When George Tompkins joined Cottingham & Butler, it marked an enormous shift in his career trajectory. George, who had spent over twenty years in a separate industry, was looking for something different. His desire to strengthen his web development skills while building applications eventually led him to pursue a position in Cottingham & Butler’s IT department as a software engineer.
“I was attracted by the opportunity to create web applications in a corporate environment,” said George. “I spent over two decades in a different industry in an unrelated career. I credit a willingness to learn and a focus on the needs of those I serve as instrumental in my career switch and my growth at Cottingham & Butler.”
George’s unique professional—and educational—background has made him an enormous asset to the corporate administration team, bringing to the table a meticulous attention to detail and passion for continued learning.
“I have a BFA in Art from East Carolina University with a concentration in painting. Both art and coding have a technical aspect of ‘how to do it,’ and a separate element of solving problems when the next steps aren’t clear.”
Working closely alongside his teammates has had a huge impact on George’s career journey, allowing him to tackle new skills and hone his talents within a highly collaborative environment. “There’s a wealth of experience to learn from here. When I started, I was initially immersed in courses to learn the programming languages and frameworks common to our codebase,” George said. “Shortly after that, I was given a project to develop a web application where I could actually put these new skills into practice. My mentor guided me through many roadblocks, answered all of my questions, and was always available to explain how things worked.”
George continues to engineer top-of-the-line applications for Cottingham & Butler to consistently improve operations, grow the business, and build efficiency.