00:00:06:22 - 00:00:42:06
Anthony Pacilio
Welcome, everyone, to today's LinkedIn live event behind the possible Meet the Team. My name is Anthony Pacilio, Vice President of Neurodiverse Solutions at CAI. Briefly about me. My responsibilities are to help organizations build new diversity programs, but also to lead our global expansion efforts of CAI Neurodiverse Solutions. My expertise lies in managing neurodiversity, recruiting efforts, developing candidate pipelines, and ensuring best practices for onboarding, support, training, and organizational success.
[Scene: Video starts out with CAI animated intro and into a shot of Anthony Pacilio speaking on a Zoom recording. Throughout the whole broadcast the shot will be on whomever is speaking between all of the guests/host.]
00:00:42:19 - 00:01:14:11
Anthony
So before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to let you know that we're recording the session today for future viewing. So let's kick it off. In recognition of April being Autism Acceptance month is probably most of you will be taking a look behind the possible by introducing you to 4 of our CAI Neurodiverse Solutions Associates. Each team member will share a bit about their stories, their experiences with neurodiversity, and working with CAI Neurodiverse Solutions.
00:01:15:00 - 00:01:41:28
Anthony
Today, though, if you take one thing away from our chat, it should be that each of the journeys you're about to hear demonstrates how workplace inclusion and acceptance benefits us all. So let's meet today's panelists. First, let's meet Gabriel Wojda. He's currently a Senior Quality Assurance Analyst where he's focused on effectively balancing targets with actuals and optimizing long term success.
00:01:42:11 - 00:02:18:27
Anthony
Gabriel is knowledgeable on multiple facets of web and software design, development, and implementation, with a knack for team building, project oversight, and training resources. Welcome, Gabriel. Next up, we have Kyle Gilligan. Coming from a cybersecurity background. Kyle found CAI during a job search and felt very impressed by our communication. So he currently works for one of our clients in the health care industry as a security testing analyst, where he performs security testing for specific web applications to protect the company's software from external threats.
00:02:19:09 - 00:02:21:07
Anthony
And nice to have you here today, Kyle.
00:02:21:29 - 00:02:22:23
Kyle Gilligan
Thank you Anthony.
00:02:23:27 - 00:02:50:21
Anthony
And now we'll introduce Matt Roe. Matt graduated from the University of Connecticut, a husky, in 2018 with a degree in biological science. In his role at a biopharmaceutical company, Matt designs and executes automated test scripts in SAP and other applications to verify certain features and processes are operating smoothly. Outside of work, Matt likes to hike, take photos of wildlife, and play the bass.
00:02:51:00 - 00:03:15:09
Anthony
Thanks for being here, Matt. And lastly, but not least, Tim Bowley. Tim began his career in the culinary industry before pivoting to technology consulting. He's currently a data analyst at his career with CAI. Neurodiverse Solutions has included automation work with a large pharmaceutical company, a theme right there, as well as an incident response project for software outages.
00:03:15:20 - 00:03:38:25
Anthony
It's a pleasure to have you here as well, Tim. All right. Thank you all for being here. And now let's get started with some of the discussion. So kicking things off with you, Gabriel, can you share with us how you began your journey with CAI Neurodiverse Solutions? And maybe what about our program sparked that interest?
00:03:39:02 - 00:04:04:08
Gabriel Wojda
Hi, Anthony. I'd love to share a little bit about my interest in CAI and what kind of drove me to have an interest in technology at all. So my interest in CAI was sparked by my passion in technology where they started off with a more at home personal dilemma that led into a drive and ambition to grow stronger.
00:04:04:25 - 00:04:33:23
Gabriel
So as a child, my household was kind of had a diverse issue, which was that of a impoverished nature. My mom raised me by herself. And from there she jumped from job to job and eventually landed in technology where she currently works as a learning management specialist in a pharmaceutical and technology company, as we have all come to hear.
