1991: I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. A city I always carry with me.
About
Last updated: May 30, 2026
Hi! My name is Elvis Finol and I was born 34 years ago in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
I studied Electronic Engineering with a specialization in Automation and Process Control at Universidad Rafael Belloso Chacín. My career has taken me through some great companies: I started at Thomson Reuters, where I had my first contact with fintech, then moved to Teradata, going deep into analytics and big data, and I'm now part of the team at Palo Alto Networks, where I help customers protect their public cloud environments with Prisma Cloud and Cortex Cloud.
If I had to describe myself in a few words: curious, resourceful, and always up for a challenge.
I like trying new things and learning from each one. I don't think it's ever too late to start something different.
My Life Timeline
2000s: Computers always came naturally to me. I spent those early years exploring every program and system I could find.
2008: I graduated from Colegio Nuestra Señora de Chiquinquirá, Hermanos Maristas.
2008-2012: I studied Electronic Engineering with a specialization in Automation and Process Control at Universidad Rafael Belloso Chacín, Maracaibo.
2012: I completed a Business Management diploma at Universidad Rafael Belloso Chacín. I wanted to understand how businesses work and round out my technical background.
2012: I did my internship at NetUno, a telecommunications company providing cable and internet services. My first real experience working with network infrastructure.
2013: I took a gap year to do what I'd always wanted: music. I spent the whole year learning music production on my own. It taught me a lot about discipline and finishing things. My tracks are on SoundCloud and Spotify if you want to listen.
2014: I started working at VPS Monitoreo Integral as IT support. I also learned to set up CCTV systems there.
2015: At 24 I made one of the most important decisions of my life: moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was looking for new opportunities and professional growth.
2015: Mica and I started our relationship. Without a doubt, one of the best years of my life.
2015: I started my tech career at Thomson Reuters, providing technical support for fintech products. My first real contact with financial technology — I was hooked from day one.
2017: I joined Teradata, a leader in analytics and big data. I started seeing how companies actually use data to make decisions. I also spent a lot of time inside data centers, which was its own kind of education.
2019: I started editing videos with Mica for Vive Simple, our side project where we create content to help people navigate migration, relocation and professional development abroad. We started focused on Argentina and today we center on Spain.
2020: We had everything planned to move to Spain. Then we had to cancel it all — for reasons you already know. A year full of uncertainty and changes we didn't see coming.
2020: I got curious about web development and took an online course in HTML and CSS at Coder House. I wanted to understand how web pages were built.
2021: I completed a second course at Coder House, this time in JavaScript. Learning to program gave me a completely different perspective on how things work.
2021: We finally moved to Madrid, Spain.
2021-present: I joined Palo Alto Networks, where I help customers protect their public cloud environments with Prisma Cloud and Cortex Cloud. It's been a good place to grow and go deep on cloud security.
2023: I started taking productivity tools more seriously. I built my own organization system — testing different apps and methods until I found what actually works for me.
2024: I launched my newsletter Mi Estación de Trabajo, where I share tips on productivity, technology and AI. What started as an experiment turned into a community of tech professionals who want to stay sharp. I also went deep into AI and how to put it to work in day-to-day work.
2025: I was promoted to Staff Technical Support Engineer at Palo Alto Networks. A step I worked for.