Some career stories start with a perfectly planned roadmap.

Mine didn’t.

It started with curiosity, a love for music, and a scrappy little project when I was about 13. A friend and I built a small online radio station. We streamed music on weekends, had a chat where people could send messages, and used a microphone to give shoutouts live.

There was no big vision behind it. We were just experimenting and having fun.

But that was the first time I realized how powerful it felt to build something with technology that real people could interact with.

That mix of creativity and engineering stuck with me.

Today I’ve been at Marvik for more than four years. When I joined, I was employee number 19. Since then I’ve seen the company grow a lot, and I’ve grown along with it.

Looking back, my career path hasn’t really been about “climbing a ladder.” It’s been more about building habits that make growth possible: learning quickly, working well with others, staying adaptable, and keeping curiosity alive even as technology keeps changing.

This is what that journey has looked like so far.

From curiosity to engineering foundations

I studied Computer Engineering at Universidad Católica del Uruguay, starting at 17.

I definitely didn’t start university as a programming prodigy. In fact, when I look back, my programming foundations were pretty weak at the beginning. What helped me wasn’t being ahead of everyone else. It was having the right environment: good teachers, strong fundamentals, and teamwork is key in today's work. That last part matters more than most people expect.

In my degree, almost everything was done in groups. That has pros and cons. Sometimes you get an amazing team. Sometimes you have to step up and push things forward when others don’t. But each team member needs to have the commitment to contribute to the success of the team performance.

That experience ended up being direct preparation for real industry work: no serious project gets shipped alone.

Learning how to collaborate, explain ideas, debate solutions, and sometimes to drive to success when things stall is a huge part of becoming a good engineer.

A key accelerator: English and exposure

One of the most important and transformative experiences in my personal and academic development was participating in an exchange program at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), a university that blends strong academics, beautiful campus and a beautiful football culture.

Of course, my English improved a lot. But perhaps, the biggest impact was to gather new perspectives.

Living in another country, being exposed to multiple cultures, learning alternative ways to frame problems, and studying there makes you realize that growth begins when you step outside what feels familiar.

Talent is everywhere, but the level of training and skills of engineers in South America are remarkable. Our education stands on par with the best anywhere in the world.

If I had to share one very practical piece of advice to anyone pursuing a tech career, it would be this: Invest in your English. Not just classes, but real usage. The kind of immersion where you stop translating in your head and start thinking in the language.

When you work with global clients, documentation, and fast-moving technical ecosystems, English stops being a “nice to have.” It becomes leverage.

Advice I would give my younger self

Technology moves incredibly fast. Tools change, frameworks evolve, and what’s relevant today might look different in a year. Over time I’ve realized that a few principles matter more than any specific technology.

They are:

1) Proactive curiosity isn’t optional

In tech, waiting for instructions doesn’t work well. Things move too quickly. You need to keep learning, exploring, and adapting constantly.

2) Soft skills matter as much as technical skills

You can be technically brilliant, but if you can’t communicate clearly, collaborate, or help your team move forward, it will eventually limit you. Most complex problems are solved by teams, not individuals. Thus, work on your people skills.

3) Don’t try to learn everything

The world of technology is huge. It’s impossible to master everything.

What helped me was building a learning plan: choosing a direction, breaking it into smaller steps, and progressing iteratively.

There are actually public roadmaps online for things like frontend, backend, full-stack, or machine learning. They’re great for understanding what you already know, what you should learn next, and what you can safely ignore for now. Thus, use public roadmaps.

4) Learn from others

A big part of growth is realizing that your first idea won’t always be the best one. Getting better often means being open to other people’s experience. 

Thus, asking questions, debating solutions, and listening to people often teaches more than studying alone.

Joining an AI company… as a junior frontend developer

When I joined Marvik, I started as a Junior Developer working on frontend with React.

And here’s something important that many candidates don’t realize:

You, as I did, can join an AI company without being an AI engineer.

Building real AI products isn’t just about models. It’s about systems.

Every project involves product design, frontend, backend, cloud infrastructure, deployment, monitoring, and many other pieces.

AI might be the core, but getting something into production requires full end-to-end engineering.

Early on, the work wasn’t “easy junior tasks.” It was real work. For example, one of my first challenges involved building complex 3D rendering logic in the frontend using low-level technologies. It was difficult, but those kinds of projects force you to learn quickly.

A lot of my growth came from three things: mentorship from more experienced engineers, a group of friends and peers who constantly talk about technology outside work, and exposure to real projects where execution actually matters. Along the way, persistence and resilience played a huge role in helping me push through difficult problems, adapt when things did not go as planned, and keep building.

The project that shaped me the most

One of the projects that had the biggest impact on my growth was a platform we built for a large global client. It was the kind of project where the hardest part wasn’t writing code. It was managing uncertainty.

At the beginning, we weren’t even sure if everything we wanted to do would work reliably.

We were asking questions like:

Can this system actually work at scale? How do we demonstrate progress before the product is usable? How do we keep the client confident while the system is still evolving?

The platform eventually handled quite a lot.

It automatically ingested documents like presentations and slide decks, generated summaries, categorized content by topics, and analyzed trends across large collections of material.

Users could explore documents through a chat-style interface, query multiple sources at once, and visualize insights through dashboards and graphs.

The project evolved across several phases, and over time it became a system the client genuinely relied on.

For me, that experience changed how I saw my role as an engineer. At some point you stop feeling like you’re just contributing small pieces, and you start realizing you can help build and own complex systems end-to-end.

Why I stayed

One of the reasons I’ve stayed at Marvik for several years is that it works as two things at the same time.

First, it’s a very strong technical environment. You work with people who have deep experience solving difficult problems under real constraints.

Second, it’s a genuinely good place to work. Not because of perks, but because of how people behave. If you get stuck, someone will help you even if they’re not assigned to your project. Technical discussions are constructive, and different perspectives are encouraged.

Over time, that kind of environment makes a huge difference. The human side of work isn’t decoration. It actually improves how teams execute.

The future of the role: less coding, more thinking

My view of engineering is that the role is evolving.

We’ll probably write less code manually over time, but planning, architecture, and decision-making will become even more important.

AI tools already make it easier to write code in unfamiliar languages. But what really matters is understanding systems deeply enough to adapt to any stack.

We’ve had situations where a project required a language the team didn’t know well. Years ago, that might have been a blocker. Today, if your fundamentals are strong, you can still figure it out and deliver.

The real advantage for modern engineers is developing: systems thinking, architectural clarity, the ability to define scope and intent, and the flexibility to adapt as tools change.

Looking back

When I look back at the last few years, what stands out most is how much growth comes from real work.

Not courses, not tutorials, but actual projects, working with people who challenge you, navigating uncertainty when the answer isn’t obvious, and figuring things out as you go.

Technology will keep evolving. Tools will change. The way we build software will keep shifting.

What stays constant is the mindset: curiosity, proactivity, and the willingness to keep learning.

If you’re building a career in tech, my advice is simple: focus on strong fundamentals, surround yourself with people you can learn from, and don’t wait until you feel “ready” to take on difficult problems.

Most of the time, growth happens while you’re figuring things out along the way.

If you’re curious and interested in learning more, explore our open roles and reach out.