Tomorrow I take off down to Klamath Falls to visit my school, Oregon Institute of Technology. This time I’m not just going down as a student, I’m going down as an employee representing Garmin. Funny thing is that I’m going without being an official employee. I’m an intern and will be for another two months. After that I’ll be in the process of finishing school and looking for a job.

Though I am really looking forward to representing Garmin at the career fair and in the classes we go to visit, I find it kind of nerve wrecking since it will leave me little time to visit potential employers. I think Garmin is a fantastic company and would love to work for them, I just want to keep my options open at this point in time though. Representing Garmin tomorrow and the day after will consume my time to mingle with the other companies since I will be manning the Garmin booth telling students about Garmin. How crazy is that. This is MY career fair as a student, yet I’m going like I am already employed. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. For all I know, I may have the opportunity to drop off a few resumes after all.

I’m looking forward to the next couple days and hope to see a number of fellow students apply and get interviewed for Garmin. After this I come back for work on Wednesday, and then take off that evening to Spokane, Washington for NACA West representing OIT as the entertainment coordinator for Campus Activites. I’ll then return back to Salem next Sunday. What a busy week!

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Last year I missed an opportunity to attend the GDC. This year I am going to do anything I can to be able to go. This would be such an amazing opportunity to be able to go to the GDC and meet so many industry representatives and be able to attend the sessions that are available. As of today I am finishing up my five essays for a scholarship put on by the IGDA which would allow me to attend the GDC free of charge. I’ll have to come up with the money to get there and pay for a hotel though. Though, it’s worth it even if I only meet a few people.

(Update) I finished writing my essays and submitted them to the IGDA.  Won’t find anything out till January 16th, 2008.  Which just means I have plenty of time to worry whether I was selected or not…

Wish me the best of luck!

Last night I made the drive to Klamath Falls from Salem. It was quite boring until the snow picked up and caused me to pay more attention to the road. Luckily I made it to Klamath Falls without a scratch and was able to see my wonderful girlfriend.

A couple weeks ago my CSET department faculty asked me to come down to K-falls to talk to the new upcoming students. I have been extremely busy, but decided I’d come anyways. They also offered to take me and Christina (my gf) to dinner.

I came down to K-falls and met a number of students considering OIT and sold a number of them on the CSET department at OIT doing software or computer engineering. Also a number of students decided to take a gander at our new embedded systems degree. It’s quite exciting to see what is happening next at OIT. We had around fifty students and their parents show up to see what the CSET department at OIT is all about, so I earned my free dinner along with getting my gas paid.

I’m quite glad I was able to make it down for this event and look forward to November when I’ll be making it down to the career fair to tell students about Garmin AT and try to get some qualified students some resumes.

So, if that’s you, let me know and I’ll pass the word on!

J!

This last week I had another awesome opportunity to attend a game developer’s conference.  The conference I attended was IndieGamesCon 2007, put on by GarageGames geared towards the indie game developer community.

There were a number of discussions at the event about the latest and greatest engines being developed by GarageGames along with a few roundtables on how to get your game idea listened to and how to get funded. 

When the main discussion weren’t going on there were a number of computers available to play some of the projects being showcased by the developers.  The games were then voted upon and the top picks were announced on the second and last day.

Unfortunately I was only able to stay the first day, however I had an awesome time while I was there and met some great people.  I also had my ass handed to me during a Wii-Tennis tournament by a couple GarageGames employees!

 For a ton of info on what exactly went on, go here.

Who’s all going to PAX?!  I am! 

 It’s going to be a great time with my girlfriend and a few others.  C and me are getting a hotel with a couple friends for Friday night, and then Saturday night we’re staying at C’s friend’s place.  It’s going to be a great time to get away and see some new games.  I’m really looking forward to meeting some developers at the expo as well. 

 I’ll write an update on how it all goes after I’m back!