10 Metaverse Jobs That Will Exist by 2030

This article was originally published on .cult by Adrien Book. .cult is a developer community platform based in Berlin. We write about everything career-related, create original documentaries, and share tons of other untold developer stories from around the world.

Remember 2016? Pokemon GO has taken the world by storm, and many believe that we are on the cusp of an augmented reality revolution. Obviously, this didn't happen. Fast forward to today and we're having a very similar conversation about Facebook/Meta again, investing like crazy to create Metaverse - a fully immersive digital world in which we all live.

This investment by so many players tends to create a self-fulfilling prophecy: Whether we like it or not, there's a good chance we'll have a working virtual world soon, simply because our tech overlords will.

And because I'm in the business of planning (rather than predicting) future jobs, I researched this possibility and asked myself the following question: "What kind of jobs might the metaverse create?" Here are some initial thoughts.

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quick definition
Virtual Reality (VR): Fully artificial environment; full immersion in a virtual environment.

Augmented Reality (AR): Virtual objects overlaid on a real-world environment; digital objects augment the real world.

Mixed Reality (MR): The virtual environment is combined with the real world; interacts with the real world and the virtual environment.

Extended Reality (XR) / Metaverse: A hybrid of all the above.

1. Metaverse Research Scientist
AR and VR research scientists have become key members of top universities and major tech companies. But as the metaverse (or whatever you want to call it the seamless interweaving of the physical and digital worlds) slowly becomes a widely accepted idea, we're going to need more brain power.

The work of Metaverse research scientists goes beyond just developing some basic digital models of the real world into which businesses will be able to bring in customers and partners. This already exists. The future will be even bigger. much bigger.

Metaverse research scientists need to build something akin to a Theory of Everything, where the entire world is visible and digitized (think Ready Player One with no fun). This architecture will be the foundation upon which all other use cases will be built; gaming, advertising, quality control in factories, connected health, DeFi… the list goes on.

This is an extremely complex job. Candidates will need to be able to build and scale prototypes using fusion techniques of computer vision algorithms for 3D computational photography, neural rendering, scene reconstruction, computational imaging, visual-inertial odometry, state estimation, sensor fusion, mapping and localization...with Over time, these prototypes need to get bigger.

How to Become a Metaverse Research Scientist: Earn a PhD in Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, or Computational Imaging. You also need to know C++. good luck.

2. Metaverse Planners
Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive. Once we have a working metaverse, the ability to plan and implement all functional matters into a fully virtual world is absolutely key for most companies. It's like choosing the right things in this ever-expanding digital world.

This is where the Metaverse Planner comes in. As the CEO sets the vision and strategy for the creation and growth of Metaverse revenue for his business, Planner will need to drive a portfolio of strategic opportunities from proof of concept to pilot to deployment. This means identifying market opportunities, building business cases, influencing engineering roadmaps, developing key metrics...

You know...interesting stuff.

It may not seem appealing, but how would you decide whether a car company should focus on creating virtual driving tests, or on implementing a digital twin of its business to predict failures? I don't know, but I believe planners can fix this.

How to become a Metaverse planner: With many years of management experience, understanding of hardware/software/SaaS/PaaS marketing and business models, and a good entrepreneurial mindset.

3. Ecological developers
The Metaverse doesn't come about by Zuck's absolute will. A whole ecosystem needs to be built around it. Sensors, CPUs, GPUs, KYC processes, data lakes, green power production, edge computing, laws, regulations... The world is complex and further digitization (more than now) will not be easy.

We can compare this difficulty with the difficulties the auto industry is currently facing in transitioning to electric vehicles. These products are there, but the biggest hurdles to their adoption are the lack of widespread charging stations on and off the street, and the ever-evolving battery capacity. Likewise, we can have the software and hardware that has the Metaverse, but still lack...everything else.

Ecosystem developers will be responsible for coordinating partners and governments to ensure that the various functions created can be implemented at scale. They will drive government investment in infrastructure and energize large communities of players.

A key thing they need to focus on is interoperability to ensure that Metaverse customers can use their virtual items in different experiences. After all, what's the point of getting a cool skin in a mini-game if you can't wear it in the mall? Other lobbying efforts will target financial institutions, which need to support distributed ledger technology and smart contracts to exchange goods and services on the platform.

How to Become an Ecosystem Developer: With years of government/lobbying experience, a solid understanding of the nascent XR industry.

4. Metaverse Security Manager
Did you know that the internet is a safe place for everyone? Yes. Neither do I. Anyone who claims that the metaverse is better is deceiving themselves. Of course, it has many opportunities to be a safe, inclusive place, but it won't happen on its own.

privacy. World ID verification. Safety headgear. Sufficient sensors... We need people who can guide and oversee all of this during the design, validation and mass production phases, ensuring our digital world is secure and meets or exceeds applicable regulatory security requirements. All without sacrificing cutting-edge features or design -- or cutting revenue -- obviously. That person will be the Metaverse Security Manager.

This will not be an easy job. They need to accurately predict how Metaverse functions will be used and likely to be abused, and identify safety-critical components, systems, and manufacturing steps associated with those predictions. The sheer complexity and number of moving parts in a new digital world is enough to make my head spin just thinking about it.

