Rohan Shaiva

I’ve worked in various industries in different positions for 15+ years, including: • Digital editor when Facebook became mainstream. • Graphic designer for traditional mediums. • Front-end dev with top NYC creative agencies. • Web3 dev who survived the bear market. I’ve had so much fun during this time, and there isn’t much I would change about my journey. However, I burnt out badly twice. The burnout exhausted me, taking away more fun I could’ve enjoyed. If I could go back, here are a few mistakes I made—and what I would have done differently to avoid burnout: 1️⃣ Lack of boundaries I failed to set clear work-life boundaries, leading to overwork and anxiety. The pandemic and remote work made it worse. I should have set specific work and rest hours and a designated work area to ensure proper recovery. 2️⃣ Failed to manage expectations I didn’t communicate effectively with employers and clients, which led to unrealistic goals and deadlines. I should have taken the initiative to discuss workloads and responsibilities with stakeholders regularly. 3️⃣ Objectify myself at work I measured my worth only by my job performance and output. Taking breaks even made me feel guilty and lazy. I should value myself beyond work and reserve time for personal passions. － By addressing these issues, I could have avoided burnout and enjoyed my career journey more. If you’re early in your career or feeling tired, remember to: • Set boundaries • Manage expectations • Value yourself beyond work Good luck with a sustainable and happy career ✨ Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog: https://lnkd.in/gNtEeGar

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Yay! Another badge on Merit Pages. For those that may not know, I'm in school to get my BA in Game Art and Development. I have always wanted to peek behind the curtain and see how games and animation are produced. I'm looking for roles where I can apply my DevOPs, Linux and cluster knowledge to helping creatives produce a superior product. If anyone in my network knows a person or organization that could use someone like me, please make the introduction or leave a comment. I have tried searching and applying via LinkedIn under the roles/titles of Technical Director, Pipeline Developer, and Production Technology Engineer. Those roles seem most aligned or at least overlap with DevOps.

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I have been brainstorming a few things to help folks navigate the mayhem of job searching, and the resources below have helped me a lot! Hoping some of this helps 🫶🏿 Portfolios: My biggest barrier to a portfolio is navigating some NDAs, but folks have mentioned that there are ways around this by removing any details of the organization/client that it is associated with. I also did not want to pay for a portfolio website, and tools like Notion & GitHub were very simple options (there are step-by-step tutorials on YouTube walking you through setting them up). With Notion, you can also use it to manage projects (i.e. LinkedIn content ideas, who I need to network with, job leads, to-do lists, and my calendar). Tbh, it helps to have all my stuff in one place. There are also templates for Notion that you can download off Pinterest! Networking: The more you are on LinkedIn, the more awesome people you will meet and want to chat with. I have had the pleasure of chatting with almost 200 people on here, and it has been really fulfilling, but the biggest pain point is scheduling it all and figuring out time zones, lol. You can download Calendly (it's free) and use that to set up your hours of availability, how long the meetings are, and any other settings you want. For example, I work out/meditate in the mornings and really hate speaking before 10 AM, so my hours are set for 11 AM onward. I also don't do meetings on Mondays or Fridays; those are MY days. This helps me focus on the time I need to manage other tasks by just sending a link. Let me know if this is helpful and I can share other things have made my life easier! (Note: This is not an ad, but it could be 👀 )

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As a Game Development student in Mentor, I’m excited to share a project I created back in September, after just three lessons in Unity! This project was my way of combining two homework assignments into something unique and fun. For our Unity class, we were tasked with creating a mini-game inspired by Frogger, the classic retro game. Meanwhile, in Game Design, we were challenged to create a game that incorporated fans as a central mechanic (with room for subjective interpretation). The result? “SAKANA!” – a pixel-art, top-down game where you play as a fish trying to escape a sushi restaurant. In SAKANA!, players help the fish flop to safety, dodging dangerous obstacles like knives, sinks, and the worst of all – nigiri plates on conveyor belts! What makes this game even more special to me is that I created all the art in Aseprite myself. While the game is simple in its execution, it taught me a lot about the fundamentals of Unity, like using the Transform, Collider2D, and Rigidbody2D components – and it was a blast to make. Thank you for reading and watching! I can’t wait to create more games and stories to share with you in the future.

