Welcoming Christina Martinez, our new Developer Experience Engineer

Today, we're excited to share that Christina Martinez is joining the team.

Christina is based in Northern California and has built some cool side projects, which you can find here at christinacodes.dev.

You might recognize her from this blog post or this video she recorded a few weeks ago:

More about Christina

How did you get into software?

I fell into it by complete accident! I got a business degree and started my first job, a marketing role at a tech company. A small part of the job was to build basic webpages on an eCommerce site. Most of it was copying and pasting from other pages and changing a few things, but sometimes I’d get more complex asks from the Design department.

It took me forever to do, and it felt frustrating to be nearly useless at an area of my job, as infrequent as it was. So I took a Codecademy learning path on web development, and the rest is history.

I didn’t expect to fall in love with coding like I did. It felt magical to start with an empty file and create whatever I wanted. The options were almost unlimited. Coding became a hobby, even after my learning path ended.

Then I asked the company if I could practice building webpages for a few hours a week. After a few months, that turned into a full-time offer on the MarTech team, followed by several years on a product development team. It’s been years since I first centered a div, and I still believe coding is a magic power.

Why are you at Resend?

I’ve been following Resend ever since a friend of mine started working here. I heard lots of good things about the product and the company, and even got a taste of what it’d be like to work here when I wrote a blog post and made a video on the Resend .NET SDK.

When the Developer Experience Engineer role opened up, I applied right away. I’m thrilled to join such a talented, smart, and friendly group of people.

Where do you find #inspiration?

At the risk of you not taking me seriously, I’m inspired by silly software. I love it when developers use their talents to make things that are whimsical and fun. I mentioned that I think coding is a magic power.

It would be such a shame if we all used our magic powers to exclusively make gray-and-white insurance software. Not that insurance software isn’t important. But I love discovering apps that feel fun, silly, cozy, or even a little bit homemade.

I love when you can tell that a real person put extra care into smoothing out experiences, making things easy, and especially adding some joy into your life.

If you weren't programming, what would you be doing?

I’d probably be a Marketing Manager at my prior company. I really did enjoy the Marketing role that I was in, and I enjoyed the Programming roles I had even more. But I’m excited to step into a role that combines Marketing and Programming in such a cool way. It feels like it’ll play to my strengths well, and now I’ll get to meet so many new developer friends!

What does your desktop/home screen look like?

One of my first downloads on this Mac was Raycast, so I could get the “Set Resend Wallpaper” command. We’ll see how long the desktop stays this clean.

Favorite tool?

After quite a bit of peer pressure from work friends, I finally caved and started using 1Password. I know, I’m late to the game.

Now I feel a lot less hack-able since I’m no longer re-using the same password for everything. I mean… I’ve totally never done that before. Let’s move on.

Favorite hotkey?

This might not count, but I have an ergonomic mouse that has left and right buttons near your thumb. I set them to Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right to switch desktop Spaces. I can’t live without it now.

Favorite place to visit?

My local library has a maker space, complete with a wood shop, 3D printers, sewing machines, laser cutters, soldering tools, and so much more. I’m there on an almost-weekly basis working on some new craft. Support your local library!

I love to travel, too. I studied abroad in Spain and later lived there for a year, where I owned a boutique personal training gym. I'm completely in love with the country, and it's a place I'll always go back to whenever I get the chance.

Advice for ambitious software engineers?

Don’t be afraid to look silly. It’s the best way to learn. And sometimes, when you admit that you don’t know something, it frees others up to do the same, and everyone learns more as a result.