As the world becomes increasingly digitalised, innovations like cryptocurrency have seen an unprecedented rise. Businesses and entrepreneurs dealing in cryptocurrency are sprouting left and right, meaning talented Web3 engineers will be relevant for a long time. This is best demonstrated by the fact that despite the challenges and volatility that have plagued the crypto industry resulting in high-profile layoffs in the tech sector, the overall demand for quality web3 engineers remains robust.

In fact, according to a report from the job search engine, Indeed, job postings for crypto and blockchain careers saw a massive 118% year-on-year jump. It isn’t enough to say that the demand for quality web3 engineers is growing; it’s that the demand is never going away.

RareSkills.io to bridge the gaps in the global talent pool

RareSkills.io, a web3 boot camp founded this year, seeks to meet that demand.

Unlike boot camps that seek to turn over as many students as possible, RareSkills orients itself around keeping classes small (5 students per cohort) and building long-term relationships with students.

Even after engineers in the programme successfully gain jobs at web3 engineering companies as smart contract engineers, they generally stay in the programme. Although the core Solidity for Ethereum Bootcamp lasts four months, RareSkills encourages students to remain in the programme, engage in open source contributions, and take more specialised boot camps in topics such as DeFi, Zero Knowledge Proofs, and alternative blockchains such as Solana. Engineers in the programme could study for over a year with RareSkills if they chose to.

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“One reason experience in Silicon Valley is so valuable is that it has a built-in apprenticeship model. It is part of the culture that senior engineers do regular one-on-one code reviews with junior engineers, and this highly personalised and tailored experience results in highly efficient upskilling,” said Jeffrey Scholz, founder of RareSkills.

“I believe we can take this model and dial it up to 11. In a regular company, junior engineers have to work on what is valuable to the company. In RareSkills, they can work on what will grow their knowledge and skills the fastest.”

Focusing on each student to maximise their potential

RareSkills places a heavy emphasis on small class sizes, limiting them to five per cohort.

“The reason for the heavy emphasis on small class sizes is that most studies indicate that leaders managing more than eight reports lose the ability to really guide people. A class of 3 seems too small; if eight is the limit, then five seems like a good number. The teacher can track the students on the one hand,” explained Scholz.

“If you really peel behind the veneer of statistics about the success rates of coding boot camps, it’s actually quite low,” added Scholz. “I used to interview boot camp students regularly when I was an Engineering Manager at Yahoo, and I’d say 90% of them were extremely underprepared. The ones who did well spent several more months practising coding. I don’t think it’s realistic for someone to gain useful expertise in specialised engineering topics over the course of a few months. That’s why our programme is so long.”

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Unlike most boot camps, RareSkills is quite selective about the students they onboard, as it impacts the overall quality of the boot camp and the success of the rest of the students in the cohort. They expect students to have at least two years of software engineering experience and are willing to allocate 20-30 hours per week.

To enter the programme, students must demonstrate a passion for web3 and pass a coding test and an interview comparable to what major tech companies interview potential talents. About 20% of RareSkills students already have jobs as Web3 engineers, most of whom are sponsored by their company. One student was even a blockchain instructor at another boot camp.

“There is a world of difference between a web3 engineer and a qualified web3 engineer. Anyone can make a blockchain token by following a YouTube tutorial. But when money is involved, you want to be sure that the person making the application really knows what they are doing. Having 5 or 10 weeks of experience or an online certification does very little to prove you know what you are doing in this high-stakes industry. Smart contract hacks are, unfortunately, far too common. It shows many web3 engineers are undertrained,” elaborated Scholz.

Building a reputable brand

RareSkills has grown chiefly through word of mouth and an unusual marketing campaign on Twitter. Their Twitter account regularly posts extremely challenging web3 programming challenges and places a cryptocurrency bounty for developers and hackers who can solve it first or produce the most efficient solution. “We’ve received a lot of positive feedback for this. These puzzles are quite time-consuming to solve, but when someone figures it out and publishes a writeup, a lot of up-and-coming web3 engineers learn from the solutions,” Scholz explained.

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“The prize money we give out is quite small. I’m pretty sure people are engaging with the puzzles for the intellectual thrill and the notoriety they get for solving them. Nothing demonstrates your expertise like solving a challenge most people get stuck on,” he added.

They are currently accepting applications for the upcoming boot camp, and if you’re an engineer, you can apply now by clicking here. RareSkills is also seeking talent recruitment and engineering training partnerships.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by RareSkills

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