Pimp my... Everything!

As you might notice, if you have visited the blog before, I've made a few changes. Today I spent most of the day updating my online presence. I've updated my Linkedin profile, changed my background and banner here on my blog, updated my Twitter background to match, and finally got around to making my portfolio website. Through all this, a lot of care was taken to keep a similar style and feel for all of my online locations. I see this as my personal brand, and I want it to be instantly recognizable by potential employers.

If my lovely readers have a chance to check out my portfolio website, I'd dearly love some input on it. I'm in the process of transitioning from a plain set of code on github to a real website, and want to make sure everything looks good. I'm also a little nervous about doing this, since I got some really good responses at the career fair about my github portfolio. But I think the main idea was, "Oh, you're on github? Good!" and I can still convey that by including my github user name on my cards, CVs, and portfolio.

You can find my new portfolio site here: http://jiyambi.webs.com

Thanks for reading!

Game In Scotland 2013

Friday I attended this year's Game in Scotland career fair. It was a great experience, pulling together students, industry veterans, and company representatives from all through Scotland. Wandering through the stalls and talking to employers was actually really fun. I got to learn about many companies I previously knew only by name, and see first hand what kind of openings were out there for when I graduate.

The biggest thing I had impressed on me from this career fair is that good programmers are sorely needed in the industry. Previously, I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to get a job after graduation and would have to go back to America. Now, after having promising chats with multiple companies and interview requests from two (Tag and Climax games), I'm feeling much more confident that I'll be able to find not only a job, but a job I truly enjoy when I'm done with university.

Pimp My Twitter

I don't have much to say today, being both busy and quite ill. However, I just spent the last few hours re-designing my Twitter page, so I thought I'd share what I've done.

Photo

Previously, I was using an actual photo of myself on my twitter. I decided to change to my personal logo, the "bounder" for my Bounder Studios team. I may actually switch this back to a photo of myself, though I need to get a nice professional one done.

I chose this for my photo because I have started using it in several places around the web (most notably, on my github profile), as well as including it on my business card design. I've decided to go all out on this "visual branding" thing, and I'll be using a similar color scheme, font, and this logo as much as possible.

Background Image

Up until now, I've had a cute Totoro image in the background of my Twitter. While nice and reasonably visually appealing, this wasn't very professional. Today I customized my own image, which includes my logo again, my name, my title "Game Programmer", and the address of my portfolio and blog websites. The font used is the Manaspace font I use on my resume and business card, and the colors are all shades of orange. The idea is to create as many points of connection as possible, to make myself memorable.

Header Photo

For my header photo (empty until now) I decided to use a simple orange background. I may make it more interesting in the future, but this simple background looks nice enough and still makes my page stand out.

Bio

I updated my bio. It was somewhat unfocused previously, and didn't make it clear that I was, in fact, a game programmer. Now it says simply: "Studying MSc Computer Games Technology at @AbertayUni", linking to the university twitter. I may try to indicate more strongly my interests in AI programming later on.

Conclusion

Overall I think this will unify my image online. Next up in my online makeover is this blog - the background and favicon both need updating! As mentioned in the photo section above, I also plan to get a professional photo taken and include that both here on the blog and as my twitter and github icon.

Business Cards

Today I created my first design for my own business card. I kept it simple, but included what I've come to think of as my "personal logo", originally designed for my indie team Bounder Studios. I also incorporated the same style, font, colors, and dividing line I used in my CV and resume. Oh yeah, and I turned it sideways, because, why not.

EDIT: On the advice of some friends, I've now changed the name and title font to be more interesting. I tracked down the font from one of my all-time favorite games, Secret of Mana, and used that. I quite like the result.

I've put the card in my dropbox if you'd like a more in-depth look at it: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11838203/Sarah-Herzog-Business-Card-Manaspace-Caps.pdf

Let me know what you think! I need feedback so I can present myself as professionally as possible - the job market is tough, especially with the added complication of being foreign.