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I want to share two game development related videos that I watched in 2024 and consider very valuable for anyone working with Unity! • Game Architecture with Scriptable Objects by Ryan Hipple. Link: https://lnkd.in/eRrR6w4g I learned how Scriptable Objects (SOs) can be used, not just for holding data, but also as 'Event Channels' in an Event Architecture. It introduced me to SO Variables, highlighting their advantages in making systems more modular and maintainable, and also addressing common issues I’ve encountered many times, such as challenges with Enums, Singletons, and tightly coupled modules. • Harnessing Light with URP and the GPU Lightmapper by Ciro Continisio Link: https://lnkd.in/eN6tB_aq This video taught me how different types of lights work in Unity and how to tweak the settings for various light sources and the lightmapper to produce lighting and shadows in scenes while adjusting their quality. This video also explains why certain artifacts may occur and how to address them. 🏗️💡#unity3d #gamedev #programming

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"I don't like leetcode style interviews!" See I wasn't making it up! Kurtis Nusbaum tells us more about why engineers don't like leetcode and the types of interviews that lead to a more enjoyable and effective interviewing experience.

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Hey Recruiters, Hiring Managers, and Fellow Bootcamp Grads! I think we can all agree that the tech landscape has changed, but there still has to be opportunities to introduce junior and associate level software engineers for the future of our profession. I have the extreme privilege to mentor Kwan (James) Ko, at a time that is more reliant on the power of networking than ever. What are some tips and job hunting ideas you have to help future industry professionals land their first opportunity? If you also don't mind sharing this with your network and passing on some goodwill! Also linking James post and profile here for some more impressions.

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Hey everyone, After having a very outdated website and many completed projects that were undocumented, I wanted to make a proper archive of projects that I could maintain easier as well as offer more information than a resume could provide. I just remade my site, https://jakerose.info, from scratch! I made the site data-driven, so it's easy for me to keep this updated over time and get in small tweaks/cleanups easily (I also wrote all html/css/js myself for a uniquely-styled site). Yay, no more website from my senior year of college! The site is going to be a central hub for all my projects with a developer breakdown for each project as well as offering a more in-depth resume/experience breakdown for my career. Among this large push, I thought it would be a good place to show my latest project that I did a breakdown on, called "The Pendant." I'm really proud of this full-stack project, especially the software layer I made for creating addressable LED animations that just lets all my systems scale very cleanly and offers an insane amount of flexibility for homemade props/pieces. Check it out in the "projects" tab!

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Switching tech stacks in the gaming industry can be overwhelming! 🎮🔄 As someone who has been in games over 7 years, I've identified two main categories of engineers: Low Level Engineers: These are the toughest out there. They work on developing and enhancing game engines. Hands-on experience with C++ and game libraries like DirectX and OpenGL is essential. High Level Engineers: They work using existing game engines such as Unity, Unreal, Cocos, Roblox Studio, and Game Maker. Each engine has its own programming language, interface, physics system, and animation system. Although slightly easier than low-level engineering, it still presents numerous challenges. As a High Level Engineer, the market demands and saturation can make us think about switching tech stacks often. The imposter syndrome sometimes hits, but the core concepts remain the same: - Creating game assets - Designing game UI - Developing animations - Using code to bring game systems and assets to life The industry is tough, but understanding these game development concepts allows for smoother transitions between tech stacks. Keep pushing forward and embrace the challenges! 💪 #GameDevelopment #TechStack #HighLevelEngineering #LowLevelEngineering #Unity #UnrealEngine #Cocos #RobloxStudio #GameMaker #DevLife #Coding #ImposterSyndrome

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I hear a lot of stories about how people break into tech these days. My story is a little different. I'll set the scene. It's 2008. I'm studying print design in college at The College of Staten Island, City University of New York. A friend of mine said a professor of his was starting a no-fee bootcamp with 5 other students. (This was a couple of years before coding bootcamps were a thing. He was ahead of his time.) I met with the professor to discuss the details. He said something the effect of "Print is dead, come with me if you want to live...comfortably." Fast forward a few weeks later and we were working out of an art and tech center called Eyebeam in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York. A few months later, we became an agency and I officially swapped Pantone swatches for a keyboard. We made minimum wage while gaining experience building sites for clients. At the same time, I was completing an internship with Spike TV for college credit then got my first job at Marvel as a front-end developer in 2009. 16 years and an appetizer combo platter of companies later and I haven't left the field. I've gained more skills, worked for fortune 500 companies, agencies, and startups, managed teams, saved and earned companies hundreds of thousands of dollars by implementing WCAG standards, work flow procedures, streamlining processes for faster delivery times, and mentored new devs. I've been in tech a long time and have no immediate plans to leave. A few years ago, a study was conducted by Accenture and tech education organization, Girls Who Code. The report indicated half of young women who go into tech leave by age 35. (https://lnkd.in/dxHMm7HS) I love this field too much and have come too far in my career to become a statistic. I'm currently expanding my skill set to become full stack by taking courses, contributing to open source, and freelancing. I don't know if it's sheer stubbornness, grit, or passion for building and maintaining products that's keeping me in this field but whatever the reason, I know I can be invaluable to an organization. I've done it before countless times and I can do it again.

