VR Vocations: A Story of Technology Reshaping the Future of Career Discovery

Year: 2027?

Place: Austin, TX

Finally, VR is cool again.?

Alan remembers purchasing his first Virtual Reality headset right after he got his first paycheck in high school. To him, it was a dream. To his family, it was not well understood. The memes at the time showed people in the Oculus flinging their arms around and breaking vases, scaring pets, and looking slightly insane. Alan used to show his friends his gadget, and as cool as the VR set was to them, they would always ask him within 10 minutes if they could play on the PS4 instead.

Were the consumers of VR not ready for the perception change?

Perhaps.?

But some techno-historians would say that back in the mid-2010's, the VR headset had some limitations. Due to comfort levels, motion sickness, market competition, limitations in resolution, and image tracking - there were a number of reasons why VR technology did not pan out. Yet ever since the theatrical marketing of the Apple Vision Pro, VR became cool again.

And when technology is cool, developers and engineers come en masse to create the next iteration of the technology - VR applications, aka - VRapps.

Yes, "VRapps" got folks joking about dropping beats in digital streets. That helped.?

With the rise of the coolness factor, meme culture, and increasing immersive and consumer-useful applications, VR headsets are finally set to move through the 3rd stage of the Technology Adoption curve.

From Baird, the first mass-produced TV in the 1930's, TV's took almost seven decades to reach 1.5 Billion users; with the Toshiba T1100, the first mass-produced laptop in the 1980's, computers took almost around three decades to reach 2 Billion users.

Through his understanding of Moore's law, Alan reasoned that a decade and a half gave enough time for the VR headset to thrive.?

That, and he felt like he had no choice. Alan was recently laid off from his 5th job in 4 years. He had done everything he felt necessary to keep up with the times in learning new skills like data analysis, basic coding, and network security monitoring, but each time his certification list grew, companies decided to take a new direction with either AI-prompt engineers or overseas employment.?

At this rate, Alan thought he had few options except purchasing the newest VRapp: VisionVocation Simulator.?

He turned on the headset, focused his attention on the floating application, and blinked. It opened. Blue and white hazy flashes lit up the room to fill the void of Alan's apartment.

"Welcome to VisionVocation Simulator, the VRapp that maps your interests, talents and your true, unfiltered self to immersive and customizable career experiences!?

My name is Emmeline and I'll be your mentor, confidante, advisor, employer, and employee in this vibrant journey of career expression.?Together, we'll dive into a variety of industries with hands-on simulations that are as enlightening as they are exhilarating. Let's unlock your potential and transform your future, one virtual experience at a time!

Now, we have a lot of ground to cover. Are you ready?" Alan nodded in VR.?

"Great. To start, I need you to answer a couple of preliminary questions. Feel free to Accept or Deny any of these. Denying any of the requested information will not deter your experience, but accepting more information will help tailor the experience to ensure we have the most accurate information possible. Now please answer the following:

1. Do you consent to VisionVocation Simulator analyzing your past virtual experiences, biometric feedback, and interaction patterns for a comprehensive career aptitude and interest profiling?
2. Do you consent to VisionVocation Simulator accessing and incorporating your real-time emotional and cognitive responses during simulations to personalize and enhance your career discovery journey?
3. Do you consent to receive personalized career opportunities and recommendations from VisionVocation Simulator's trusted partners based on your performance and preferences identified during the simulations?
4. Do you consent for VisionVocation Simulator to share your data with the engineers to improve future versions?

Alan agreed to everything. He trusted the developers not because he knew anyone personally in the company or was aware of their prior ethics-based developments, he trusted his data with the company because he was at a crossroads in his career. His quest so far had been a journey of loops, twisted turns, false starts, and unfulfilled promises. The allure of discovering a lifelong career resonated with his core. He wondered, how could he use all of his experiences and learned skillsets to marry his core strengths and natural-born talents with a role, a product, a service, or a company?

He needed to survive. He needed to contribute value to the world.?

He focused his attention on Continue.

Thank you for reading! - LG