Oculus VR And Linden Lab Both Hiring As Development Of VR Gathers Pace

A sign of a healthy market can sometimes be found in the number of vacancies in that sector. Sometimes a number of vacancies can indicate that a company is not the best place to work because there’s a lot of churn. However, let’s be positive here.

Oculus VR and Linden Lab are both hirng and both list plenty of vacancies. Both companies also have plenty of perks. Reuters have reported : Facebook hiring spree hints at ambitions in virtual reality and beyond. Whereas this indicates Facebook hiring going beyond Oculus, there are an impressive number of job listings at Oculus :

Oculus Rift, the maker of virtual reality headsets that Facebook acquired in a $2 billion deal last year, is among the key areas slated for growth, with 54 jobs listed on its website, according to a review by Reuters of listings.

Oculus are advertising positions for Software Engineers, Hardware Engineers, Content, including a game designer, Resaearch, Recruiting, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Design & User Experience, Interns and Co-ops and University Grads, Masters & PHDS. Whereas this doesn’t give us a clear indication of where Oculus are going as a team, it is interesting that they are advertising for Unreal Engine and Unity engineers. Are Oculus planning on making games or are they planning on making sure games work well with Oculus?

Oculus offer some interesting perks :

Perks include flexible hours, free food, happy hours, team trips, free Oculus hardware, and much more. We offer competitive salaries and a full range of benefits including comprehensive health care and 401k.

Some of those perks I’ve seen cited as being a barrier to entry, but I’ll come on to that later. Oculus also state that they are an equal opportunity employer :

Oculus VR, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment with Oculus is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Very noble indeed. As for Linden Lab, their careers page lists around a quarter of the number Oculus do, but that’s still a very healthy 14 positions.

The Linden Lab vacancies are largely technical positions with 6 Software engineer vacancies. a couple of Web Engineer vacancies, as well as vacancies for a mobile engineer, a data warehouse engineer, an IT engineer, a QA Engineer Tools & Payments, a Customer Relations Representative and a Business Development Internship.

Whereas some of the Linden Lab positions seem to be aimed at the nextgen virtual world, not all of them are. Some of the desired skills are interesting, previous game industry experience, especially MMO’s is cited a few times. Now before everyone panics, this doesn’t mean that Linden Lab are building an MMO. Experience of working on an MMO should hold someone in good stead for a virtual world.

Linden Lab offer some interesting perks and benefits :

Full medical, dental, and vision coverage; education reimbursement up to $10K a year; gym stipends; commuter benefits; 401(k) savings plan; Stock options and Paid parental leave.

There’s more, in San Francisco the HQ has Table Tennis, workout classes, and massages. I’m assuming these aren’t massages in Second Life ….

There’s even more in the way of perks, Linden Lab welcome dogs in the office and also engage in Waffle days, this is Waffle as in the food product, rather than Waffle as in discussion. Oh and top of that the Love Machine is still very much in use and is used for bonuses.

These perks could be seen as being a tad worrisome, they may suggest Linden Lab are a very happy company, they may suggest people spend so much time having massages, eating waffles and playing with their dogs that they don’t get enough work done or they may indicate that the staff never go home!

Linden Lab don’t talk much about diversity or being an equal opportunity employer, but a quick look at the photos on their website suggests they are indeed an equal opportunity employer.

However there is one area whereby the computing industry doesn’t seem to aim its diversity gun as well as it should and that’s with relation to older employees. There’s a distinct feeling that ageism is an area that gets overlooked when it comes to the computing industry being inclusive and this brings us back to some of the perks.

I’ve seen people suggest that the culture of happy hours, going out after work with collegaues, partying etc. doesn’t sit so well with older folk with families. This is probably true but that’s not a good enough reason to case aside the vast experience and continued enthusiasm of older professionals.

I’m not suggesting that Oculus VR or Linden Lab engage in ageism, but it is most definitely an issue that seems to get overlooked when people talk about diversity in the computing industry.

With regards to the bigger picture, the future looks rather bright for the development of Virtual Reality and Virtual Worlds. As consumers of course, we’re awaiting the polished delivery of an end product and that’s something we’re going to have to be patient about.


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