Our new year's resolutions for 2018
Diario del capitán, fecha estelar d524.y37/AB
In some languages, they say that there's no two without three, meaning that if you've done something twice, you will do it a third time without a doubt.
In this case, I'd like to add that there's no three without four, as this is the fourth time sharing our New Year's resolutions, so if you want to learn more about our Martians and what are we up to, keep reading!
The company will turn four next month. Throughout the years we have seen redesigns of our website, changes in the team and even in the technologies we use and kinds of project we develop. A good way to track this progression is by sharing our plan for the year ahead.
If you're curious, here are the previous editions of this post:
Let's go with the 2018 edition!
Oriol joined us in 2016, after his experience as an entrepreneur as CTO of Dineyo. Last year, he was key in providing very positive team dynamics like organising the company retreat and our expedition to 2017's EuRuKo in Budapest.
Oriol Collell Backend Developer2017 was intense and I learnt a lot, especially in front-end development by working on Angular apps. I also sharpened my skills in DevOps, sometimes the hard way by having to put out fires.
This year, my main goal is to improve my management skills: learn to do better estimates and communicate in a more effective way with clients. I have a hard time dealing with deadlines, and it's something I need to work on to be able to organize the projects according to the client's needs without compromising the quality of the software being built and the morale of the team.
On the personal side, I want to continue learning more about projects based on blockchain as I think it's a technology that will revolutionize many sectors in the upcoming years. Also, I want to start doing more trail running and participate in some races.
Pablo joined us after the summer of 2017, in the midst of the organisation of the first Startup Grind Barcelona conference, where we first met him. He's leading the Naiz project, right now, while working from Asturias.
Pablo Rivera Backend developer2017 was a year of deep changes in my professional career. Seen in perspective I'm quite happy with how everything turned out.
This year, I want to improve my DevOps skills, as well as learn about how to enhance project performance. I'm sure working in Naiz is going to make me excel in both commitments.
On a personal level, I want to give my two cents contributing to open source projects. Also, I'm studying Japanese again. I expect to take the next certification exam by December.
Jordi has been constantly improving every bit of the company so that everything runs as smoothly and as flawlessly as possible, and he's also contributed greatly to the sales department during 2017.
Jordi Vendrell Fundador & COOWe accomplished most of our goals last year. We improved every single aspect of the company: we rethought the hiring workflow, implemented new tools to improve the projects' planning, made significant steps toward having a better communication within the team, improved the organization and we organised more social activities than ever.
This year, I’d like to keep digging in that direction and don’t make any step backward.
On a personal level, I would like to find more balance between personal and working life and be able to do activities I had to postpone because of family needs: do some sport, hang out with friends more often, do some pleasure trips, etc.
2017 has been an important year for David. After Javi's departure, he's the employee who's been around for the longest time. He's also transitioned to other projects, allowing him to experience very diverse technologies and project types.
David Gómez Full-Stack DeveloperLast year, I had the opportunity to participate in two JS apps using Angular and Ionic for mobile development, so my last year resolution was accomplished!
My new year's resolution for 2018 is to improve my frontend knowledge and to try some of one trending languages like Elixir or Crystal while continuing to learn about DevOps.
On a personal side, I want to do sport every weekday, for at least one hour. I also would love to learn more about new blockchain projects and get into car mechanics.
Juan completed his first year at MarsBased, and is very eager to share his first Martian new year's resolutions!
Juan Artero Backend DeveloperLast year has been my first at MarsBased. During 2017, I worked on lots of projects and I had the possibility of starting and maintaining a new project, which contributed to improving a lot my knowledge in system administration, testing my Ruby skills too. But I think the most important knowledge that I have acquired in 2017 is how to make a profitable product on the internet, by working shoulder-to-shoulder with one of our most important clients.
My new year's resolution is to improve my written skills and my spoken English.
Javier has been around since God knows when. He's been rocking the frontend side of the projects for so long that we've even forgotten who hired him in the first place.
Javier Artero Diseñador & Frontend DeveloperIn 2017, I have learned many things: I have improved a lot my Ruby and JS skills and I have started working with Angular, which has allowed me to learn a lot about component-based structures.
For this current year, I intend to improve my English - which, despite my dedication still shows room for improvement -, keep learning Angular, and to continue with the open source projects that I started during 2017.
On a personal level, I'm shooting for a better balance between work and family, and to spend more time with my son so I can enjoy every bit of his first years.
Although she comes all the way from Mexico, she's based in Barcelona. Whilst enjoying the contradiction of managing the "office" in an officeless company, she thrives on creating the right environment at both MarsBased and Startup Grind Barcelona.
Bego Echeverria2017 brought me waves of pleasant changes and unexpected surprises: I got married to my best friend, moved to Spain, got a new job at a great company where the work environment was exactly what I had always wanted, got involved in an interesting and historic political climate and got to make new friends from varied cultures, something that I'd been looking forward to.
