The Metaverse: A glimpse into the future of technical recruitment

As a Millennial, I am a member of a generation that grew up playing the hit life simulation game The Sims (this might be the case of all my fellow Millennials). The game was my safe haven, and it played a monumental part in my childhood and teenage years. I remember purchasing all of the expansion packs, downloading cheat codes, mods, and CC (oops). The Sims was my daily escape from reality into a world where we could create an avatar, walk around, and interact in a virtual world with other people who are also avatars. Back in the day, I was playing these life simulation games and still felt distanced from this virtual experience by the screen and the keyboard. Today, that might all be about to change with the Dawn of the Metaverse.

According to Medium, the metaverse is similar to role-playing games (RPG). It is the vision that the next generation of the internet (Web 3.0) could be straight out of science fiction movies. In other words, it is the evolution of how users will be able to control and own their creations, online content, online identities, and digital assets (such as NFTs).

The Metaverse = Physical + AR + VR in shared digital spaces.

The Metaverse is not yet a fully realized reality, but its vision is a 3D immersive world in which we will spend a significant amount of time learning, socializing, working, entertaining, and so is the combination of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), gaming, cryptocurrencies, social media and much more. In simpler terms, the Metaverse looks set to be a new way of using the internet and transforming it from 2D to 3D.

But in what way will it impact the world of recruitment? 

MEETING CANDIDATES IN THE METAVERSE

Brought about by the necessity of COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions, recruiters have had to embrace the virtual interview process in short order. Similarly, the intensity of a face-to-face interview, reading the person through their expressions and tone, getting a better sense of someone’s interpersonal skills, and understanding their vibe through these connects cannot be replaced with virtual interviews alone.

Given the fact that we were driven to move to a virtual world overnight, the recruitment and staffing industry switched to tech mode very quickly. This included online interviews, online technical assessments, virtual job fairs, group discussions, and on-boarding as well as once the talent gets hired. With regards to the Metaverse, the recruitment industry is faced with endless possibilities. It will bring recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates together by creating new virtual venues to engage.

The recruitment process in the metaverse will become less transactional and one-sided. For instance, recruiters tend to run cold outreach to approach candidates, and the candidates apply for professional opportunities that they only know at a surface level.The metaverse will enhance conventional 2D videos with 3D virtual rooms. This will enable candidates to experience a metaverse of corporate office buildings and branded virtual conference rooms during interviews. For instance, Meta introduced Horizon Workrooms last August as a virtual collaboration platform using Oculus Quest 2 headsets. This concept can be expanded to experience whole career fairs, assessment centers, and hackathons in the metaverse, whereby candidates will enter the virtual world with real-time interaction. Another example of this is when Samsung reportedly held a metaversal career fair in September using the Gather Town platform, where candidates met with HR and the hiring managers using avatars. This is a promise.

FINDING PASSIVE TECH TALENT

To find and attract unique niche talent, companies need to go beyond traditional ways of hiring. To find exceptional software developers, you may need to look in places where few recruiters and sourcers go.

While the metaverse is still a new and immersive concept, many people see that it is already existing via platforms such as Discord which started out as a place for video gamers to hang out online. Discord is perfect place to make connections with tech-driven talent because there are many communities where people discuss technologies and share their work and opinions. When a person is actively posting in threads on a discord server and chatrooms, you know they are not only using the technology for the job. They are genuinely passionate and interested in what they do. Such candidates have much higher chances of matching your vacancy than an average candidate you sourced using traditional way. Niche candidate who are passionate about the metaverse and who will be the main assets for many tech firms wanting to join this virtual reality can’t be easily found in real life or they are not close to the recruiters location-wise, so getting them from the metaverse is the best way forward for their niche projects.        

The metaverse will continue to magnify talent pools exponentially that will benefit both employers and candidates. Job seekers, once restricted to single geographic areas, can meet with any company, anywhere, anytime instantly. As more businesses embrace the demand for remote roles and greater work flexibility, the metaverse will allow worldwide talent to still have comprehensive and immersive interview experiences for positions on the other side of the world, only from the comfort of their own homes.

BUILDING THE METAVERSE IS CREATING NEW CAREER PATHS

Traditionally, the fields of science fiction and imagination incorporated technologies like AR and VR. But it has matured to the point where we can imagine walking around in a world full of avant-garde tech. The rise of the metaverse will radically change existing jobs and create new career paths to efficiently manage the sphere and provide exciting new services. These metaverse jobs will prove beneficial for tech enthusiasts. Here are some jobs that are predicted to be in demand.

