It has been a crazy fast paced few weeks and unless our government can pull through, Friday will be my last day as an Intern with GameDevHQ. This is both sad and exciting because the real test is about to begin, the test of can I network and collaborate well enough with the gaming, and programing community to not only further my knowledge, but also to get a job? Only time will tell that story but for tonight I wanted to write a little about my preparations for this quest. Today was a day of new challenges, and most of which were on the side of social media.
Last week we had a really great ending to our Friday with some sage advice from one of the pro’s and a mentor to the whole community out here in Hawaii. Some of the advice he gave was to make sure and promote yourself in a positive way on social media and make sure you are able to be found! For the first time since let’s say “Myspace” if you can remember that lol I am now on a mission to make myself known in the digital world. I am not seeking fame, or fortune, or the most likes for a video, but what I am seeking is to create a presence. One that hopefully will be used to draw the attention of possible future employers or collaborators. In order to do this there were a few things I had to adjust in my social media portfolios, the first and foremost was, be on them. I have always had a Facebook, Instagram, and even Linkedin, but I have not really been using any of these to the full potential they hold. Today was spent doing a few things, one of which was to update my Linkedin portfolio and my Resume that was very outdated. After that I spent a little time putting together a basic website that can host all of my current and future projects. This will be the cornerstone of my digital platform, and bring together all of my social media. I elected to use Wix as my website builder, and was pleasantly surprised with the ease of use and plug-n-play type build settings it has. For anyone who is in need of a website I would highly recommend it purely for how easy it was. I even invested a little bit in myself and obtained my own domain name of www.joekuka.com, but don’t rush there yet as I am still finishing the website.
For me this was a big step, as I have lived and breathed in the comfort of the Hospitality industry most of my working career. The better part of the last 20 years have been almost entirely devoted to cooking, cleaning, serving, studying, drinking, early days, and long nights, good shifts, and bad ones too. for the better part of the last 2 decades myself along with countless others have not known what it means to have a holiday off, or to eat at a normal hour. Ask any chef or cook and I guarantee you they can attest to eating a quick employee meal over a garbage can seconds before the dinner rush at least once a week. And now after all that time and the ever changing world we live in I have decided to chase this passion that I have always had, but merely pushed to the side. This blog and the future posts will be my story to you and anyone who might enjoy reading it as the journey from cook to programmer, and everything in-between. It might seem crazy to some that I would just decide on a whim that, “Hey lets do this thing” but honestly to me this is nothing new. My constant desire to learn and improve will alwasy push me forward and onward. To quote one of my favorite people who had a similar passion that he share with the world
“There’s really no secret about our approach. We keep moving forward — opening up new doors and doing new things — because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re always exploring and experimenting. At WED, we call it Imagineering — the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how.”
-Walt Disney
I have always admired what he believed and built, his passion for life and enjoyment. It has long been a dream of mine along with many I’m sure to work for the Disney Imagineers. Maybe this will be the path that takes me there, or perhaps somewhere else extraordinary. Tomorrow I promise to blog all about coding, and Unity, along with my first successful video post on this blog. Mahalo for reading and for your continued support!
