Name: Jay Marquez

Title: Software Engineer

Start Date: 2/10/2020

Spirit Bird: Hawk (for the Atlanta Hawks, of course!)

I didn’t always know I wanted to be a software engineer. I was a little bit of a video game nerd, so I did know about downloading games and playing them — in was the early days of the Internet it was a bit more complicated than it is now. But I certainly wasn’t a child hacker or anything — I actually wanted to study history.

When I went to college, I had everything filled out to be a history major, but I thought about my future and what my job prospects would look like. I felt that I needed to find a path that I would feel more secure in. My dad was in IT and he has always been a source of knowledge for me so I knew I could follow in his footsteps.

Ultimately, switching to computer science was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Programming has become my creative outlet along with being my career path. I’ve never been an artistic person but programming has become my ‘blank canvas’ and I just get to paint all over it and turn it into something new.

I went to school in Atlanta and felt very confident in knowing I wanted to stay here. I’ve always loved living in Atlanta for so many reasons. First off, I’m a huge sports fan and Atlanta offers all of them. Trust me, it truly is hard being an Atlanta sports fan — but I love what I love. The other great aspect to the ATL is the plethora of startups and the growing technology presence.