00:04:34:06 - 00:05:20:02
Gabriel
It seems to be a theme, yes. So with that, she inspired me to do better, to strive, to do better, and to furthermore educate myself as an internal knowledge seeker and to never stop learning and hoping and doing better for myself and those around me. So not only do I strive to raise myself up, but I my goal is to raise the other individuals that I see around me up as well. That progressed and assisted me in finding CAI as a company and as an organization.
00:05:20:02 - 00:05:49:08
Gabriel
And in turn it all allowed me to leverage my passions into a technological organization and employment opportunity. And that's allowed me to find the perfect niche opportunity that balances my passions, which is helping others help themselves, and with my passion for technology, which is the ideal situation for me.
00:05:50:28 - 00:06:21:15
Anthony
That is awesome. You know, we're so glad to have you at CAI as well, Gabriel. So thank you for for kicking us off. I'm going to kind of follow up on the last question, Kyle. So when you joined CAI Neurodiverse Solutions, what was your experience like joining the team where you currently work? And I think that the the next piece of that is how did you feel as you began learning the ropes and getting acclimated?
00:06:23:09 - 00:06:43:19
Kyle
So I work with very smart people who are very quick to show me the ropes. When I started, a lot of the I guess general level requirements were familiar. I had taken a lot of certifications and training in the past for programing and for pen testing, which is what I do for security or how that relates to security.
00:06:43:25 - 00:07:14:08
Kyle
The more I guess timely to take training was more so of the in-house processes, which that probably applies for most locations where you're learning how the company works, you're learning how the company wants to operate as opposed to a different company, this place, that place. But in the end, I think it was a very smooth transition. And my position, I'll see a lot of tickets every day.
00:07:14:19 - 00:07:33:07
Kyle
All from the apps that we test and review the findings that we might discover. I'll meet with developers and I'll talk to them about what steps we can take to implement in securing their systems. And that's a typical day for me.
00:07:34:23 - 00:07:47:22
Anthony
So the learning the ropes, you know, definitely got that did it. Was there a big learning curve or were you ready to to go pretty quickly when you joined the team?
00:07:48:10 - 00:07:59:24
Kyle
I'd say certain things were smooth and certain things were a little bit more rough. Definitely the more you do of a task, the easier it becomes as time goes on.
00:08:01:16 - 00:08:36:07
Anthony
No, absolutely and that's why we you know, obviously, we have those team leads to to help folks through that as well. So, I'm glad that everything is going great at the moment and I'm sure it'll continue on as well. I'm going to kind of flip a little bit to Matt. So as a Quality Assurance Analyst, what do you enjoy most about your current role? And now this can be anything from what you do on a day to day basis or specific projects or even something you're kind of most proud of.
00:08:36:27 - 00:08:50:07
Matt Roe
All right. So, what I enjoy most among my day-to-day responsibilities and what have you is I'd say would be actually designing and executing the automated test scripts in Worksoft.
00:08:50:07 - 00:09:16:25
Matt
I very much enjoy, like going through the different screens and interfaces, what have you, and building like a cohesive end-to-end test script and once that test script, you know, executes successfully from start to finish it really gives you like a feeling of pride in accomplishment you know like you've successfully accomplished something, right?
00:09:17:12 - 00:09:45:29
Matt
And when something does go wrong, you know, I feel like my scientific background does kind of help with my knowledge of systems and trying to understand, all right, where did this go wrong? How can we, like, backtrack here, like, diagnose the problem and come up with a solution for it? You know, and I just enjoy that. I enjoy the whole process, that kind of stuff.
00:09:39:29 - 00:10:10:24
Anthony
Well, that's good. So that process, obviously, it can be, let's say, kind of cumbersome or long, you know, depending on what you're doing. Obviously, you love doing what you do, but you said you also kind of had that scientific background as well, in what kind of capacity does that help? Is it helping you kind of diagnose what the challenge or issue might be?
00:10:11:24 - 00:10:30:09
Matt
Yeah, so like if a script fails and at a certain point, you know, you can work through a number of hypotheses and be like, all right, well, what exactly went wrong at this point? You know, did I have like an incorrect screen name in there or something like that, or did I forget to enter a variable?
