career advice for people trying to break into crypto: - go to events, but skip the lines to talk to "top" folks. toly is a genuinely open and helpful dude, but he has 10,000 people in line to talk to him. instead find the "head of ___" person at the protocols you like. they have space to help you, are always on the lookout for talent, and you might actually be able to add value for them. - commit visibly to one ecosystem. @solana is the best place to do it, but even if you go elsewhere, double down. the industry is still tribal (for better or worse) and reputation compounds most when you stay put. - stop cold dming. mostly a waste of time. get warm intros. if you can't find a path to a warm intro, reconsider reaching out until you have one. - be the node in your city. run the meetup, host the dinner, start the group chat. organizers meet everyone by default. this is the singlest greatest "hack" to building your reputation, but no one does it because its time consuming, difficult, and has the potential for embarrassment if no one shows up. - pick a lane. the industry is finally big enough to reward specialists. go deep on a sector (be the tokenized fund expert) or a skill (be the incentive design person). "interested in crypto" is not a lane. - actually use the products. daily. most applicants have never touched the thing they want to work on, and it shows in the first five minutes. this should be obvious, but for some reason it is not. (obligatory shill: using @JupiterExchange is the best way to build up knowledge of multiple products at once) - proof of work beats resume, always. a dune dashboard, a tool, a teardown of a protocol's onboarding flow. one artifact that circulates does more than 100 applications. - hunt bounties and grant programs. @SuperteamEarn is the best on-ramp on solana. it pays you while you build the proof-of-work. - optimize for the team, not the token. every good team has a diaspora, and it hires. - ~1 hour a day on twitter drafting real replies. not "gm". showing up thoughtfully in other people's replies is the cheapest reputation you will ever buy. - get involved when it's quiet. bear markets are the best entry points. everyone else applies at the top. and obviously: join @superteam + talk to @SuperteamTalent