[X] My Assistant

[Letan]

So now that I've been out of college, and the education system in general, for the past two/three months and until the end of my life, I've been thinking about this lately. I've always been very goal-driven since a young age, and I always knew that I wanted to get into video games. I'm pretty much at the point where I've started to slowly nudge my way through the industry's entry barrier, and I've gotten there through setting goals for myself (taking x, y, and z courses in high school to prepare myself, taking game dev, attending a local games conference and monthly dev meetups, etc.). Since I've also gradually become more social, I figured this would be a cool subject to talk about among us.

So guys, what are your personal goals and milestones?

I'll start off by listing mine. Obviously if there's something too personal that you aren't comfortable with sharing, then don't post it. I'm pretty sure most people have them, myself included, so I'm just going to post what I'm obviously cool with sharing.

- Career-wise, I really want to end up in AI Programming. I've been reading an AI programming book that's mostly pseudocode, and it's gotten me interested in the subject. I've also been working on a small 2D platformer, and I hope to gain some AI experience from that.

- I wanna end up living in Montreal within the next five years. The video game industry is far larger there than it is here in Ottawa, plus there's more to do. I find that here, whenever I wanna hang out with people my options are very limited to just going to a bar and seeing a movie. I've also met and talked with someone from Eidos Montreal, and that place seems so fucking awesome to work at. I feel like I'd really be happy there, so it's easily one of my main goals.

- Though I've found work for the next couple of months, I want to get some experience within a studio. Working at home sucks, it's hard to stay motivated, and it's lonely as fuck. I can't talk programming with anyone around me, so if I'm having a problem I gotta sort it out on paper with some code references online. There's some places here that seem alright, nothing that I could see myself doing for the rest of my career though. Some great starting opportunities though, and with that being a few months away it's a more shorter-term goal.

- With the whole Montreal in five years thing, I also want to become more independent, ideally a while before that. I want to teach myself how to cook and take care of myself, because in five years that's really what I want to be doing. Don't get me wrong, I love it at home, but in order for me to really continue maturing as an adult, I gotta be on my own. Besides, I totally prefer being able to do my own thing without someone worrying when I'm coming home.

- I also want to work on my physical health. I've been underweight for most of my life thus far, with my metabolism showing no signs of stopping. I'm somewhat bothered by my lack of strength, so when I do start work soon I want to invest in some exercise equipment and whey powder to get my weight up and build some muscle. For the most part, I've been comfortable with my body, but the insensitive comments about it that some people give me have become frequent, and I always get a kick out of coming back and surprising people, it's a far more satisfying way of telling someone off than just using "yeah well fuck you". That awkward silence you create, aww yeah.

- And finally, now that I'm becoming less of an introvert, I wanna keep meeting new people. I've already met some crazy talented people in the local and distant industry, as well as the younger game dev students in the earlier years of the program. But even outside of game development, I'm just finally getting tired of the lifestyle I've maintained for the past eight years or so which consisted purely of staying at home and playing video games. I would still like to be wary of people that I do not want to associate myself with due to them having toxic behaviours, hazardous recreational activities like doing hard drugs, etc. All that bad shit I don't want to associate myself with. I've already dealt with one guy who made some pretty inappropriate comments involving incest, so that's cool.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot one more, which was that I want to travel, ideally on my own or at least without family present. I've always been unable to because of financial reasons, but now that I'm starting to find work, it's becoming more and more possible. For now I'd like to keep it within North America, but at some point I'd like to go to Europe and maybe some parts of Asia like Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, and South Korea.

[Rhapsody]

I've been meaning to put down my goals on paper for a bit now, so I suppose this works.

1. Getting rid of my anxiety. The past few years have been hell on me as far as my mental state goes. I'm tired of being afraid of nearly everything. Going outside. Work. Talking to people. I'm sick and tired of it, I hate it, and sometimes I hate myself for ending up at this point. Getting help for it has been simultaneously one of the hardest and best decisions I've made. I'm really looking forward to not being terrified of branching out like I know I have to in order to move ahead in my life. Which brings me to...

2. To make something of myself in the games industry, or the CS industry if need be. Ever since I was a kid I've always wanted to point to my name in the credits of a video game. Sometimes it feels hopeless when I look at the hiring state of the industry, the seemingly-futile efforts people make to scrape by, etc. I need to stop letting it get to me, though, and focus on doing my best in college and hoping that somebody appreciates that. Finding the motivation to work on stuff myself to improve my chances is tough, as I get into that "I don't really know jack-shit" mindset (thanks, anxiety). I gotta keep pushing through and grow a thicker skin, though. Giving up won't make anything better.