In 2018, my main goal is to achieve a more disciplined and structured workflow. I want to become more productive and efficient at work, being fully aware of all the steps in any process and making a conscious effort towards better quality.
On the personal aspect, I want to feel healthier. I have come to believe that there may be some hidden satisfaction that comes with a more disciplined lifestyle. Sleep at the right hours, eat the right food, do enough exercise, etc. I used to think that this kind of routine could feel monotonous or boring, but I'm starting to see some beauty in developing strong habits that allow you to experience your body at its max.
Dani is our most recent hire, working from Southern Spain. He's a very proficient musician and his seniority in development has allowed him to hit the ground running.
Daniel Gomez2017 was important to me: I wanted to start working again after 3 years basically devoted to parenting. I took that period as an opportunity to learn things I liked, some related to my hobbies (music, dsp), other related to my professional career (functional programming, clojure, elm). But when you are out of the market for a while, some fears arise.
I was hired to do a couple of jobs that mixed new technologies (PHP, at my age!) with some things I did in the past (real-time communication infrastructures). And then I landed on Mars, that really looks like the place I want to be. So I can't be happier.
One of my goals for the next year is to write blog posts. I enjoy writing and I believe that it is the most powerful learning technique (and sometimes you help others as a side effect ;-)
I'll keep learning new technologies (Angular, TypeScript and GraphQL are on my radar) and I want to focus on finding a place inside MarsBased, and developing a working routine that leads into a sustainable balance between family/working/hobbies/leisure. Having the possibility of reduced working hours really helps :-)
2017 was a big year for me. In the sales department, we achieved an unprecedented stability in the dealflow of the company, and we've, for the last year, been booked for at least three or four months in advance. We also organised the first Startup Grind Barcelona Conference ever with a lot of success.
Àlex Rodríguez Bacardit Fundador & CEOMy 2017 resolutions were to increase the company annual revenue and the size of our client accounts, which we've done. I'm truly grateful for being able to work with clients that are so understanding of our methods, which eventually affects them positively.
I also pledged to learn Rails, which I did to some extent, until I started playing around with Crystal, which got me trapped into it instead. It is so interesting!
In 2018, I want to get the word out there more often about the cool things we do in the company: we're helping our clients to grow, to expand to other countries, we even do joint business development with them, we bring international speakers to Startup Grind Barcelona and we're organising the second conference ever, just to name a few cool things we do! Time to see us in the media!
The life of a CTO in small companies is exciting, yet also very confusing. You go from coding to sales, to putting out fires, to business trips every week, back and forth. However, we have achieved a lot more stability so he can focus on more strategic decisions, hiring and to provide valuable content for the blog.
Xavier Redó Fundador & CTOI want to contribute more to the marketing side of MarsBased. On the one hand, you will see me more often than not publishing on our blog. On the other hand, I want to learn more about web traffic and tracking tools so we can learn more from the visitors on our website and see where do our leads come from.
I also need to catch up with the latest versions of Angular and React. I've been lately more involved with backend technologies and also with servers. I feel like I left the frontend behind a bit too much.
Also, I feel like a can give an extra push to the company if I start speaking at events, to share my insights and provide value to a bigger audience, and also by nurturing the relationships with our partners, clients and like-minded companies.
Outside of the company, I want to spend more quality time with my wife and my son, and go deeper in the music department (I play bass).
David spent 2017 moving twice, finally relocating to Barcelona. He spends most of his time kicking ass in the frontend part of the projects, working right now on the biggest MarsBased project.
David Garmendia Frontend Developer2017 has been unreal: tonnes of personal and professional changes. I started in MarsBased in February and I couldn't be happier. I've grown so much: I've improved my old-fashioned JavaScript skills and I've learned a lot of new cool technologies like Angular or Ionic. Working remotely allowed me to work from Asturias, Coruña, San Sebastian, Malta, and Barcelona. Until now, I've never felt such freedom. Also, this year I got married. A year to be remembered.
My top 2018 resolution is to keep improving my frontend skills adding more frameworks and tools to my toolbox. My priority is to learn React since it has become an interesting trend. I'm also interested in GraphQL, Vue, PWAs, and Node.js, so I'll try to keep an eye on them.
On the personal side, I would like to create at least one pet project. Last but not least, I'll try to live a healthier life exercising more and improving my cooking skills.
For the third year in a row, our team of Martians shares their new year's resolutions!
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Every year, we share our team's new year resolutions, to see what we're pledging to do throughout the year, both in the business and the personal side.
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Like a lot of people on Earth, we like to share our New Year resolutions to keep progressing in our careers. Some of our team members share theirs on this blog post!
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