Gemma Shay
Technical Writer at Cockroach Labs
Berlin, Germany
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolGemma Shay is a technical writer with five years of experience translating complex database and engineering concepts into clear, actionable documentation from her base in Berlin. At Cockroach Labs she progressed from Associate Technical Writer to Technical Writer, contributing hands-on edits to CockroachDB docs — including adding Avro and delimited format support to SQL import diagrams across multiple product versions. Her background in physics and data analysis gives her a methodical, evidence-driven approach to content, while prior roles as an EMT and tutor reflect strong communication skills under pressure. She blends front-end familiarity (modifying HTML for generated docs) with a product-aware perspective, helping ensure developer-facing documentation accurately mirrors supported features.
5 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor's degree, Physics, Bachelor's degree, Physics at Wesleyan University
English, German
Github Skills (5)
html10
diagramming10
documentation10
sql9
avro7
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
cockroachdb/docs
Dec 2020 - Jan 2023
CockroachDB user documentation
Role in this project:
Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:393 reviews, 560 commits, 559 PRs in 2 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Gemma's contributions center on enhancing the documentation for CockroachDB's SQL diagrams, specifically focusing on the `IMPORT INTO` syntax. They added support for Avro and Delimited formats within these diagrams by modifying the HTML code. The edits extended to both v20.2 and v21.1 versions of the documentation, ensuring the diagrams accurately represent the supported import options. Furthermore, the user moved a diagram to the generated folder reflecting a move related to a change.
user-documentationcockroachdbdatabasearangodb
cockroachlabs/hello-world-csharp
May 2021 - Oct 2022
"Hello World" example application in C# with .NET driver
Contributions:2 PRs, 18 pushes, 4 branches in 1 year 5 months
dotnetcsharpdotnet-core
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