I have over 20 years of tax experience starting my career with Ernst & Young in the Cleveland office. Initially I focused on compliance activities but as my interest in software and systems-related tasks grew I transitioned into a new category of tax professionals - Tax Technology. I have been focusing on tax technology for over 15 years and am now seeing a fundamental shift in the definition of what tax technology means to employers. To be successful in the tax technology space today, these specialists need to be able to be able to provide both short-term solutions as well as long-term vision. Thus experience in programming is a must and for those that develop this specialty through beginnings in the tax department must make it a priority in their development plans. The programming languages most desired include VBA, VB, and SQL. Advanced skills in Excel and Access are also a must these days as many short-term fixes require a combination of these skills to create "proof-of-concept" solutions.