Landing on Mars: What a first year as a Martian feels like

I still vividly remember the first email from Eli and that final phone call. A wave of euphoria hit me. I couldn’t believe it. I had been following and "scouting" MarsBased for so long that joining the team felt strangely familiar, like I already knew them, even though they didn't know me yet.

However, that excitement was quickly met with a challenge: the average tenure at MarsBased is remarkably high for the tech sector. The bar was set high, and I immediately felt the nerves. After imagining this moment for so long, it was time to prove myself. Like every developer entering a high-performance environment, I had to navigate those initial weeks of imposter syndrome, being the newest "Martian" on the planet.

The "Plug and Play" onboarding

The first few days were perfectly organized, with just the right amount of onboarding sessions. It was a surreal experience: talking to Àlex for the first time after listening to him on so many podcasts, or listening to the rest of the team members introduce themselves when I already knew each and every one of their names by heart.

What surprised me most was the speed. By my third day, I was already contributing to the project I was assigned. It was true "plug and play" integration. Coming from a year in a "Big Corp" environment, the change felt like breathing fresh air. It was finally a blank canvas where I could get my hands dirty. I could choose my own Mac, return to GitHub, use cutting-edge AI tools, and discover the efficiency of Linear. Having control over an entire project again, rather than just a tiny, isolated slice, tasted like pure freedom.

A community of go-to people

It is undoubtedly a challenge to maintain a sense of community and belonging in a 100% remote team, but MarsBased makes it happen. Adapting to the workflow wasn't difficult because the philosophy resonated with me: it feels like a group of highly coordinated freelancers, frontends and backends, each owning our projects, not just 9-to-5 employees. This is definitely not a place for "seat-warming"; the list of challenges is as long as it is unpredictable. Here, the unpredictable is embraced, and that feeling is contagious.

On this planet, there isn't a single leader to follow; instead, everyone is a potential "go-to person" within their own specialty. We overlap in knowledge and support each other, yet maintain the independence that senior profiles value. This is only possible because we have exactly the necessary meetings, no more, no less. In fact, you could say our only "Agile ceremonies" are the Martian Tapas on Thursdays, where we share knowledge, and the Martian Coffee on Fridays, where we share all things geeky and random.

Shortly after joining, I had my first retreat in Tenerife, an essential experience to truly feel part of the crew. What kind of company organizes these trips for its employees? Well, MarsBased does.

Navigating the AI explosion

My first year coincided with the AI explosion. With so many changes occurring in just weeks, you can easily feel like you're drowning while trying to decide which new tool or model to learn next.

While some companies implement AI timidly, or only when everyone else is already doing it, at MarsBased, they throw you into the deep end of the pool, knowing we will all fill it with water together, little by little. At first, I had only scratched the surface with Cursor. I only realized I was still on "Level 1" when Claude Code suddenly entered the game; it felt like I had been playing in the junior league all that time. Now, I wasn't just executing tasks; I was evolving. For a developer, that feeling of constant growth is exactly what keeps us hooked on our craft.

Behind the code

You quickly realize that your colleagues are not just elite engineers; they are a group of responsible adults who are just as vulnerable and "geeky" as you are. Behind the code, you find a diverse crew of rock stars, singers, chefs, and pastry enthusiasts; avid readers, puzzle lovers, video game geeks, athletes, and marathon runners.

We all face the same daily life hurdles: a doctor’s appointment, a sick child, or a sudden home repair. Yet, despite our individual lives and schedules, there is a collective harmony and we are all rowing asynchronously in the same direction.