Hi, 👋 I’m Marisa! I’m a physicist, a data scientist and- most recently- a developer advocate.
As a student, I did a ton of work in various fields. My undergrad was in physics- which was cool because I got to nerd out at some incredible particle accelerators running experiments with antimatter! (spoiler alert: it’s not nearly as dramatic as it seems in a Dan Brown novel 🤣)
I moved on to a Ph.D. in computational theoretical physical chemistry. I learned how to code on a 5,000-line Fortran 77 program without any comments. 😱☠️ Even so, I had lots of fun trying to get it running on modern computers, setting up simulations and interpreting the data.
Because of this experience, I thought I wanted to be a data scientist “when I grew up.” 😂 Fast forward a bit, and I found a role for a developer advocate at an up-and-coming python package called Streamlit (you might have heard of it 😉). Turns out this job is a combo of everything I love! The more I looked into it, the more determined I was to be one.
A developer advocate is a catch-all; we are semi-technical, spend a lot of time with people, present (nearly) weekly, and create content. 🤓 It’s such a varied field that I learn new skills everywhere. And for me, this is what I love about the job; I’m a “jack of all trades- master of none” type of person.
Last year, Streamlit was acquired by none other than Snowflake. (YEAH, that Snowflake 👀) And I had a heart-wrenching decision to make. #DoIStayorDoIGo? In the end, I decided that I loved working in a busy, hectic, scrappy start-up, so I took a leap into the unknown…
Enter: Shipyard! A big reason I joined was because of the company culture. I was drawn to the small team environment, open collaboration, and the opportunity to grow. (Major bonus- the software is incredible 😻) Shipyard solves a big problem with software development, and it’s for more than just your DevOps, Product or QA teams. This is a solution for your entire company.
Essentially, we provide a platform for everyone on your team- regardless of technical skill- to view, test and try new features before they go into production. Usually, this is a tedious and time-consuming process that requires a ton of time from experts (usually DevOps). But now, anyone can be part of feature development. 🥳
Even though I’m not part of an engineering team, I fell in love with this concept. As someone responsible for creating content around new features, this is a godsend. (Like, how am I supposed to make a fantastic video on something I haven’t even been able to try! 🤷)
Now with the click of a button, I can run the latest code from any branch without any complicated mumbo-jumbo. Shipyard handles all of the technical stuff, so I can focus on the feature itself. I can get a feel for it and even grab screenshots or videos of the features I can use to prep our content! 🙌
Overall, I am pumped to join the team and can’t wait to see where we go from here! 🚀
