As Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s new name, Meta, and his intention to aim for the creation of the metaverse, the news came as a surprise, and perhaps even seemed a little too visionary. But now Meta is also starting to have a direct impact on the labour market: The social media giant has announced that it intends to hire 10,000 people in Europe alone over the next five years. The aim is to build the metaverse, as if it were a large housing estate, a neighbourhood, a city, or something like that.
The need to realise, in the most practical and intuitive sense of the term, the metaverse must necessarily involve a large number of people, engaged in all kinds of tasks. From software development to designing this new world.
The builders of the metaverse
The spaces to be lived in, experienced and explored in this new virtual world still need to be perfected, cared for and enriched in every detail. The avatars occupying these spaces will become the first to tap into the new virtual workforce needed to support and drive forward this innovative technology.
The fashion market seems to be one of the most attentive and one of the first to understand the potential of the metaverse. Recently, for example, Nike published several job offers to work directly in the metaverse. On its LinkedIn profile, the Beaverton-based company was looking for a director of engineering for the metaverse, a chief innovation engineer for the metaverse, a 3D game designer, an experienced innovation programme manager for the blockchain and a virtual materials designer.
The company of the world’s most famous ‘swoosh’ is therefore looking for skills and know-how applied to the next-generation IT known as web3, though also jobs that are not strictly IT-related: a virtual materials designer, for example, will certainly have to work in a technological segment, but will simply be the ‘digital’ transposition of his real-world counterpart.
This is where we can spot the great potential of the metaverse: the new jobs are not only for engineers, computer scientists and software developers, but all kinds of designers are needed to embellish the new ‘world’: from 3D modelling to graphics and interior design.
Similarly, the skills of an architect will be easily applicable to the metaverse: we’re talking about a new breed of architects, who will have to imagine buildings, cities and landscapes as they have never done before. Of course, in practical terms, constructing buildings and landscapes is very different. Virtual architects do not have to take into account the longevity and sensitivity of the material, nor the weather conditions or the hydrogeological risk of the terrain. They will be able to express all their creativity, without the ‘constraints’ of the real world.
Creative number crunchers will find jobs in the metaverse to be a simple matter of conquest.
Euronews also points to another great job opportunity in the metaverse for mathematicians. This category, it says, can “break out of the traditional education sector thanks to the metaverse, which offers them a new perspective on life. From the construction of scenes, to roads, to the allocation of space for luxury NFT assets such as yachts in a harbour. Creative number crunchers will find jobs in the metaverse to be a simple matter of conquest”.
Virtual architects do not have to take into account the longevity and sensitivity of the material, nor the weather conditions or the hydrogeological risk of the terrain
In short, the metaverse will need a new labour economy, it is building one of its own from scratch and will revolutionise many sectors and professions. Meanwhile, it will create a myriad of employment opportunities.
Even in the world of tourism. No unlike engineers, designers and architects, travel experts can apply their knowledge in the metaverse. After all, even a virtual trip, in the form of an avatar, needs to book itineraries, negotiate favourable rates, book tickets and search for the right places.
