What to do, what to do?
As I continue to explore possible opportunities for myself after graduating, I keep coming back to VR. The ability to create completely new realities is fascinating and the applications for VR range from the purely fantastic and fun like Dali Land or Robo Recall to the educational, teaching public speaking or medical like surgery simulators. Whatever the VR experience is, it is a rapidly growing market with endless potential. Based on my skillsets I could go two different directions with VR. There is the technical route which would allow me to build the worlds, and there is the management route which would allow me to help conceptualize the worlds and then manage their development. Both have their pros and cons.
If I choose to become a developer I would be able to have a hand in making the VR experience. I consider this the biggest pro. Knowing how to develop for VR would position me very well within the professional market. Another considerable pro would be the salary. On average, a VR Developer makes around 100K a year. I would certainly not say no to that. Being a Developer has some major cons as well. Firstly, the learning curve would be substantial for me as I only know a small amount of C# and JavaScript. I am also very new to Unity, which is the only program I currently know. Additionally, as a Developer I would have very little say in what the experience is, I would just be building someone else’s vision. This does not sound as fun.
The other path is almost the exact opposite. Choosing the product manager side I would be involved in the conceptualization of the VR experience. This is one of my favorite things to do and would rather dream it up then code it down. Additionally, the learning curve is much smaller. I have experience in project management, which is similar and I am focusing much more on product management over development in school. Being a good product manager would also position me well in the professional landscape. Even the salary is around the same as the developer.
This decision is something that I’ve been wrestling with but getting it down on paper seems to have helped. Based on what I know I like and am good at, it seems that the product manager route is the best choice. Even if the pay was less, I would still make that choice. Being happy is more important than being wealthy and I don’t think I could be happy making other people’s visions come to life. As I continue to narrow my choices down, I must always keep happiness in mind.
