Lewis Tuff (VP of Engineering @ Blockchain.com) joins us to share his experience on building a career in the cryptocurrency space! We cover his transition from traditional finance/tech to crypto, how to shift your mindset from centralized to decentralized, qualities that lead to success, tactics to help you gain exposure and experience, AND why it’s not too late to start your career in crypto! 

ABOUT LEWIS TUFF

Lewis (@tuffleuk) is the Vice President of Engineering at Blockchain.com where he is responsible for the technology underpinning Blockchain.com’s services. As the 2nd engineering hire at Revolut, he scaled the team to 50+ and spearheaded the initiative to bring cryptocurrencies to Revolut. He built the first of its kind crypto offering within a challenger bank over the course of a couple of months and was responsible for bringing $300M+ trading revenue in due course. 

In March 2018 Lewis joined Blockchain.com as an engineering lead to be part of one of the most important companies in crypto infrastructure, rising to the Head of Platform Engineering as the company and industry grew. That same year he was included on Business Insider’s “35 under 35” in fintech. Lewis began his career building trading and risk technology systems at Goldman Sachs and UBS. He lives in London.

SHOW NOTES:

• Patrick’s FOMO after learning his dad owned Doge-coin… (2:03)
• How Lewis went from traditional finance to a career in blockchain/crypto (3:35)
• One question to help you gain career perspective as an engineering leader (9:36)
• The principles behind blockchain technology that led Lewis to “go all in” (10:34)
• Are blockchain engineering challenges harder to solve? (13:03)
• Unprecedented (but not unsolvable) problems in blockchain (14:56)
• Staying lean & focused while balancing team size & scope (19:47)
• Making the transition from "centralized" to "decentralized" thinking (24:07)
• How to use Github to source great engineering candidates (28:07)
• Do engineering leaders need to be domain experts to manage teams in blockchain/crypto? (30:15)
• How engineering leadership is similar in blockchain companies & crypto’s ethos of “paying it forward” (33:29)
• Why it’s not too late to start a career in blockchain/crypto (36:14)
• How blockchain leverages the power of community (38:44)
• The first thing you should do to explore a career in blockchain: Try out the products & technology! (45:25)
• Where are the hottest markets/locations for cryptocurrency right now? (46:46)
• Rapid-Fire Questions (47:41)
• Takeaways (50:20)

LINKS AND RESOURCES

• Cryptocurrency on Github - Repositories, packages, and more for the budding engineers who want to get their feet wet.

Check out our friends and sponsor, Jellyfish. Jellyfish helps you align engineering work with business priorities and enables you to make better strategic decisions.

Learn more at Jellyfish.co/elc

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