Quick disclaimer: Hi everyone! My name is Bridget, and I'm new to the Atlassian Community Team as the Content Manager. Every week I interview a member of this Community to highlight the unique ways that folks interact with Atlassian products. If you have recommendations or feedback for future spotlights, please send them my way: bsauer@atlassian.com.
This week the Community Spotlight shines on @Marcos Garcia, a DevOps Engineer at Sogema Technologies, a company changing the world with meaningful projects in developing nations. (No big deal, right)? Sogema is working on bringing fully automated software technologies to the governments of countries in West Africa and Latin America.
B: Tell me a little about a Sogema Technologies project that you feel has had the biggest positive impact on the world so far?
M: Bringing our Tax Administration System (SIGTAS) to countries with little or no information technology, it is certainly a thrill. You can witness an immediate positive impact of people having contact with modern technology. In addition, all the infrastructure we have to build (with help of partners) around it, creates more jobs and impulse the development of a nation. I’m so proud to work here. Last week, for example, we demo'd DevOps, Containers + Pipelines to the Government of Senegal…. It is lovely to see their reception and how much they are curious about it. Our website: http://www.sogematech.com
B: What are some of the biggest challenges you face while bringing automated software technologies to the governments of countries in West Africa and Latin America?
M: The biggest challenge, I’d say it is the basic infrastructure. Second, the learning curve, but I personally love to spend time training people.
B: What Atlassian products do you use? Which is your favorite?
M: We use many: Confluence, Portfolio, Jira, and Bitbucket. My favorite used to be Bitbucket, but now with the latest releases of Jira and Confluence, with fresher looks, I might have changed the idea. We have to address a big gap here with customer-facing software documentation (multi-language). Confluence here is only for internal docs but It feels we are not using its full potential. I might need help from you guys ;).
B: How did you end up moving from Brazil to Canada?!
M: Good question, I loved how things turned out. I was brought here as a Java Dev, back in 2013, by a local company (Automotive Data Solutions). They found me once I updated my LinkedIn mentioning I was in Montreal, for a temporary project at BNP Paribas’s Montreal office. I was a contractor for them back then in São Paulo. Incredible! I came here for a business trip, once the project was done I got back with a job offer and sponsored visa. I have such admiration for these 2 companies for opening their doors of Canada and changing my life. I’m forever grateful.
B: What do you do for fun?
M: I build guitars for fun:
https://www.instagram.com/garciaguitars.ca
Feel free to add Marcos on LinkedIn!
We decided to reach out to Marcos based on his intro post, HERE. If you haven't already, please chime in on that thread so we can get to know you a little better.
Until next Spotlight!
Bridget
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