1. Blockchain Engineer: A blockchain engineer is responsible for implementing and creating a digital blockchain for enterprise solutions. The work areas of blockchain engineers typically revolve around technology consulting or data service firms. But in the metaverse, they will be responsible for creating and designing blockchain solutions.
2. Metaverse Research Scientist: A metaverse research scientist who will be responsible for building the foundation of metaverse applications. They will not only be focusing on developing basic digital models in real-world scenarios but will also build a visible and actionable infrastructure to build metaverse solutions.
3. Metaverse Planner: They will be the ones to come up with detailed strategies for creating and using functionalities for companies in this virtual world, figuring out how many servers are needed to support them, and ensuring that people can access those servers in a safe and secure way. In addition, they build a strategic portfolio of opportunities from proof-of-concept to pilot to development, which involves identifying market opportunities, building business cases, roadmaps, and others.
4. NFT Marketer and Strategist: They are well-versed in blockchain technology and the Metaverse domain.They are also responsible for analyzing industry trends to provide actionable insights. NFT strategists will also create plans to combine NFT concepts with gamification, tactical implementation, roadmap elaboration, and others. They will be responsible for managing social networking projects and other metaverse initiatives through the design and development process.
5. Data bounty hunters: In the Metaverse, data is everything and more, and people will want to ensure the ownership of their data. Data bounty hunters will have the required legal expertise such as GDPR and significant experience in data mining in order to protect their platform from data scrapers.
6. Metaverse Cyber Security Experts: Companies all over the real world are in a constant struggle to protect against cybercriminal attacks. With Metaverse, hackers will have a field day. To protect virtual reality from cyberattacks, data leaks, cyber thefts, and other similar issues, the metaverse will need a whole new level of cyber security in place. Cyber security experts in Metaverse will work in real-time to protect the system from attacks. They will be detecting, assessing, and preventing fraud, theft, leaks, and breaches of confidential data. Becoming a Metaverse cyber security expert will require some background in regular cyber security and programming.
7. Metaverse Software Engineer: Traditionally, software engineers develop, design, and test software applications. Metaverse software engineers research and write new software programs and computer operating systems. They will have to evaluate the software and systems that make both computers and hardware work. These engineers also develop existing programs by analyzing and identifying areas for modification.
8. Metaverse Hardware Engineers: One of the most desired jobs in the future of the metaverse is that of a hardware engineer. They develop devices that will allow users to experience the metaverse by developing motion control accessories and headsets. To enter this career, you need to have some experience in manufacturing and consumer electronics. It is also essential to have the ability to quickly understand virtual reality technologies, including mixed and augmented reality. 

REDUCING UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

One of the greatest challenges when it comes to hiring is unconscious bias, which might occur when a recruiter or a hiring manager is forming a judgment about a candidate based on something other than their professional credentials, such as name, birthplace, gender, etc. In other words, unconscious bias might influence the hiring decision based on variables that are irrelevant to the job itself, whether adversely or positively. In the metaverse, there’s potential for this bias to be reduced and eventually removed through the use of avatars or virtual personas, where virtual characters can look like whatever you want.

Moreover, one of the post-pandemic advantages is that most companies, especially those working in tech, have shifted their recruitment processes online in order to ensure business continuity. Employers were previously skeptical of this process’s integrity and efficiency due to the significant risk of bias in large-scale hiring. Employers are now finding it simpler to screen, appraise, and interview candidates remotely because of the advancement of AI tools and technology. Virtual assessments, which are carried out by the use of AI, produce accurate and objective results. This technology will enable interviewers to evaluate the core skills of the candidate with precision, and therefore, the data produced will be straightforward and unbiased. Organizations are using interview services for evaluations due to the current scale and rise in recruiting. Rather than making selections based on a candidate’s gender, race, or background, hiring managers can now focus only on candidates’ talents and skills through the use of virtual hiring platforms that will all be part of the Metaverse in the near future.

CONCLUSION

The metaverse will transform functions like hiring, onboarding, induction, training, and development. While employers will need to invest to join emerging metaverse platforms, there will also be cost savings because virtual worlds will potentially eliminate travel costs for things like attending interviews, training events, and conferences.