Your Django Story: Meet Marina Mele
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
After finishing her Ph.D. in Physics, Marina decided to move her career towards the Computer Science field. She discovered Python in an amazing EdX course, where you had to give PacMan some intelligence in order to escape the maze. And soon after, Marina started learning Django and did a small application as part of a research project. Then she got lucky and was hired by an amazing marketing company, where she’s been able to keep learning Django and building amazing things. Finally, Marina started a website, where she shares tips and notes about Django, Python and some other useful stuff!
How did your story with code start?
I started coding when I was doing my PhD. The common language used in the department was Fortran, so I worked mostly with it…. until I discovered Python. Unfortunately that was at the very end of my thesis, but I kept with it since then.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
I don’t know if I consider myself a programmer. It’s true that I spend most of the time in front of a computer, yes, and I also code a lot. But my work is also about research and development, about finding new tools and tricks to help improve the inbound marketing strategy of our clients.
But to answer the question, before my current work I was studying the Josephson Effect in multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates. I won’t go into detail here :-)
What do you love the most about coding?
When I code, I’m usually in what it’s called a state of flow: I’m fully immersed in the process, and with energized focus. Of course there are bad times (like debugging), but usually I’m enjoying what I do.
Moreover, when building something new, I’m involved in the whole process: planning, executing and controlling the results. All these steps are interesting and challenging, and encourage me to be creative to find better ways to solve a given problem.
Why Django?
I discovered Django at the very end of my PhD. I was doing a Python application for another research project, and we wanted it to be online. Django was just a nice solution for that.
However, after discovering it, and knowing that I wanted to change fields, I started a project of my own with Django. It was a MOOCs database, where students would review their courses and find new ones based on shared preferences. I didn’t finish it, as I started my current job, but nevertheless, it was really fun. I learned a lot during that short period of time. Specially thanks to all the online Django community.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
There are two cool projects I’m working on right now: one personal and one professional.
The personal is the TaskBuster Django Tutorial, which explains best practices for building a more complex Django app. It also includes a Django project template, to help developers start their projects faster.
The professional is an analytics tool for inbound marketing projects. It will provide our clients a deeper understanding about their website analytics, focusing on the performance of their inbound marketing strategy.
What are you the most proud of?
My website. I always admired people that post their solutions on the web, just to help others. When I started at the marketing company, I realized I could do the same by creating a website. Since then, I’ve been writing a post on every solution I find to a given programming problem I encounter. Specially if I can’t find it already in the Internet.
What are you curious about?
Many, many things. When I had more free time, I was always doing some MOOC course about all kind of different subjects: biology, architecture, programming, artificial intelligence… I’m always eager to learn new things.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
I think my hobby is writing on my website, as I spend a lot of time doing that. But I also like to hang out with my friends, play Padel, travel or just walk around Barcelona.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
If you get stuck, Google your problem! There is an amazing community out there, that posts their problems and solutions. If your code raises an error that you don’t understand, just Google it. I’m pretty sure someone else got it, asked about it, and had a response from a member of the community. And if you can’t find the solution, but you manage to solve it, make sure you make it public :-)
Thanks Marina! :)