Metaverse – Maybe Being A Doctor Isn’t So Bad?

Metaverse – Maybe Being A Doctor Isn’t So Bad?
​

While the undercurrents in the tech space over the Metaverse have been around for quite some time, but when Facebook (FB) changed its name to Meta and began its proselytizing of the Metaverse as the ‘wave of the future’, the media began to churn out article after article on how we will all be spending much of our lives wandering through endless worlds, allowed to do all of the things we cannot in the real world, and, of course, buy lots of stuff, much of which does not exist in reality.
Along with the media hype, company executives called emergency meetings to brainstorm with staff over how they could capitalize on this brave new world where folks might be willing to pay for things that don’t cost anything to make, a concept that puts a smile on the face of every manufacturing VP.  In reality (sorry), there are costs associated with the Metaverse, particularly advertising and content creation, although the cost of content creation for the Metaverse is a fraction of the cost of almost any physical product.
Once those meetings occurred the word went out that corporations large and small needed to create new ‘teams’ that can devise and execute a strategy that would move the company onto this new platform known as the Metaverse.  Job postings with the word ‘VR’ began to creep up after the Facebook rebranding, but things really took off at the beginning of this year, doubling the 2021 high point in January and reaching almost 4x the January number by April.

New Job Postings Mentioning Virtual Reality - Source: Revelio Labs

Since then however the bloom is off the rose so to speak, and the demand for VR related jobs seems to have slowed back to January levels, with IT consulting firm Accenture (CAN) posting far more VR related job postings than Meta.  Meta VR jobs focused are on R&D, likely ways in which to improve and reduce the cost of the VR experience, given their desire to seed these new virtual worlds that will provide an additional source of user data that can be sold to customers looking to tailor their Metaverse ‘worlds’ to specific buyer groups.  Accenture seems to be headed more toward content creation, a market that does not require an investment in the manufacturing of physical hardware.

Top 10 Companies with the Most VR Job Postings - Source: Revelio Labs

​While content creation in the VR world is more complex than what we are used to seeing in 2D mode, content creators from the gaming industry tend to be well-versed in visual 2D development and have a leg up on those making the transition from print on static media creation to VR.  Tools like Unity (U), Sumerian (AMZN), and Unreal Engine (pvt) are familiar to game developers who can relatively easily make the transition to VR once they master the nuances of 360⁰ cameras, but now they will have to contend with a bit of competition for VR jobs, as hiring has slowed considerably as consumer spending in the CE space has slowed.  With medical school costing between $130k and $230k in tuition alone but an average salary of ~$210k for physicians, the potential for a profitable return from a medical education certainly exists, but with the average income for a software engineer being ~$120k, with a relatively low cost up front, one can see the attraction.  Now someone just has to figure out what the Metaverse is, other than a concept, and businesses can get back to hiring and get those developers out of their parent’s basements and into the workforce…