1 year into blockchain dev — not sure which skills actually matter for salary anymore

I interview a lot of junior blockchain developers, and honestly most of them struggle with the same thing you’re describing.

The ones who get hired aren’t usually the ones who know a huge list of tools. It’s the ones who can explain their own code properly and fix basic issues without getting lost.

At an early stage, being comfortable with Solidity, testing your contracts, and understanding why something breaks matters much more than knowing advanced crypto or multiple chains. Git also matters more than people expect — you’d be surprised how many candidates struggle there.

Deep cryptography, heavy DevOps, or mastering every chain rarely helps for junior roles. It’s not useless, just not very relevant early on.

I’ve seen a lot of beginners fall into the trap of thinking that harder topics automatically mean higher salary.

So they start reading about consensus algorithms, complex gas optimizations, or deep protocol design before they’ve even built and deployed a few solid contracts.

In real jobs, especially early ones, most work is pretty practical. Writing contracts, testing them, fixing bugs, and understanding how the frontend or wallet interacts with them.

Those skills don’t sound glamorous, but they show up again and again. The deeper stuff starts making sense later when you’ve actually faced real problems.

I went through something similar around my first year.

I tried learning multiple chains and a lot of theory at once, and it felt productive, but interviews didn’t really change much. What helped more was slowing down and focusing on one ecosystem.

Once I got comfortable with Solidity, testing, and basic dApp flows, things started clicking. I didn’t suddenly become an expert, but I could talk more confidently about what I’d built and why.

That made a bigger difference than any extra buzzwords on my resume.

Coming from a talent acquisition side, I’ll be honest — early salary differences usually aren’t about exotic skills.

When I screen junior blockchain profiles, I’m mostly checking whether the person can actually do the basics without hand-holding. Clear GitHub activity, a couple of working projects, and the ability to explain what they did matters far more than a long list of tools.

I see many candidates listing things like advanced cryptography, multiple chains, or DevOps tools, but when we dig deeper, they haven’t really used them in real work. That usually doesn’t help them negotiate better pay.

The profiles that move faster are the ones that look focused. One ecosystem, a few solid projects, and signs that the person can work in a team. That’s usually what hiring managers are comfortable paying for early on.

The real unlock here: salary grows when your skills turn into visible proof — not when your roadmap becomes longer.

If you’re 0–2 years in, try thinking in “signals”: one core chain depth, one toolchain you can ship with, and one portfolio piece you can explain calmly.

Helpful internal reads to go deeper (pick 1–2 and execute, don’t binge):

What hiring managers actually treat as proof https://artofblockchain.club/discussion/proof-based-hiring-in-web3

The exact hiring signals that get you shortlisted https://artofblockchain.club/discussion/web3-hiring-signals

If you’re aiming for EVM roles, build portfolio like this https://artofblockchain.club/article/the-smart-contract-portfolio-that-shows-how-you-think

My suggestion: comment with (1) your current stack, 

(2) your strongest project link, and 

(3) what roles you’re targeting (Solidity dev / full-stack dApp / security). 

I’ll help you map a 3-month skill plan that’s realistic — and other members can add role-specific signal checks too.