00:10:30:09 - 00:10:43:23
Matt
What have you done there? There are certain things like that, you know, and through true testing and working back through the results when not, you know, usually we end up in a good place with that.
00:10:44:08 - 00:11:21:03
Anthony
That's awesome. I appreciate you kind of delving into to what it's like on a day-to-day basis for you. So Tim, we haven't heard from you yet, but referencing your bio from earlier, you pivoted from working in the culinary industry to technology consulting, obviously two very different fields and working in environments and I also, there's one question I'm going to ask you what you kind of enjoyed about the culinary piece in a second, but what was the shift like for you, in kind of, with your current role?
00:11:21:28 - 00:11:26:29
Anthony
What do you enjoy about working remotely in that?
00:11:30:29 - 00:11:50:15
Tim Bowley
That's a great question. So professional fine dining is in some ways very different, but also has a lot of parallels to other industries. I was really fortunate to have a great counselor from OVR, the Office of Vocational Rehab, kind of help me translate some of my skills into a means that would resonate with a more office environment audience.
00:11:51:15 - 00:12:14:15
Tim
The job readiness training CAI provided prior to my first work assignment really closely mirrored how the job would be. So honestly, it was really smooth as far as moving into IT or consulting. Food and chefs have really grown in popular culture, and I think though it's not perfectly accurate, it's not so far off either. There was a lot of pressure and stress continuously with little wiggle room as far as resources or time.
00:12:14:23 - 00:12:35:27
Tim
So my present job is really amazing in that regard. I work with great managers and team leaders who support us and are really considered for how we can be more successful. As far as working from home, no commute is huge, plus not only from cost perspective, but in being in what I've tried to make as the perfect work environment for me is really awesome for someone with autism.
00:12:36:15 - 00:12:50:22
Tim
Not to mention I can make breakfast or lunch, which being a chef before is a huge bonus compared to a cafeteria or not eating, which was common before due to workload. Obviously, from a culinary background, I have limited exposure to the joys of remote work, but it's definitely a blessing for me.
00:12:52:04 - 00:13:05:09
Anthony
All right. So I'm going to ask you a follow up question like I stated before, what dish would you like to make? If I'm asking Tim Bowley what his thing is, what is it?
00:13:05:09 - 00:13:32:08
Tim
I mean, that is a little bit tough for me. I guess my thing is usually it's a little bit different every week, per se, maybe, you know, I get CSA, you know, community supported agriculture. So every week the box is a little bit different. And then my personal favorite is maybe working with natural fire. So, you know, whether that's wood or coal, those are all something I really enjoy.
00:13:32:08 - 00:13:43:24
Tim
And, you know, like technology is continuously changing, but, you know, that is something that is fairly uniform no matter how much time has passed. It's very similar. So I kind of enjoy that.
00:13:44:10 - 00:13:51:11
Anthony
All right. So so we just talked about wooden and coal fired pizza, which one? Wood or coal fired?
00:13:56:24 - 00:14:19:08
Tim
Coal has no smoky flavor or less smoky flavor. So maybe I like wood you know, wood ends up burning down into coal anyway, and I've worked with both. But yeah, I think I enjoy a wood fire, you know but both are excellent compared to, you know, non sort of like a gas or any of that is not nearly as good.
00:14:22:22 - 00:14:48:07
Anthony
Well, we've just turned this into a Discovery Channel chef show. So thanks, Tim. I'm actually going to go to to Gabriel on this next one. So, you know, it's an exciting part of kind of building your career is the growth that comes with it. So Gabriel, can you share with us how you refined your skills as a senior quality assurance analyst?
00:14:49:13 - 00:15:15:25
Gabriel
Sure, Anthony. So when I start, I guess reflecting on my most recent promotion from quality assurance analyst to the senior quality assurance analyst, I would say retrospectively looking back on it, there was definitely a quality of how to phrase it, quality of skill shift.
