He listens to a music album from start to finish each day, has a dog called Fish, bleeds teal and orange and is fascinated by code. Take a few minutes to get to know Senior Front End Engineer, Dustin Godin.

Where do you call home? 

Kissimmee, FL

How long have you lived there? Where before?

I’ve lived in Central Florida for about a year. Before that, I was raised in Pompano Beach, FL. 

Who calls Kissimmee home along with you?

Caitlin, my wife of four years (we’ve been together for more than ten years), is my rock and simply amazing. We have a 12 year-old chihuahua named Brady, but we have called him “Fish” for many years now…It’s a long story.

Where did you attend school? 

I graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science  degree in Computer Software Engineering.

What led you to your career path? 

As someone who was deeply interested in technology growing up, I was always trying to discover and learn some new and exciting bit of tech. In high school, I attended an Architecture and Design magnet program with goals of being an architect, focused on bespoke residential housing. This was influenced by both my father’s career and the idea of designing something from the ground up. However, during my freshman year of high school I took a course in web design and that began my fascination with code (a bit tempered at the time due to the “table-ception” that was web design at that point). I became a freelance web developer while also working as a graphic designer and continued to find that I enjoyed solving the problems of programming and my career took off from there.

Speaking of your role, tell us more about what you do at Abe.ai… 

My primary responsibility is to enhance and maintain the user-facing web applications of our platform, in collaboration with our Product team and the company’s needs.

What do you enjoy best about working at Abe.ai? 

I thoroughly enjoy creating and extending functionality. Throughout my career, my favorite projects have been those where I’ve been able to create a configurable and extendable framework to be used across differing use cases.

What do you do in your spare time? 

I am a bit of a jack of all trades/interests and have had many hobbies over the years such as photography, music production, video editing, playing video games, bowling, playing football and PC building. The longest lasting of these is photography where I’ve professionally shot wildlife, portraiture and interior-architecture genres, the latter of which being published in Miami Home & Decor. My sports interests include Miami Dolphins football and two professional soccer teams – Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germaine.

What’s getting heavy rotation in your music playlist these days? 

I love music…and pretty much all types. Generally, I listen to at least an album a day, from start to finish. I enjoy analyzing the music and how the artists decide to put the song order together to tell the story they are trying to share. Artists that are among my favorites include TOOL, Broken Bells, Gorillaz (and anything Damon Albarn related), The Decemberists, Agent Fresco, Fleet Foxes, Freya Ridings, Raleigh Ritchie, Muse, Twenty One Pilots, System of a Down, Nas, Royksopp, Bjork, Rishloo, The Shins, Villagers of Ioannina City, Kronos Quartet, Caligula’s Horse…you get it, I have pretty eclectic taste. 

Favorite TV show/series? 

Currently, it has to be “The Expanse” on Amazon. I’ve followed it since its time on the SyFy network. Its dedication to detail on the science, while not bogging the fantasy or characters down with it, along with some amazing character development, just makes it stick out so much in my mind. Other favorites include “Peaky Blinders”, “Marco Polo”, “Attack on Titan”, “Silicon Valley”, and “Game of Thrones.”

Favorite movie of all time? 

Gosh, it’s really hard to pick just one. If I had to, it would be between “The Road”, “Kingdom of Heaven” (directors cut), “Lord Of The Rings Trilogy”, or “The 5th Element.”

What’s one thing that people would be surprised to know about you?

This is not surprising to those who know me well, but in high school between my junior and senior years, I studied abroad in France at the American University of Paris.