3. Being healthier in general. Over the past year I've come to the realization that the majority of the food available to me is crap and eating large portions of it isn't going to make my body thank me. I'm not obese or anything, but... not really my ideal physique either. Making several decisions to improve my diet and general lifestyle have greatly benefited me. Now I gotta work on not being afraid of going to the nice, tuition-paid-for gym my university offers. (man, this anxiety thing pops up a lot, doesn't it?)

I have a couple of other smaller ones I might edit in later, but they're not as important as those three. The more things I have listed, the less I feel like I'll accomplish.

[Kazyx]

I guess I've got some personal goals too. Ones that I should probably start following.

1. I need to determine what I want to do for college/university. I've been struggling with this for a few years now. Since I've been technically out of high school for three years, but only officially out for a year. That bugged me, as I got to see all of my friends graduate college while I was stuck in high school. That was probably part of the reason I can't decide what I want to do; lack of motivation.

I've juggled the idea of home design, architecture and game design, to even things such as a translator or just the ability to be multilingual.

2. I need to become more active and healthier overall. I can hardly walk up a hill without panting and sweating, as what was seen today. That isn't healthy in the slightest. I need to change that. I want to eat healthier, and I desire a more... appealing physique. However, this requires me to become more aware of the things I eat, how much I eat, and to take better care of my body. This will be difficult for me, due to my small palette of foods that I'd eat. I must change that as well, and be more open to the foods that are actually good for someone. I admit that I make poor health decisions, so thst is the first step to redemption.

3. Along with the two primary ones listed above, I need to become less, how would I put it... Self-destructive. My negative outlook on life, myself, and other thibgs is causing stress not just for myself, bit my family, my friends, and my loved ones. It impacts them more than I personally care to admit, and that isn't good. I ned to change this outlook in order to make myself feel better about myself, and protect those dear to me. How I need to do that, or where to even start, I don't know.

4. My emotions, such as my anger, are becoming out of control. It's unhealthy both physically and mentally, and I'm not sure if I can revert any of the damage it may have already cuased me and others, but I must try. I got nothing else to add to this point.

There are other things I'm sure, but I either cannot remember them right now, or they are too personal to add to this topic. One thing is for certain however, and that is overall, I'm not comfortable with my lifestyle and its choices right now.

[Kirigiri]

My goals, hmm? Well, I really want to work as a graphic designer. I hope to be well-off enough in terms of money where I can afford to travel occasionally, and get to travel to Russia at least once in my life.

I'd like to live in a quaint little apartment in either Ottawa or Burlington with a wife, an adopted son, and three rescue cats. Even though I love seeing other places, I could never make myself leave the northeast. I've been down south and it's generally a pretty strange experience for me. I'd want to be comfortable in my new home.

Other goals that I have for myself include learning to speak Russian fluently, being an airport security screener at some point in my life, volunteering for an animal shelter, and making some really close friends, as I haven’t had many of those so far in my life.

I’d also really like to learn to better deal with my shyness and anxiety, as it's kind of crippling at times, and I don't want that getting in the way of my dreams. I guess I've been doing pretty good on that front recently, I'm not as nervous around people, but there's still lots of room for improvement.

[Jaze]

this year alone, i want to finally get a job. >_>

no idea what i want to do career-wise, though. definitely something with animals though.

[Yamper]

Hm.. well I guess this would be handy so here goes.

1. I'd love to be able to finally decide on what I'd like to do in life. There's two choices which I'd love to do, however I'd need to make my mind up whether or not it's a good idea or not. Finance is a bit of an issue with it. A dream of mine, quite a big one is to somehow travel to Australia (Melbourne) to study Zoology. The second choice would be to stay in the UK and study Accounting and Finance, which is my safe option. Completely different things and I'd be happy to do either one. Both require good grades (Melbourne is BCC, but I'd need to get some good grades for Scholarships etc) and A&F would be on the lines of AAB or AAA depending on where I go.
The only issue which I'm worrying about is not being able to get the grades, and the fact if I DO somehow choose Australia, I'll be leaving everything behind.. family, friends and the relationship I have. Whether I'll be able to cope alone is one thing as it's not like I can just get on a bus or train and travel home as home would be on the other side of the world.
Funding is another things I'd be worried about if I do head down under. The exchange rate isn't too bad from GBP to AUD, but it's the ability to save up and everything. Tickets are pricey too etc.

