From machine code to the business case.
Most at home in Java and C. I learned to code from the machine up (Turing machines, logic circuits, memory by hand), then through operating systems, security, cloud and the web.
I'm a software engineer who builds the product and the business around it: I talk to the people who'll use the thing, decide what gets built first, then write the code myself.
Matus Illith · BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen · graduating 2027 · looking for a graduate software engineering or Product Owner role
You're reading the engineering side first. Switch to Business to start with the ventures and the people I built them with.
You're reading the business side first. Switch to Build to start with the engineering and education behind it.
Most products stall in the gap between what the business needs and what engineering builds.
Someone has to own that gap: understand the people who will use the thing, and the system well enough to know what is cheap and what is expensive. That is the job I am training for, and the one I do on my own projects.
One person on both sides of the table.
- Discovery. Built Elev8 with coaches in Aberdeen and Bratislava.
- Roadmaps. Web first, then PC, then mobile: sequenced on purpose.
- Leading. Led the technical team on a HealthTech doctor-portal prototype.
Two things I built with real people.
The method behind the ventures.
Pirates Studies, my Year 3 module at Robert Gordon University, is built on MIT's entrepreneurship course and was taught by the dean of the school, who studied at MIT. Grade: A.
- Opportunities. Identify and evaluate new venture opportunities: recognise market needs and innovation potential.
- Customers. Interpret customer needs, then quantify and communicate a compelling value proposition.
- Business plans. Craft winning business plans and scale startups, with strategy, operational planning and sustainable growth.
- Prototyping. Move from low-fidelity to high-fidelity prototypes through iterative development.
The numbers behind it.
- Coaches I have interviewedAbout 15
- Heads of gyms I have interviewedAbout 20
- Products taken from idea to final resultAbout 6
Every layer of the stack, one person.
Where I learned to code: FIIT, Bratislava.
BSci Informatics and Informational Science, 2022–23, at the Slovak University of Technology. Mathematics and theory, computer engineering, and programming in C and Java. Open a course to see what I learned.
Then systems, security and AI at Robert Gordon University.
BSc (Hons) Computer Science, Aberdeen, 2023–2027. Open a course to see what I learned and the grade.
Things I built to understand how it works.
How I use AI, and where I don't trust it.
It can work out a solution like a senior full-stack developer, then miss a beginner exploit like SQL injection. So I use it constantly and review everything.
What I hand it.
- Testing, design and research. Tests, frontend design, research, and breaking rough ideas into plans.
- A daily security loop. It researches newly disclosed vulnerabilities, then I hunt for them in my own codebases.
- My own rules. Claude skills I wrote for software architecture, development rules and security, so every session starts from them.
What I never take unreviewed.
- Security basics. In my testing it still forgets beginner exploits, most often SQL injection, so I check queries and inputs by hand.
- Penetration tests. Claude Code runs them only against servers I own, in an isolated setup, and I review the results.
Next: hosting my own models at home, once NVIDIA's DGX Spark is benchmarked and widely available.
How I operate.
- Freediving and freeriding. Calm under pressure, and respect for the risk you cannot see.
- The gym. Boring consistency beats occasional heroics.
- Guitar, now ukulele. Always learning a new instrument, badly at first, on purpose.
Hiring a software engineer who thinks about the product?
Hiring a Product Owner who can build?
Based between the UK and Slovakia. Graduating in 2027 and looking for a graduate software engineering or Product Owner role. Message me on LinkedIn and let's set up a call.
© Matus Illith