Who am I?
As you might have suspected, my name is Austin Marron, and I am a web software engineer. People often ask, “Why web software?” and I just as often reply “It should be obvious”. With the rise of cloud computing, widespread permeation of broadband, and browsers that actually adhere to web standards (read: not IE), there is no better time to be involved in web software.
What have I done in recent history?
I recently graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a B.S. in Computer Science and was fortunate enough to participate in the wonderful research group of Dr. Richard Taylor. I was given the opportunity to contribute to projects such as ArchStudio and give a a few presentations to current and prospective computer scientists as well. I greatly enjoyed my years there and have considered returning as a graduate student on more than a few occasions, funding permitting of course.
What am I doing today?
I am currently working as a software engineer for Intuit, a company that people often know better as “the guys that make TurboTax”. I have quite a few roles, each of which is both challenging and rewarding. I work with a team of three other engineers and a number of web developers to build and maintain services on TurboTax.com and Quicken.com. Our team is largely considered an industry leader in A/B testing so we are always building out something to support a new marketing initiative aside from normal infrastructure work. Apparently innovation is a big deal in software, who knew? Every day I’m hearing about a new app that a team is developing either for personal finance, small business, or an entirely new market. The team at Intuit is comprised of great and talented folks and I am glad to be a part of TurboTax’s busiest tax season yet!
There must be more. What else?
In addition to the demanding task of working in this field full-time, I also manage to pursue several side projects. The most recent, AgendaDB.com, has recently finished its core development. It was a fantastic learning experience; however, it didn’t seem that eventual traffic could reach levels that would make it worth continuing. It’s shelved at the moment. I have a few other ideas kicking around that I’m eager to start on though!