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RobWyattBackStory

After reading Bob�s and Jim�s stories, I feel so inadequate. I did manage to find something in common with each of them though. Bob � I lived for a while in Rochester, NY (and, incidentally, earned less than $13K per annum for nearly half of my life). Jim � er�er�I�ll be sure to include a quote from The Hitchhiker�s Guide.

How I got to AYE is pretty simple � my boss sent me an email and said: �This looks interesting. Perhaps we should go next year.� But it�s the stuff leading up to that email which may be a little more interesting.

I was born in England (in the dining room of our house), and was blessed to grow up just outside of Canterbury. I had a fair old walk from school to the bus station each day. I would alternate my route � some days cutting through the cathedral, others walking along the Roman wall that still circled more than half of the city. Whenever they were doing road works (which in England means �all the time�) Roman artifacts would be poking out of the piles of muck at the side of the road. It was awesome.

My academic pursuits were heavily directed by my school�s goal for everyone to go to university. You may not realize this, but the percentage of Brits who go to college is significantly less than in the US. Put another way, apart from teachers, my priest and my doctor, I didn�t know anyone else with a university degree. I did enjoy art, music and drama, and even though I managed to bag a couple of solos in Canterbury Cathedral along the way, I didn�t see a career in �The Arts�. I was also fed up with school, so left when I was 17.

I farted around for a few years, trying everything from banking, truck driving, bar work, running a hotel, and selling clothes. One day, while working in my second bank, I printed out the news file from the back-office printer, and saw that head office needed computer operators. I applied, got the job, left home, and headed north. I can�t say I enjoyed the job very much, but I did learn a lot about computers. This company believed in teaching you everything about your current role, and grooming you for your next, so when I moved upstairs into Technical Support, all I had to do to get started was learn IBM Assembler H. Piece of cake, and loads of fun! I�d have done it for free.

Even so, company politics, faces not fitting, and all that, I was beginning to tire of the company after seven years. While waiting for a colleague to get off the phone and finish recounting his exploits down the pub the previous night, I pointedly riffled through a trade newspaper lying on his desk (I wasn�t even looking at the pages). My glares and sighs were having no affect (at least none that benefited me). Just as I was about to stomp off, a phrase caught my eye. I gazed down at the open newspaper, and saw what amounted to my resume in the form of a job posting. It happened to be in Orlando, FL (a place my wife and I had visited and enjoyed six months earlier). The rest is history�well, of course, all of this is history, unless�cue the Hitchhiker�s quote.

Even though my wife wasn�t pregnant when we arrived in the US, my son was born nine months later � two months early � small but beautifully formed! He�s now 13, has a deeper voice than mine, is nearly as tall (and I�m 6� 3�), and probably more hairy. My daughter followed 20 months later, and we were, and are, to all intents and purposes a very happy family.

Work-wise, I was appalled at the lack of�well�just about anything when I joined the software development group in Orlando. As well as creating a print architecture for Xerox high-end printers to run in an IBM environment (the most fun I�ve had at a keyboard before Papyrus issued �Grand Prix Legends� a few years ago), I worked with some other like-minds to establish some semblance of order. I discovered golf, which was probably a mistake, and Disney discovered me (which was probably a mistake too). For a couple of years, I could be seen dressed in Victorian costume, leading a quartet of carolers around Central Florida. I even sung the National Anthem at an Orlando Magic game. (Already knew the tune, but had to learn the words in a hurry!)

When Xerox adopted the CMM in the mid-90s, we were already ahead of the game, and while most of the corporation set about checking boxes on their CMM spreadsheets, we were assessed at level 2, and set about the journey towards greater maturity (something that I cannot claim for myself, incidentally).

Xerox moved my to Rochester to head up the SEPG of their main development group. Great place � I could even stand the 7-month winters � but after 13 years at Xerox and surviving 25 lay-offs, they finally gave process improvement the chop. Although I still had a job, I had no job satisfaction. I sat down, wrote out my resume, and hit the online job sites. That�s where I met new boss. So there you have it.

I can�t say I spend too much time on the �about-ness� of things. My spare time is spent documenting the lives of people that don�t exist outside of my mind. I�ve won a few short story competitions, but much prefer novels. I recently signed with an agent to sell my second novel. If I were to have my druthers, I would one day be able to devote my time to writing fiction, with perhaps the odd editorial here and there, popping up occasionally on the tube, perhaps collaborating on the screenplay of the latest movie of one of my books. Aaaaaah, what a dream! In the meantime, I�d like to whip this process improvement lark into shape. Looking forward to AYE - can�t wait to see what all the fuss is about :-)

Oh, and although it has nothing to do with anything, my favorite Hitchhiker�s quote:

Ford: �It feels unpleasantly like being drunk.�

Arthur: �What�s unpleasant about being drunk?�

Ford: �Just ask a glass of water!�

Hi Rob.

It turns out we also have Rochester, NY in common. Most of my story is around and about Rochester, with a chunk of time in Syracuse, which nearly counts as the same thing. I don't recall ever meeting either you or Bob in all my time there. Seems odd. I am sorry we didn't find each other when we were colocated. Good, boon companions help along the way.

And Hitchhiker�s quotes are supposed to be apropo of nothing so the bit above fits.

- JimBullock

We'll have to compare notes. As a external consultant, I was on a CBA-IPI team at Xerox for a Level 2 SW CMM assessment for the High Speed Printer Group in El Segundo. I met just about every one of the CMM folks at Xerox on the West Coast. I was also part of the local SEPG there as well while I did work for them. I have also been through the lead assessor program at the SEI for the SCE and was trained by Paul Brynes at the SEI.

JohnSuzuki 2003.09.17

I know the name, but don't believe we ever met. Although based in Orlando for many years, I was really part of the El Segundo group. I have been to El Segundo more times than I've been to Tampa! I look forward to meeting you.

RobWyatt 2003.9.18

KathyRhode 2003.10.27