Big tech companies like Meta, the parent company of Facebook, are trending the metaverse. Venture capitalists are also betting on Web3, a new iteration of the web based on this same technology.
If the metaverse materializes as these giants foresee, it will radically change the way people work and live, who will spend much of their time moving around in virtual spaces.
For this reason, there are job boards dedicated to metaverse construction functions.
One of them, TheMetaverseJobs.com, hosts ads from startups and big tech companies.
While some of these ads are for traditional software engineer or business development analyst positions, others pick up new jobs, like a crypto strategist and world space developer.
According to Meagan Loyst, a 24-year-old investor at the Lerer Hippeau fund known for her comprehensive guide to the metaverse, other new areas involve creating exclusive content within certain virtual worlds.
“There are tons of opportunities for individual creators to monetize their side activities,” he says, adding that it was already happening on online gaming platforms like Roblox and Spatial, which hosts virtual art galleries by NFTs.
For example, Roblox users can design and sell avatar skins to other users. Some team up with luxury brands like Gucci and Ralph Lauren for exclusive items purchased with the in-game currency Robux and then resold.
Artists and designers can also display and sell their NFTs through online art galleries like Spatial as customers browse through them on their laptops or with virtual reality headsets.
Real Estate Metaverse is Growing
Virtual real estate is an area of growing interest, as property developers from the metaverse are buying up land on various platforms.
For example, Republic Realm, a metaverse real estate developer that claims to be one of the biggest NFT real estate developers, is buying land and building villas in virtual worlds like Decentraland and Sandbox using various cryptocurrencies.
These land acquisitions in the metaverse come with all sorts of job opportunities, says Loyst.
Digital designers can now become virtual architects. For example, crypto wallet startup MetaMask hired an architecture firm to build its headquarters in the metaverse in the shape of its fox logo.
Republic Realm is hiring for more than a dozen positions, including an NFT product manager and a blockchain developer.
Even the more traditional companies are getting in on the action. PricewaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong acquired virtual office space on the Sandbox in December in hopes of connecting with wealthy investors and founders who are creating their avatars on the platform.
As more parks and virtual office spaces are built, there will be more demand for virtual guides, says Loyst.
The travel industry could offer tour guides for art galleries and business conferences in virtual reality that teach how to function more effectively on these platforms.
Integrate the Metaverse with Virtual Reality
One of the ways the metaverse can enter more people’s lives is through employee job training.
By simulating stressful or dangerous situations, virtual reality job training can keep employees safe and create all kinds of career paths in virtual spaces, says Jeremy Bailenson, a virtual reality researcher at Stanford University and co-founder of virtual reality company Strivr.
“VR is used when there is a good reason to do so,” Bailenson told Business Insider. “We are not at a point where we use virtual reality for mass communication , but for training purposes, where there are things that are impossible to do in any other way, it is really worth it.”
One such example is the Strivr training pilot program for Walmart. Bailenson helped develop virtual reality simulations for employees to learn how to deal with anything from the Christmas rush to an active shooter.
The startup has trained more than 800,000 Walmart employees and has expanded its access to the 4,700 stores in the country.
According to Bailenson, as virtual reality becomes more widely adopted as a tool in the workplace, many metaverse jobs are likely to become available in the future.
