been misconceived, is not limited to art, but runs vastly across various roles including web3 industry professionalism, community management, marketing, and various developer roles including product developers and blockchain architects. On that note, it is important to pursue a career in the NFT industry with a focus on a specific niche. 

 

Choosing Your Niche In NFT

 

When it comes to getting a job as a certified NFT professional,  a niche qualification is more likely to get you a seat in a company than appearing like a jack of all trades. 

 

For example, Opensea, which happens to have recently announced job cuts, surprisingly has open job positions seeking to employ, amongst others, a product design lead, a marketing manager and a legal director, but all with a focus, on NFTs, as the sector. So while the fundamental knowledge of NFTs cannot be overlooked, it's important for individuals to carve out specific skill sets when chasing a career in the NFT industry as companies are seeking to employ experts in niche skills despite demand for the added advantage of being generally informed about NFTs at the wider web3 spectrum. 

 

That said, once a niche has been picked, this could be anything from NFT Artist or Designer, Blockchain Developer, NFT Marketer, Legal Advisor for NFTs to NFT Market Analyst amongst others. The next step would be investing in the chosen niche in order to scale at the skill. 

 

Building The Relevant Skills

 

Building a skill can be tricky and time-consuming. Still, the good news though, is, that in today's world where digital innovations have stepped in to bridge the knowledge gap across industries, building expertise in niche skills takes, sometimes nothing more than investing in resources that require you to learn from the web and practice your skills thereof. 

 

Depending on the chosen niche, one should embrace the open Internet as it is rich with numerous resources for vibrant minds like you to develop expertise in various skills. 

 

Notwithstanding, for those looking to push through the limits and work alongside industry experts, here is a respected resource with proven track records and success stories:

 

● Certification In NFT by 101Blockchain

 

Overall best for all beginners as this resource cuts through fundamental knowledge of blockchain, tokenization, the advent of NFTs and a keen focus on its applications in the real world.

 

With various other blockchain resources available at 101Blockchain, it is a good place to start investing in the knowledge required to scale your skills, plus, it comes with a certification that is respected in the industry and would look good on your resume. 

 

Creating A Portfolio

 

Whilst many aspirants do not deem this necessary, in the digital ecosystem, an organized collection of experience and achievements is basically a self-promotion without word of mouth. 

 

A portfolio is a collection of work, projects, or achievements that showcase your skills, abilities, and accomplishments in a specific field or profession. It is a visual or written representation of your past work or creative endeavours, typically organized to demonstrate your expertise and experience to potential employers, clients, or collaborators.

 

Your portfolio would be typically hosted on a website that can be easily accessed by your potential employers to have a quick view of your various achievements. 

 

Network, Collaborate And Gain Experience

 

How else are you supposed to gain experience to add to your portfolio of skills without networking and collaboration? 

 

The NFT industry is thankfully an open and welcoming space where it is easy to get involved with major project activities without demanding a cash value back at face point. The aftereffect of networking and collaboration is that it creates experience, track record and impact events that return value to you at the end of the day. 

 

Various individuals have made it through to high places by simply getting involved. Blockchain developers do just this. Every day they contribute to various open source codes of various blockchains, products or services therein. If your niche is NFT blockchain development then a good place to start would be contributing code to open source projects on Github. 

 

That said, other ways to network and find collaboration opportunities would be to attend both on-chain, social and physical NFT and generally web3 events where various personalities and experts in the space come together to discuss and build business scales. 

 

 

Build A Strong Resume

 

Did you know? A strong resume puts you on a 316% chance of getting an interview and a job! 

 

With less than 3% of submitted resumes leading to interviews based on reports, it is crucial to build a strong resume that would increase your chances of landing an interview and job. 

 

Alison's free resume builder will set you on the path to building a strong and professional resume. 

 

Go Job Hunting

 

With all the previous steps traveled, it is officially time to get that NFT job. It is important to note that the industry is highly competitive and not all applications may pull through but each failed one(if any) gives you leverage, the data acquired is simply a playing field to understand what works, what you're doing wrong perhaps and simply what is being sought-after as though most employers will always make it known. 

 

Persistance is crucial and with that, you can seek out various NFT job roles by browsing through web3/crypto-specific job listing platforms like cryptocurrencyjobs.co, cryptojobslist.com and web3.career. 

 

How Much Do NFT Jobs Pay? 

 

NFT Jobs pay an average of $46,000 for interns and $88,000 annually for developers. 

 

The Bottom Line

 

Getting a job is never easy, regardless of the industry. However, taking the journey can be fun and rewarding, provided one's heart is in the right place. With NFTs and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole, there are lots of opportunities for building relationships, creating memories and gaining experiences. All of which can lead to sitting in an office in a cooperate firm or working remotely. 

 

Notwithstanding, in all job hunts, it is important to remain on the ethical path, put in the work and acquire the necessary skills and experience. In addition to all that has been said above, building a personal brand and freelancing while seeking a senior role in the industry can have added advantages like experiences for your portfolio or an established community around your brand that could turn you away from the path of being an employee to being a business owner and thus, an employer.