I have a year to plan this and see what I really want to do.. at the end I just hope I make the right decision with everything. I can see myself scrapping Australia, but at the same time I don't want to make decisions just to please someone else, nor do I want to give up everything that makes me happy.

2. Being able to finish my A Levels. At most it takes people 2 years to do it.. me? It's taking me 4 years. I spent the first year taking things as a joke as a "yeah I'll be fine" and the reality hit me when I got my results back. I ended up with 3 U's which is the lowest you can get apart from not turning up to the exam. I was too late to apply to a really good college (the college I refer to isn't the same as University. It's essentially the school leavers age of 16-whatever age.. most is optional, but there are courses [such as computing, childcare etc.] and A Levels, which is what I'm redoing) so I had to stay and redo everything.. however my current sixth form, which is attached to my school wouldn't let me retake what I wanted to. I ended up dropping a subject because I hated it, didn't know what I was doing. I applied for the college early on this year (You needed GCSE grades to get in) and I managed to secure a place.. my interviewer thought the GCSE grades I got were incredibly good, she was friendly and I somehow didn't mess up the questions. I'll be taking Biology, Maths and Accounting. If I decide to do Zoology, I'll have Maths and Biology for that (which is mostly required, some like Chemistry as an additional thing but I hate Chemistry), and if I decide on Accounting I'll have Maths and Accounting itself, although Accounting as a subject isn't necessary, I felt that studying it would give me a better insight into whether it was right for me and if I enjoy it or not.

3. Being able to finally get a part time job. I've been volunteering since Jan 2012 in a charity shop, would have liked to have done the RSPCA but you needed to be 18, which I am, so I'll be looking to see if I can do that soon. Working with the animals that is. It pains me to see all these people who haven't done any volunteering or anything in their life yet most have at least 2 jobs.. and here's me with none. Makes me wonder "how". There's an open day this Thursday for some jobs at a supermarket called Aldi, so I'm hoping that my CV (or Resume to you lot) will help things out there. It would be nice, flexible hours, pretty substantial hourly pay (the national minimum wage for my age is £4.98 an hour and Aldi are offering £7.70 an hour rising to £9.20 an hour) so it'd be worth it. Can't turn down an offer like that. I'm expecting it to be packed, though, so fingers crossed.

There's probably some more I can't think of right now but I may edit some others in if I can think of any.

This post has been edited by Samoo: Jul 1 2013, 01:24 PM

[Grimwood]

Personally I would like to do animation and maybe write a book but first I have to take small steps leading up to these goals like background art and improve in my art and language areas. Still considering that I have been appraised for my works by other people other than that of my fellow students, I still see fit to improve much over the next few years.

[Eldavey]

Short cause nobody is interested,

-I want to be rich

-I want to know what I want to study in University

-I want to get more athletic and a professional model

-I want to expand my hobbies into something bigger: making my own music, try writing.

Thanks for reading

[PikaGlow]

My 1 goal:
To finally animate something, not fail on it and give up.

[Emmagurd]

I have a couple of goals:

1) To eventually become an RSPCA office. A lot of people nowadays choose career over family. I am the complete opposite. I don't mind pushing back this dream/goal until I have had a family, because I know that even if I don't achieve this goal, I'll be happy with what I have. But it would be nice to get there eventually.

2) While I'm stuck in retail as my occupation, I am going to make damn sure I'm at least going somewhere with it. I have worked in retail since the tender age of 17, and even back then, my managers told me I had potential to become a manager myself. That was when I was working at Tesco, and things didn't work out at Tesco, and I had to leave. But now I'm in another kind of shop, one where I actually enjoy what I'm doing, and one where they have believed in me that much, that I'm now a supervisor. I'm trying to work my way up, and I keep getting told I'm store manager material now, but I don't feel ready in myself. But one day I will get there.

3) Be married within the next three years. I have been with Dave for 3 years now, and we finally got engaged yesterday on our anniversary I HAVE SUCH A PRETTY RING OMFG. And while we know we won't be instantly getting married, I at least want it to happen in the next three years or so. Another three years won't hurt to wait (more to the point, we need to save up money for this bitch of a wedding, as we don't get any help from any of our parents - but if worse comes to worse, we'll just take out a loan. We both have good credit rating and always being offered one by the bank lmao).

4) LOSE FUCKING WEIGHT, EMMA. I have gotten so content with Dave over these three years that I've put weight on. I'm not obese, by any means, but I am curvy and Dave doesn't mind it, but it'll be nice to lose a bit of podge.

Erm.. I think that is it