Web3's Hiring Reality Check, Owen Healy on AI Stealing Your Job Insights with Owen Healy More about Irish Tech News

Iaros Belkin caught up with Owen Healy at ETHCluj, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in what turned into one of the more honest conversations I've had at a crypto conference this cycle. Healy is the Founder and Director of Owen Healy Blockchain Talent, a boutique Irish recruitment firm that has placed lots of people from 25+ countries into blockchain projects since he entered the space in early 2021. He built the whole thing from a standing start during COVID, living in rural Ireland, unemployed, with nothing but a LinkedIn account and a genuine curiosity about the technology.

That backstory matters. It means when Healy talks about the current market, he isn't protecting a fund position or managing a narrative. He's telling you what he actually sees from the candidate and employer side simultaneously. And right now, what he sees is sobering.

On AI and job displacement

The WEF Future of Jobs report projects 92 million roles displaced and 170 million created by 2030. Net positive on paper. Healy isn't buying the framing.

"There are a lot of companies that historically would have been over-bloated and overstaffed, and they're conveniently using AI as an excuse to conduct layoffs," he told me. "AI is replacing jobs, but maybe not to the extent that the corporate world would like you to believe."

He's equally clear that nobody is immune. "Everyone is using the benefits of AI and suffering the consequences of it at the same time."

On developers

Developers who were comfortable at €150K two or three years ago are now accepting €120K. Healy is direct about why: the market is an employer's market, full stop. Location matters more than it did. The US and Asia are moving; Europe is quiet. And developers are being pushed up the stack regardless.

"People are being forced to effectively do more and leverage the best AI capabilities. Sometimes it's reasonable, sometimes it's not."

On institutional money arriving

This is the part of the conversation that surprised me most. Healy's read is that institutional entry is changing the candidate profile the industry actually wants.

"We're entering an industry where hoodies are less in demand and suits are in more demand."

For years, TradFi professionals were crypto-curious but couldn't stomach the risk of leaving stable, pensionable careers for a space where ten-year jobs are rare and use cases can be murky. That's changing. JP Morgan, BlackRock, and others are doing blockchain-related hiring now, and it's pulling a cohort of talent that was always interested but never had a comfortable entry point. London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore: that's where institutional-adjacent hiring is concentrated.

On EthCC feeling like a funeral

It was an offhand remark that landed harder than most prepared conference soundbites. "EthCC felt like a funeral in many respects," Healy said. His reasoning is rooted in what he sees from the inside: projects that look fine externally, companies still putting on a brave face while quietly running out of runway. He mentioned Code4rena winding down as one example, a business he described as legitimate and genuinely useful to the space.

"Nobody's going to invest in you or use your services if you're anticipating you'll run out of business in six months."

The one piece of advice he offered for a bear market

Go to events. Build the relationships now that pay off when conditions improve. He did it in 2023. He's doing it again.

Practical. Unglamorous. And coming from someone who built a 100-placement recruitment business from a rural Irish village during a pandemic, probably worth listening to.

Iaros Belkin is a founder of Belkin Marketing, a boutique agency serving as Strategic Advisor to Deep Tech, Web3 and AI Founders. Two decades of experience navigating high-stakes global markets and orchestrating everything a good venture team needs: from grants and key partnerships to VVIP events elevated experience.

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