The metaverse has the potential to transform how people interact with everything from content consumption to their 9-to-5 jobs. With five billion users, Metaverse's immersive digital worlds in which people can interact as avatars could be worth up to $13 trillion by 2030. In other words, the future is rapidly approaching, and tech companies such as Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet will require talent from a variety of fields to enable the metaverse. A few of the most credible sources identified six fields that will be required in the creation of the metaverse, ranging from augmented reality and virtual reality artists to non-tech jobs such as architects, whose expertise will be valued in creating life-like digital worlds.
Metaverse users may be able to touch, taste, and smell virtual worlds in addition to seeing and hearing them.
The metaverse even extends to the entire internet, as advances in meta technology change how people interact with digital tools. This evolution is known as Web 3.0 — the internet is currently in its second phase, but Merry believes the shift is imminent. Meanwhile, various engineers and developers will be in high demand. Here are six occupations that will enable the metaverse to exist.
What is the Metaverse?
Before we get into what kinds of jobs you can get in the Metaverse, it's important to understand what the Metaverse is. The Metaverse is thought to be the next major evolution of the internet. Some people call it Web3, while others think it's different. In any case, 'The Metaverse' will be the most immersive internet experience ever. According to tech blogs, Metaverse will be a $13 trillion market with over 5 billion users by 2030.
Instead of web pages, applications, and other such things, there will be "spaces." With the help of VR and AR technologies, you can be virtually present inside these spaces and feel like you're there. Another advantage of these spaces is that you will be able to own them as NFTs. These NFTs can represent virtual lands, houses, clothes, items, and almost anything else in the Metaverse. You could own your own home, live in it, sell it for a profit, and do a variety of other things. It's almost like an internet recreation of real life.
There are a variety of jobs available in the Metaverse, so let's take a look at some of them:
VR Software Engineers
Metaverse is all about developing virtual reality software that allows users to immerse themselves in a 3D virtual reality world. As the Metaverse evolves, companies will require more software engineers in AR/VR fields. As a software engineer, this field will boom and create a lot of jobs, thanks to big tech companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Apple that consider themselves to be pushing forward for the future of software engineers. It will also result in the creation of jobs for Extended reality (XR) and Mixed reality.
Hardware Engineers
The metaverse will be built on more than just code, games, and apps; operating in a three-dimensional environment that is always available will necessitate the development of new cameras, headsets, sensors, and wearables. Such technologies exist today, but much work remains to be done to make them wireless, comfortable, lightweight, and capable of communicating touch, emotions, or the environment. A hardware systems engineer, for example, works at Facebook Reality Labs to architect, drive strategy for, build, and test prototypes for future consumer AR / VR / Wearables reality experiences.
3D Game Designers
While programmers and developers will always be needed to turn a game designer's vision into a playable game, Unity recently noted that game development is already trending toward far more artists relative to the number of technologists. Furthermore, experts predict that the ratio will rise as the metaverse expands. Game designers in the metaverse, as the creative force behind the development of a video game, will be responsible for designing, prototyping, and building an all-immersive, 3D gaming experience that engages players like never before. In fact, the metaverse will allow game designers to broaden their skills and appeal to new users, thereby legitimising gaming as a career path.
Product Managers
Companies will need even more product managers to own the end-user experience, test and work out bugs in new products, evangelise new initiatives, and drive product development with multiple teams of engineers, designers, and product specialists, given the growth in metaverse users and anticipated demand for products and content.
The stampede has already begun. Almost 2,400 of the approximately 3,200 jobs posted on Meta's career page are for various types of product managers. In addition, Snap, Google, Oculus, and other companies are also looking for metaverse product managers. A product manager is a prominent position with significant influence over a company's top and bottom lines.
UI/UX Designers
The Metaverse is all about creativity and play. Companies will strongly emphasise improving the user experience and making it more immersive and appealing to the user, so UI/UX designers will play an important role in shaping the Metaverse. Furthermore, because UI/UX designers will help provide great graphic designs and details for the product in the Metaverse, companies will hire many UI/UX designers in the coming years due to the metaverse's ongoing trend.
Blockchain Engineers
Companies like Meta are attempting to instil the concept of cryptocurrency in the Metaverse. As a result, it is high time that they hire a large number of Blockchain Engineers for that purpose. Blockchain engineers will assist in the creation of digital tokens of cryptocurrency for these businesses, making them more appealing to be purchased as a source of a virtual living digital asset. The demand for blockchain engineers is increasing as cryptocurrency identifiers become more popular and people seek to invest in them.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, jobs and career paths are beginning to emerge within the metaverse economy. Many new positions will be professionals with expertise in computer science and engineering. However, those who embrace the metaverse early on and broaden their skill sets may emerge as the true winners. The metaverse is on its way – are you ready to dive in? At the end of the day, the Metaverse will become a reality sooner or later, and while we don't yet know what kinds of new jobs the Metaverse will create, it will be exciting to see it come to fruition.