The bread and butter for wage mages will probably be magical security. They will be in high demand, because magic is the most effective way to counter magic. Any company that skimps on magical security risks losing their edge in the eternal struggle between corporations. In addition to guarding corporate facilities, they will be in high demand as bodyguards, generally for upper-level management and Johnsons.

They will also be used for information-gathering - with reading astral auras, mind-controlling spells, intrusive detection spells, and intangible spirits, they have the ability to ferret out a lot of secrets. Since many of these options are of dubious legality or use in legal proceedings, they will be likelier to be used in a corporation's shadier dealings.

Health spells can still do many things more efficiently than technology. Considering how expensive mages are likely to be, though, such healing will probably be reserved for the upper-level corporate management.

Remember that magic is relatively new, with more discoveries about it being made all of the time. Magical research will be HUGE, with corporations scrambling to make the next big magical discovery. I mean, the Great Ghost Dance made volcanoes erupt - do you think the corporations don't want to duplicate that kind of power? Not that even one of the megas is likely to, but they will certainly be looking for the next big leap in magical knowledge to give them that unbeatable edge.

As for finding research ideas in metaspace, how do you know if anything you find there is remotely pertinent to real life?

Mostly magic from the near metaplanes. One could study with th ebasic spirit types on their home metaplanes and learn quite a bit. One could gain even more magical and cosmological knowledge by going deeper and seeking out the more alien and more powerful spirits, provided that they are willing to teach.

However, applying knowledge gained in some metaplanes would be difficult. Metaplanes don't have to follow the same physical laws or even the same logical rules. Finding a metaplane where 2 +2 = fish wouldn't be difficult, but applying anything you learn there would be.

On the metaplanes thing:

It woult take a very high-level researcher to go in and find something useful. I'm not talking here about "give me a new way to make cyberware". All research is painstakingly slow progress, one tiny bite at the time. A researcher, a good one, is an expert in a tiny, tiny portion of it. For example, it could be just trying to create a new servo joint in the hand of a cyberarm, or looking to solve a physics equation in relation to LED display screens.

For a mage to be a researcher as well, we're talking double ph.d level here. Not only has the person have to be very, very smart to be an expert in his field - enfineering, physics, whatever - but he ALSO has to be smart enough to get a ph. d. in magic.

So to answer - how would a mage know something he found in the metaplanes, or something told to him by a spirit - is useful? Expertise in his field. He could go in, come back with an equation, and then check that equation out. He'd figure out fast enough if it didn't pan out, which would be a frequent occurance. It would be a slow process, taking many metaplane trips, until he finally found what he was looking for. But the advantage is that they'd be able to make great leaps of intuition and solve problems human minds have trouble with and computers can't help with.

So those people would be paid a bazillion dollars as opposed to a bajillion.

Yes.

Suck and die?

My guess would be mage stuff, like wards, astral security, paranormal research, some would probably train paracritters to not bite anybody with the proper logo or ID card.

They would also get paid a hella lot more than those of us with real jobs like shooting people, prancing around in cyberspace, or driving vehicles with naught but the power of our minds. Don't forget about complaining about hospital care because their weak systems can only handle children's asprin.

Edit- Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Just walk through a mana spike; you'll probably have a 25% chance of Awakening then.

That said, special forces teams, security hackers, and skilled riggers are probably paid lots of money, they just aren't paid as much as magical researchers who find paradigm shifts beyond the pale. I mean, Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book said that security hackers are allowed to come to work in a Hawaiian shirt and boxers because they're that vital. And even if the special forces dude isn't paid six figures, he still has access to the best weaponry, which to him is probably as good, if not better.