This is a new article from the Meet a Making Senser series of posts. By showing you a glimpse of our people and how we do things at Making Sense, we hope to break down the traditional barriers that often exist between developers and their clients. The more you know about us and the more we know about you, the better we can all work to make your project better than ever!

Mariano Ravinale is a Software Architect/Tech Lead at Making Sense and works remotely from Santa Fe, Argentina. He started working at MS February 2013.

How did you get your start in software development?

I started studying Systems Engineering at Universidad Tecnológica Nacional in Argentina and finished my university career at Universidad de Barcelona in Spain, my whole family was living there. I wanted to have the experience to live in Europe and give it a try, and see if it was the place for me and my girlfriend. After some time we decided to finish my studies and go back to Argentina, I think there’s too much to do here and it was a good opportunity . 

I later returned to Santa Fe and have been working as a developer since 2007.

How did you start working at MS?

I saw a LinkedIn ad looking for developers. I was impressed by how MS worked with Open Source, and how Andres Moschini and others like JD contribute to that GitHub. I also got a little bit deeper into their culture and I knew for sure it was the place where I wanted to work.

Business culture is so important, and MS seemed to have a high-trust, cohesive culture that encouraged creativity and collaboration. I felt I would be able to use my skills to their full potential, and grow while I was here as well.

Of course all of that turned out to be absolutely true! I started as a Senior Developer and I am now Software Architect and and Tech Lead, a role I moved into in under three years.

What was your first challenge at MS?

My very first big project was a Front End job where we had to apply very new technologies. The project called for a very strong team, with everyone was working to their strengths. Since I was new, I didn’t really know the particular strengths and weaknesses of everyone on the project, and vice versa (they weren’t totally familiar with mine, either).

But since the working environment here at Making Sense is built around a strong sense of collaboration, we quickly found our roles and the project was a big success. Interestingly, that team is now the company core. I’m proud of that and it shows how teamwork is essential in everything we do.

Later on I worked in several projects involving MEAN technologies with clients that were aligned with the technologies and similar culture. This is something that we try to match on each project. In a particular case I remember an interesting project related to the pharmaceutical industry which intended to change and improve people’s habits throughout a platform. That was pretty cool, not only for the implementation challenge, but for the impact that the project could have on others.

What do you do now at Making Sense?

At present I help in the project estimations in the early stages of our projects, as well as overseeing the quality of everything that goes out. I also work with Operations and Human Resources to arrange teams for our project needs.

I believe that something very important to highlight is that, as our COO Sergio Marchetti says, “we try to arrange teams in a way that every person grows professionally and personally.” This of course, is seen in the service we provide to our clients, and how it reflects on the quality of our work.

What’s it like to work at MS?

Although I work remotely, I feel I am part of the company. I know that there is an affinity with my coworkers and we share the same values while we grow as professionals. Every once in a while I travel to the Mar del Plata development center and meet the new members and work side by side with my colleagues. This reinforces our bond. At MS we try to add value to everything we work on, and I think that being part of this community helps us to do just that.

What do you do in your free time?

Well, you won’t be surprised at this: I have always loved robotics, domotics and hacking hardware. This has been the case even since I was a little kid: electronic challenges, and mixing it with software have always fascinated me!

And of course I like to spend time with my one year old boy and my wife. Travel around to near towns and visit friends is a must every weekend.