Hi! I'm Bob Walker, and I am a Software Engineer based in Omaha, Nebraska.
I started my career in 2004 at Sandhills Publishing, where my first job was converting ASP websites to a new-fangled technology called ASP.NET. I have worked for (at the time of this writing) six companies across a variety of industries.
- Systems Application Specialist at Sandhills Publishing from 2004 - 2008
- Software Engineer at West Corporation (now Intrado) from 2008 - 2010
- Web Developer at TelventDTN (now just DTN) from 2010 - 2013
- Lead Application Developer (started as a Developer) at Farm Credit Services of America from 2013 - 2017
- Principal Software Architect at Election Systems and Software from 2017 - 2018
- VP of Customer Solutions (started as a Solutions Architect) at Octopus Deploy from 2018 - Present
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, but I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. For college, I went to Utah State University, where I got my bachelor's in Business Information Systems (a fancy way of programming for companies). After college, I moved back home to Omaha until I found a job at Sandhills Publishing located in Lincoln, Nebraska.
On the personal side of my life, when I moved to Lincoln, I didn't know anyone, and I had a ton of free time on my hands. Outside of my apartment was a bike path. I took my first paycheck and bought my first "real bike" at a local sporting goods store. Since then, I fell in love with cycling. When I am not at home with my family or working, chance are you will find me on a bike.
Speaking of family, in 2012 I met my partner Lauren via an online dating site, and in 2015 we got married. We still live in Omaha with our two pets; one dog and one cat (the dog is mine, the cat is hers).
To say I've been lucky thus far in my career is a bit of an understatement. For starters, I grew up in an upper-middle-class household in Omaha. In a lot of ways, I was "born on second, thinking I hit a double." A lot of my success is due to several people at each company taking me under their wing and teaching me the ropes of my role. From the senior dev who taught me .NET at Sandhills Publishing; to the DBA who walked me through the ins and outs of SQL Server at West; to the architect at TelventDTN who opened my eyes to SOLID and TDD; to the manager who patiently leveled up my leadership experience at Farm Credit, to the CEO who teaching me what it is like to be a manager/leader at Octopus. Each step in my career has been standing on the shoulders of others.
Those individuals and experiences taught me a lot of lessons. There is no way I could repay those individuals, but what I can do is give back in my own small way by writing about those lessons for you to (hopefully) learn from. But this site is not going to contain a bunch of articles telling you what to do. There is no way my experience will match yours 100%. My hope is I can provide you some additional context and nuance that you can mix in with your own experiences.
Just as my career has spanned a variety of industries, this blog will span a variety of topics. I am going to cover the tech industry. But I am also going to touch on my other interests as well. I hope you find this site useful. If you have any feedback (both good and bad), please reach out to me. I'd love to hear from you!