Career Opportunities in the Metaverse

Hey there 👋🏽, I know I haven’t written an article at all this year 😞. I’ve had a very eventful year, but I’m back now (hopefully) and today I’m writing about something I find interesting. THE METAVERSE.

First of all, before trying to go deep into this article, I’m going to explain what the metaverse is (for people that don’t know – maybe because they live in a different planet).

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced Mesh: A platform that allows people collaborate and communicate in mixed reality as if they are in the same space.

Niantic also announced they are releasing a platform for building a “real world metaverse”.

Then Facebook came and said they have a new identity and henceforth we should call them Meta because they are building a “metaverse”.

A lot of new companies are building metaverses and creating cool things with AR/VR and Crypto, so this is a very exciting time to be alive.

The first time I heard the word “metaverse”, I was in the metaverse but I didn’t even realize people called it that. I just assumed I was in a computer generated environment having a VR experience 😂

Based on what you just read, an easy way to define the metaverse would be to call it a “computer generated universe where users can have AR/VR experiences with eachother”

For the metaverse to exist, we need a lot of different tech roles and in this article, I will be sharing what some of those roles are 🔥

Digital Content Creators

Today, digital content creators create written materials, audio and video content that could be educational or entertaining. We are able to appreciate a digital creator for the work they do on the internet through YouTube videos, Instagram Reels videos, Audible books, Spotify (music and podcasts), Udemy courses and so much more.

The metaverse is a digital world. Meaning that like the world, the possibilities for creativity are endless and digital creators would be able to do A LOT MORE. In real life, creative people exist outside the internet. We have fashion designers, artists, shoe makers, interior decorators and more. These creators mentioned above have a home in the metaverse and can also monetize their talents. I’d give two examples:

• Fashion designers: In the metaverse, we are represented by our avatars. Hopefully our avatars don’t run around not wearing any clothes. So who designs and put outfits in the marketplace for users to buy? Fashion designers that know how to also make outfit designs for 3D avatars.
• Interior decorators: Virtual real estate is slowly becoming a big deal. After putting up a structure on land, you decorate. Right?

Cloud Engineers

I mean 😂

This metaverse that everyone is talking about has to exist somewhere because it’s not on your local computer today right? That “somewhere” is the cloud. As a result, a lot of Cloud Engineering careers are important in the success of this world. From Architecture to Engineering, Support, Security and DevOps, all these roles will help shape the metaverse cloud.

Blockchain Engineers

I’m not the best person to talk about crypto, because I’m a learner. But one thing I know for sure is that it will play a very big role in how people do exchange in the metaverse.

If you want to pay for a digital asset or play a game or do anything that requires “money” in the metaverse, don’t expect to spend Naira or USD there for sure 😊

Metaverse Platform (AR/VR) Engineers

Today, a lot of people would call this class of developers “Game Devs”, but in this article I want them to go by a different name because the metaverse is not a game. Even if a lot of the virtual experiences will be built with technologies that Game Developers currently possess (Unity, Unreal Engine etc), the goal is different. There would also be the Web3D experience so I believe that if you are working on immersive experiences regardless of the platform (web, mobile, desktop, headsets), you belong to this category of engineers that would build applications that would help us interact in the metaverse.

Metaverse Platform (AR/VR) Designers

UX Designers and Frontend Web Engineers don’t get along on social media.

I can’t wait to see the designers of the metaverse platform and the engineers building the virtual platform dragging eachother on twitter.

Jokes apart, designing for Mixed Reality generally is interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing what these 3D designs would look like.

Animators & 3D illustrators

In games, there are Non-Player Characters (NPCs). These are characters in the game that are usually not controlled by any players. These characters are supposed to help make your experience more “real”. It would be nicer if you are player in a game and while you’re driving, there are some NPCs trying to cross the road.

Similarly, the metaverse would have some NPCs as well. Personally, I think the name should change since the metaverse is not a game. However, the concept is that characters that are not your avatar would exist too. They could be modelled as humans, dogs, cats, fish and so on depending on the kind of experience.

This modeling (among other things) is an opportunity for animators and 3D illustrators in the metaverse.

DevRel

Where Developers go, DevRel thrives.

Companies would build tools that power something in the metaverse. Today, we have AR & VR SDKs that a lot of AR/VR developers use to build experiences either on the web or on a targeted device.

The role of a Developer Advocate is to help other developers be successful with a particular tool or technology. What this means is that the more tools are built for the metaverse, the more roles will open up in DevRel.

Sales Experts

Again. I mean. Imagine after building a shiny metaverse and spending a lot of money and talent but at the end of the day, only your family and friends use your app 😂

Like every other business, people need to come in and sell these products.

Product Managers

Like every other tech product on the market, product managers help plan features, prioritize requirements and engage with customers.

This is definitely not an exhaustive list and I believe that with time, the metaverse will create more opportunities in tech for people to come in and add value.

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to talk about the metaverse, you can reach out to me on Twitter and if you’d like to learn about Cloud Engineering, you can buy my book here 💕.