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First time joining game jam! This is my GAMESEED 2024 submission for student category. my game not even close to nominated but I still get valuable experience from developing it. if you want to try the game heads up to this link: https://lnkd.in/gURwSgUB Enjoy the game! #game #gamedevelopment #indiegame #GAMESEED2024 #gamejam

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Here's a list of entry level jobs across the gaming industry being shared by Caitlin.

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Super excited to share something I just wrapped up at Headstarter! You know those AI art generators that take forever to create an image? I built one that’s lightning fast—like 500 milliseconds fast. Blink, and the image is ready. I used Modal and FastAPI for the backend, React and Nextjs for the frontend, and the SDXL Turbo model from Stability AI. Most tools take 3-4 seconds to generate an image, but this one? Half a second. That’s it. What makes me proud: - The backend is rock solid, handling errors. - The frontend is super smooth, with satisfying animations (thanks, Framer Motion!). - Some clever caching keeps it running insanely fast. If I had more time, I’d love to make it real-time—imagine the image generating as you type the prompt also I will add authentication and features like love, share, and bookmark. I learned so much about performance, scaling, and creating something people can actually use. Big thanks to Faizan Ahmed and Hassan Syed for their guidance.

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Conquering the Tabpocalypse: A New Hope (For Our Sanity)! Ever feel like your browser tabs are a warzone between work and personal life? Yeah, me too. Especially when you're juggling service-company stuff and client projects. Well, no more of that crap! I've spent a glorious week off work on a passion project, and I'm thrilled to announce... a "Shortcut Management Solution" (first version, but hey, it's a start, and it's already great!!) This baby's designed to be a life-saver for folks like us until the next big update is done incubating. 🍉 Here's the best part: your data stays "safely locked away" in your browser. No sneaky uploads or inter-browser gossip.  Just pure local-storage. 🍋 If you are already smart enough to use one browser for personal stuff, another for work, and a third for emailing and administrative stuff, heads up, you'll need to copy your data between browsers for now and for always as I made it a pledge not to take data out of the browser. You will then have to recreate your shortcuts on different browsers or if you're familiar with "LocalStorage", then I don't need to tell you how you could copy, MANUALLY, your data. Stay tuned - the first version drops in a few days, probably a week-end, as I have the obligation to focus on the awesome projects I do for a living during work-hours. Let's kiss that messy tab overload goodbye!  #productivityhacks #tabtaming #savethebrowser #comingsoon 🌶 PS: I do not own the background image, I used a random image as a background and it is not part of the shipped solution! 😜

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YouTube Just Released Their “Why We Watch 2.0” Report. We read it so you don’t have to—here are the key takeaways: 1️⃣ Emotional + Technical Quality Are Equally Important: Emotional resonance carries the same weight as production standards, with 91% of respondents expecting content to deliver on both fronts. 2️⃣ Authentic Stories Build Trust and Memory: Audiences are more likely to remember content they find relatable. Research shows that emotionally engaging content creates stronger mental associations, driving brand recall and loyalty. 3️⃣ Personalized Media Dominates: Viewers now curate their own media experiences, seeking content that reflects their values. Platforms like YouTube are capitalizing on this, with 400% more watch time on the big screen for top creators from 2021 to 2023. 4️⃣ Relevant Ads Make a Difference: Younger viewers in particular respond positively to ads when they align with personal interests or support their favorite creators, increasing engagement and trust. 5️⃣ Creator-Led Content is Redefining Media: 55% of viewers say that content from YouTube creators feels more relevant than what they find on traditional TV, signaling that creators are leading the way in shaping the future of entertainment. Creating content that connects emotionally isn’t just something we do—it’s how we’ve built our expertise over the years. Whether through immersive experiences, Web3 projects, interactive content, or just plain old storytelling, we understand what it takes to engage audiences and keep them coming back. Curious how these insights could shape your next project? Let’s chat. (We’ve added the full YouTube report link in the comments if you want to dive deeper.)

Exciting news! I've decided to extend my hobbies into the world of indie game development! I've always loved games, and now I'm putting my creativity to work on my very own project. I'm currently developing a 3D RPG with a post-apocalyptic setting—a game where players can explore a world filled with challenges and unexpected stories. It's early days, but I'm thrilled to learn and create something unique. If you're interested in indie games or have tips and thoughts on game development, I'd love to connect and hear from you! #IndieGameDev #GameDevelopment #RPG #PostApocalyptic #IndieGame

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