Welcome to Gratitude Driven, a weekly newsletter where I share practical ideas and insights across personal growth, professional development, and the world of AI/ML. ✨
In This Newsletter
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How Coding Interviews Are Changing In the Era of AI
I’m pretty sure this is one of the most useful videos I’ve ever made. I sat down with 20+ hiring managers at companies ranging from startups to big tech, and learned how they’re hiring in the AI-era.
TL;DR - if you’re only focusing on LeetCode right now, that might be a bad strategy…
Blog version is here.
The Real Reason I Do All of This
You may have wondered about why my company is called “Gratitude Driven” when I primarily make content about tech stuff.
The thing is, the reason I wanted to make content at first actually had nothing to do with tech. Yes, I was mentoring people and I kept seeing consistent questions I knew I could help with, but having a good job you enjoy is just one part of living a full life.
What I really want to do is help change the way you see the world. Not just help you get a job.
And that mission started with a specific day: June 13th, 2015.
That was the day the person I am now came into the world.
I had just left my husband. We'd been together since we were 14, and our breakup was simultaneously sudden and nearly a decade in the making.
Throughout that time, we brought out the worst in each other. We were goth kids — being happy was cringe, being optimistic meant you were naive. There was a narrow set of interests I was allowed to pursue, and an even narrower set of people I was allowed to see.
I believed that people who claimed to be happy were lying. I thought happy relationships were just a front people put up to look better than everyone else. I didn't think anyone was truly happy — so how could I be?
We were dysfunctional, codependent, and abusive. He proposed the morning after a particularly bad fight, with no planning or ceremony. I said yes because I felt it was inevitable, and we might as well get the tax break. I didn't tell anyone when we got married because I knew it was a mistake, but the momentum was too strong for me to break away.
Until it wasn't.
A series of events helped me gain the confidence to see that there was another way, and I finally left.
In my first weeks after leaving, I stayed with a close friend while looking for my own place. And I vividly remember the moment my current self was born.
I was walking back to my friend's house in Oakland. I don't even remember what I'd been doing that day — just running errands. And I felt the breeze on my skin. I saw the way the light touched the pavement. I smiled at a stranger, possibly for the first time in my life.
I felt alive, full of energy, and free. I felt like I died when I blinked and opened my eyes as a new person.
This person was joyful, friendly, and curious. She had a zeal for life and felt like there were no limits to what she could do, be, or accomplish.
What happened next is the part most people know: I explored the world, met my now-husband, and had incredible experiences.
But I also worked harder than I ever had in my life. I transitioned into a highly competitive, technical field. I started side businesses and projects and volunteered. I chased fitness goals. I finally learned how to be (somewhat) socially competent.
And throughout all of it, I did it with a sense of profound gratitude and joy. I was present and deeply moved by even the most mundane parts of my days.
That's what "Gratitude Driven" means. It's a description of the energy I want to bring to everything I do.
I don't work hard because I'm anxious. I don't hustle because my identity depends on output. And I don't coast because I've "made it."
I work hard because I am staggered by the fact that I get to be here at all — healthy, free, doing work I love, surrounded by people I care about. To not make the most of that would feel like a betrayal of the girl who spent nearly a decade believing happiness wasn't real.
❤ Marina
Want to Level Up Your AI/ML Career?
Last week I launched the AI/ML Career Launchpad, the learning community I wish I had when I was starting my career in the field.
It’s a structured path for navigating skill development, portfolio projects, job applications, and more, all with direct access to me for any questions you have along the way.
Learn more here. 🚀
Want to chat 1:1? Book time with me here.
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