Marcelo has been a Making Senser for almost 4 years now. He’s a committed team player who brings invaluable technical expertise to the table. But you’d never know it by looking at his high school track record.
Not Your Typical High School Computer Geek
In high school, Marcelo took a Computer Science course and flunked out. His interests lay in other areas like psychology and philosophy. Nevertheless, with an eye toward building a career with marketable skills, he went to college for Software Engineering.
Upon entering UNICEN, Tandil’s Software Engineering program, Marcelo barely had a clue as to what a programming language was. He also had very little inkling about what it would be like to have a tech career, but right away he knew it might be for him.
What Marcelo saw before him was a challenging career in an ever-evolving field and, luckily for him, that has turned out to be absolutely true. Just two years into the program, he was certain in his heart that he’d made the right career choice.
Now, twelve years later, Marcelo is even more convinced the choice was perfect for him.
Work that Doesn’t Feel Like Work
To this day Marcelo enjoys reading psychology, but on his own time and only as a hobby. In fact, he says he can’t imagine working 40 hours a week in that field. He’d much rather be doing what he’s doing now.
Marcelo’s passion for his career is evident, as he says he continues to find new challenges and exciting opportunities every day. Remembering back to a pizza store job he had in his teens, he recalls the clock-watching state of mind that comes with hating your job. He can remember thinking, ‘how long ‘til my shift ends?’.
Now, with his present career, it’s more like, ‘5 o’clock? Already?’.
“Time flies when you are working on a project you enjoy and with a team you feel comfortable with, and that’s pretty much all the time. Plus we have AC and plenty of coffee”.
Marcelo’s Advice for Kids Who Want to Work in Technology
Go for it! Citing the huge number of possibilities within the software industry, Marcelo states that you can never get bored with a career in technology…
- There’s plenty of room for innovation and creativity
- You can either work alone or with a team
- You can build your own product or add your skills to someone else’s project
- You can find your specialization along the way
- You will face new challenges every day
- In the software industry, the only constant is change
Challenges and Obstacles? You Bet
To make sure the whole team is pulling in the same direction, you have to align business goals with technical decisions. Sometimes that’s harder than it sounds.
The first weeks are all about understanding what the project needs, making sure every team member knows what is expected and what you are dealing with, and how to clearly define the project’s short and long term goals.
If you’re the kind of person that wants to know every little detail about every aspect of the project and the team, kind of the Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein of software development, you will want to leave nothing to chance.
Proud Moments in Marcelo’s Journey So Far
When asked about his biggest accomplishments so far, Marcelo was quick to reply:
Becoming a software architect at a very young age. In college, Marcelo found himself in a software design class where the professor was talking about software architectures and the role of a software architect, what decisions they make and how that role is usually filled by the most experienced and knowledgeable member of a team. He remembers thinking ‘That’s what I want to do, work as a Software Architect’, but he knew that would require plenty of years of experience. Luckily, at the age of 22, he found himself working as Software Architect for a huge project, where he learned a lot.
Quitting the Software Architect job. Surprisingly, Marcelo considers this his other important accomplishment. It makes sense as he explains it: I started to feel I had hit a dead end, and saw too many people stuck in a job they were not happy about just because they had learned the ropes or reached a certain position within a company. The accomplishment was to get out of my comfort zone and look for a new challenge elsewhere, even when that meant starting from scratch.’
A curious fact? He currently enjoys watching “That ‘70s Show” on Netflix ;)
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The team here at Making Sense is proud to have Marcelo working at our company. As you can see, he brings not only technical expertise, but passion and creativity to everything he does. In that way, he’s proven to be an invaluable team player whose energy motivates us all to to strive higher every single day. Who knew that flunking out of a high school computer science class could lead to all this!