I can offer my story, if that helps. I am also a working professional that tries to prioritize working with Bitcoin only companies. I have been very lucky with my resume and even the non Bitcoin jobs I have enjoyed.
You are working in a very small industry. Bitcoiners working professionally for companies know each other on a first name basis. You will interview at companies and run into people who you worked at in previous companies.
Bitcoin companies are corporations. They are no different from any tech company today. You will be sacrificed and burned. Me and the people I work with have suffered just like you. Every time I have been burned no matter the industry I pick up and start over. It is the hardest thing you will ever do. Chasing dreams in industries that are small isn't something that a lot of people can tolerate. There is so much risk because things move fast and business dynamics can swing so violently in one direction or the other. Just look at the news cycle of Bitcoin in the past year or two. For anyone working during that time it has been rough and so many have found themselves without work.
Remember more than 5 years ago there was practically no such thing as a job in Bitcoin or "working in Bitcoin". That is how new this is. I think it is a deep honor to be able to contribute work to something you love, and I have been able to do that multiple times in my life. To be able to work on something so new and bleeding edge really feels like the unexplored wild west. It is critical to understand how much of a big deal it is for anyone to book any type of work like this on their resume at this early stage in Bitcoins life cycle.
If you already have professional experience, be proud of that. Everyone working in Bitcoin right now is working in completely uncharted and choppy waters. You will run into people you know who have been through the ringer just like you.
Even with an established resume now it is hard to find work because my peers I worked with are doing the same. Because I now understand this and know it to be true, I have shifted my perspective. I no longer blame myself for not getting the job because I know my resume is in the ballpark of my peers. I know that instead it just isn't my time and soon it will be. Eventually I will see some of my colleagues again. Trying to live and survive when the money is not coming in is very difficult, but you do still have to keep some level of hope you will make it.
I see light at the end of my tunnel after a very long time. You will get there also. But you are going to get fucked up between now and then and maybe even some times after too. It is just the natural ebb and flow of life at the end of day. Ups and downs and all of that. Best you can do is try to anticipate and hedge against those moments when they happen, or anticipate your reaction to manage the stress.
We will remember the companies and people that burn us. Whispers of those stories will be told with our peers. We will build an industry that will outlast them. We will place black marks on the names of anyone that did us dirty for no other reason than amoral self-motivation and they will eventually be squeezed out, or left to work at the companies Bitcoiner's have moved away from supporting.
Thanks for sharing your story and your perspective. Maybe I'm not cut out for the professional chop - I don't like holding grudges, I'm more of a "Peace Love Bitcoin" hippie, just trying to help however I can. My willingness to help without reward probably gives people the impression that I'm well off, when really I'm a broke pleb who just is not wired to seek his own.
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