How to Become an XR Safety Manager: Have an Engineering Degree and Consumer Electronics/Manufacturing Experience.

5. Metaverse Hardware Generator
The Metaverse is not (only) built on code. It will (also) be built on sensors, cameras and headsets. If someone squeezes your...arm online, these sensors will make you feel the touch. The camera can see if you're in a bad mood so the AI ​​doesn't bother you too much. The headset can feel the sunlight around you and project summer days in a digital world for added realism. And that's not even into boring stuff like inertial measurement units, visible light cameras, depth cameras to help with tracking, mapping and localization...

All of this hardware is required to create an all-digital world intertwined with the physical world, and it's expensive. and complicated. As the Metaverse becomes more complex, the Metaverse Hardware Builder will need to assemble and adjust it.

Currently, the best sensors are made for industrial operations and the automotive industry. These are industries with a lot of capital. So, as an added challenge, those building Metaverse hardware need to make sure they can be built cheaply and safely so that Metaverse doesn't become the only plaything for the rich.

How to Become a Sensor Manufacturer: Own a factory capable of making complex consumer electronics. Hey, I never said it was easy.

6. Metaverse Storytellers
As the concept of the experience economy and gamification continues to heat up, it's only logical that we require our Extended Reality experiences to have great storylines that people can learn from. We want to laugh. We want to cry. We want to learn. We want to see something slightly quirkier in the digital world. That's where the Metaverse Storyteller comes in.

This person will be responsible for designing immersive missions for users to explore virtual worlds, training scenarios for the military, hard-to-find marketing opportunities for businesses, psychology courses (why kill your inner demon when you can pretend in the digital world) kill them?) ... the list goes on.

They're not going to get paid well unless you count the exposure as pay, and no, you don't. But at least they'll sell the narrative arc that millions follow to escape the tedium of everyday life. Isn't that a dream?

How to Become a Metaverse Storyteller: Start your career at a game company with a literature major and a marketing minor, then move on to technology.

7. World Builders
Once we've built the architecture, hardware, and storyline, we still need to create the entire world (think Elliot Page from Inception). I don't mean to encode them. I mean imagine them.

This role requires many of the same skills as a video game designer, though possibly with a completely different set of rules. World Builders will need to be forward looking and confrontational, as much of what they dream of will not yet exist in the form of technical or product solutions.

They also need to consider rules and ethics. Is it OK to kill someone in the digital world when it feels real? Commit war crimes? We've started asking ourselves these questions, but we're far from over.

How to be a world builder: Half warrior poet, half graphic designer. Being good at Minecraft doesn't hurt either.

8. Ad blocking experts
Facebook...sorry, Meta, how to make money? By selling subscriptions to its misinformation factory? By harvesting and selling organs? By accepting donations from dictators? of course not (?). They sell ads. Let me tell you, the Metaverse might work in a very, very similar way. Call it DNA, I guess. Do you think Instagram ads are highly targeted and annoying? Wait until you see what they can do with the entire dataset and can actually follow you around the world.

Imagine you're walking around a digital space and you're hungry in the real world. Before you know it, you're staring at digital cafes and restaurants on the road longer. You know what, after a minute, you start getting food ads. Sounds like fun at first, but will be troublesome in the long run. So once we're tired of novelties, we'll want ad blockers, which must be advanced enough to spot ads embedded in reality itself. That's where the ad blocking experts come in.

Much like the AdBlock Plus model, I'm guessing they'll develop plugins that block ads from popping up. They don't get paid much, but by donating and accessing vast amounts of data, they might be able to make a living.

How to Become an Ad Blocking Expert: Have some basic coding knowledge...and access Metaverse's source code.

9. Metaverse Network Security
The Metaverse is the perfect target for cyberattacks and fraud: hacked avatars, NFT theft, biometric/biological data breaches (brain wave patterns, anyone?), hacked headphones… the possibilities for something to go wrong are almost endless.

This is why we need Metaverse cybersecurity experts. Block attacks in real-time and ensure laws and protocols are reconsidered and modified, perhaps even by whoever invented them, to include all the risks of the metaverse.

I know very little about cybersecurity, so I'll leave this paragraph with the thought that it's only a matter of time before virtual breaches become real-world court cases.

How to become a Metaverse cybersecurity expert: Have a general cybersecurity background and/or a law degree with a technical aptitude.

10. Unpaid interns
I know. I'm cheating a bit to get a nice integer. But hear me out. While this character already exists, it's important to stress that it will continue to be central to the future of the Metaverse.

Unpaid interns don't just get coffee. They grind data. They make VC's deck addendum. They write code for rocks and trees. They are essential ingredients for building a technological empire.

We should pay tribute to their sacrifice.

Also, we should pay them.

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Safe, comfortable, engaging narrative arcs, customizable hairstyles, parental controls, puzzles, add-ons, widgets, notifications, optimizations, ideological coherence, pleasure and punishment portals, and rumble sensor (beta).. ....we'll have it all for Metaverse!

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