In fact, the growth of the young solar industry is being restrained by the political efforts of some of the biggest energy and utility companies in the United States, companies that compete with solar and other renewable energy sources. Over the past six years, these organizations spent $673 million dollars to influence climate policy at both the state and federal levels of government.

As reported in Politico:

“Politics may be the biggest roadblock to change. America’s infrastructure was built for a world powered by the combustion of 300-million-year-old carbon, and its pipelines, smokestacks and gas stations all produce revenue for influential interests that see a green new world as a financial threat. Those interests have powerful allies in President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans who control Congress.”

Despite these obstacles, due to the dropping costs of solar power generation — in 2016 it became the cheapest source of electricity, about 50% the price of electricity produced from coal in certain markets — the laws of economics suggest the solar industry’s growth can only be restrained for so long.

The Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (AR) industry is also growing at an incredible rate, with some experts estimating worldwide revenues to increase by 100 percent or more over the next four years, and others reporting that “spending on products and services related to AR and virtual reality will grow more than 100 percent annually, jumping from $11.4 billion (in 2017) to $214 billion in 2021,” according to Forbes.

An even-more rapid growth of the industry might be predictable based on the growth of job listings by VR and AR companies.

As reported in Forbes, online job board Indeed.com saw a massive uptick in VR and AR jobs listed between 2014 and 2016 alone.

The company saw about 2 virtual reality job postings per 1 million job ads in 2014, as compared to 18 for every million jobs currently—an increase of about 800%. Among job seekers, job search per million has gone from about 1 VR job search per million in 2014, to 19 VR job searches per million—an increase of 1800%. “It’s still relatively small, in the scheme of things,” says Indeed.com senior vice president, Paul D’Arcy, “but everything that gets big starts with small numbers and a high rate of growth.”

Virtual and Augmented Reality Job Examples*

Job Title Assumed Degree Assumed Years Exp Median Salary Principal Virtual Reality Engineer Master’s 15 $140,518 3D Virtual Reality Artist Bachelor’s 7 $78,482 Visual Effects Artist Bachelor’s 1 $60,765 Virtual Reality Editor Bachelor’s 2 $52,064

Principal Virtual Reality Engineer/Principal Software Architect – The Principal Virtual Reality Engineer is an experienced software designer who leads a team of developers to create elegant, functional Virtual Reality software. They oversee the entire design process, from conceptualizing and creating goals and guidelines to quality control and post-release troubleshooting, maintenance, and updating.

3D Virtual Reality Artist – A 3D Virtual Reality Artist’s job combines creative skills with knowledge of relevant software. This person uses specialized design and drawing software to create computer images of people, buildings, and/or objects that can be manipulated and viewed from all sides as separate, standout elements.

Visual Effects Artist – Visual Effects Artists create pre-rendered Virtual Reality effects. Their job entails designing and implementing effects to have the maximum dramatic effect while understanding and working within the product’s technological limitations.

Virtual Reality Editor – Much like a film or video editor, a Virtual Reality Editor ensures a virtual reality experience is polished, engaging, and meets the specific needs of its audience.

New Money: Skills and Jobs in Emerging Industries

While they’re growing at an incredible rate, given that the cannabis, solar power, and virtual and augmented reality industries are so young, many of the skills needed to succeed within them are also very new, and finding prospective employees with experience in these fields can be challenging.

“In the future, job titles will be obsolete,” predicts Bardaro. “Instead, jobs will be represented by a bag of skills, as this will truly quantify what it is you do. The emerging industries are already ahead of the game, as they focus on the requisite skills for a job rather than the title itself.”

Potential workers in the cannabis industry might have experience gleaned from elsewhere in horticulture or farming, knowledge applicable to the growth of cannabis. Programmers in the AR and VR industry might come from other areas of tech, and can apply their skills to world building or other aspects of virtual reality. Employers in emerging fields might have to cast a net over a number seemingly disparate industries to find what the people they need.

Hall, whose first business, Cupcake Royale, is a cupcake bakery and cafe, was able to tap into her established network of bakery and confection experts when hiring for her cannabis edibles company, Goodship.

“It’s been more difficult finding folks who are product experts on the inhalable side,” she says. “People who are truly passionate about extraction methods, various form factors – oils, flower, concentrates – who also have a great business acumen or marketing aspect to layer on.”

Another issue introduced by these emerging industries and jobs: What do you pay someone in a line of work for which there is little or no historical precedent?

In some cases, the skills associated with a particular job may be reflected in a similar job in a completely different industry. An editor with experience in film or television who moves into virtual reality uses comparable skills, so a comparable salary may be appropriate, depending on location, company size and other factors.

PayScale’s software products and compensation professionals account for this type of situation.

Says Bardaro, “PayScale enables employers to price jobs in emerging industries by collecting and reporting compensation data for thousands of skills and specialties, such as Virtual Reality for jobs ranging from Marketing Manager to Software Developer.”