00:15:16:26 - 00:15:17:01
Anthony
Yeah.
00:15:17:12 - 00:15:55:15
Gabriel
And mostly it wasn't like I was managing people or managing certain tasks because that's not what I was required to do, or what I was asked to do, the ask wasn't there for that. Instead, it was an internal shift. What was I responsible for regarding myself? And when I made that shift upward, that vertical shift, the responsibilities that I was asked to do were more related to self-reflection, like, am I going to help sprint plan or task assign for the team, but not too much on my own.
00:15:55:15 - 00:16:19:14
Gabriel
It's going to be assistants or a team supporting or team building activities. How can I help contribute more to the team? So it's more about how do I see myself in that role? From a team perspective, do I want to be in that role? It was a very collaborative effort on where do I see myself going and do I want to be in that spot?
00:16:19:14 - 00:16:57:13
Gabriel
So I have to give CAI kudos because it was a very collaborative effort on making that promotional job and that role job, and it was a very much so a, "Do you want to be here and do you want to continue to be here?" So I would say that the role shifting capability and progression from my perspective is very internal process, like self reflection, self analysis, and when you shift, if it's progressed upon to the next stage, it's very collaborative.
00:16:58:11 - 00:17:25:28
Anthony
Gotcha. And so quick question and a follow up question that you know, and everybody's journey when you're you're trying to figure out what the next step is or just the growth in general, typically that is not a short, quote unquote walk to say it's a longer part of a journey that you keep going with and and kind of refining, you know, I'm assuming, Gabriel, you're still on that journey of refining that yeah?
00:17:26:27 - 00:17:34:19
Gabriel
Yes. Most certainly. As I have been thinking most recently, I am finishing my associate's degree, May 6th.
00:17:35:18 - 00:17:37:15
Anthony
That's awesome! Congratulations.
00:17:37:22 - 00:18:05:25
Gabriel
Thank you. And as I have always thought with my previous statements of my life journey, I am an external knowledge seeker. I don't think it stops with one degree or multiple degrees. It's just deep learning through picking up knowledge from people, from tasks, from everything. You just keep learning. And with that in mind, my ultimate goal as of now, as you keep learning whether you want to or not, is to move to architecture.
00:18:05:25 - 00:18:26:12
Gabriel
So with that in mind, that's a multi-stage process. It's not how you're one and done, right? But that is my ultimate goal right now. And I think that with the knowledge I gain from this associates combined with on the job knowledge, it came with the tidbits of information that I'll gather as I continue shifting positions that is feasible.
00:18:27:23 - 00:19:01:08
Anthony
I totally agree. I think you'll be a wonderful architect. Again, congratulations on the degree, the upcoming degree, which is only a few short weeks away. Right? Yeah. See, I'm doing math. That's a good thing. And so as we talked about growth, the there's also a piece of reflection, Kyle, If you can speak with your younger self, what would you share with him about your career journey thus far?
00:19:03:03 - 00:19:28:14
Kyle
I guess looking at the overall journey, I'd say I really like the advice that I once was told to find what you like, find a specialty within that, and then make sure that you're good at it. Sharpen the mental blade, so to speak, where you can be the best you can and you try and make yourself unreplaceable both of those concepts and they're very good for both young and old.
00:19:28:22 - 00:19:36:20
Kyle
I think any age you can continue learning and improving. Just like what Gabriel said.
00:19:36:20 - 00:20:03:00
Anthony
And so Kyle, you know, obviously you come from a place in, you know, graduate high school and do whatever after. Was there anything besides what you mentioned? Is there anything other than that specifically that you can point to that maybe changed your perception of anything in the workforce?
00:20:03:00 - 00:20:26:18
Kyle
I can't really say anything. I think I've always kind of tried to apply, at least at the very least, if I find something that I'm interested in wanting to learn more about it and studying and I'm trying to learn how it works. I think that's probably how I got interested in this field and not just cybersecurity, but in computer science.
00:20:27:12 - 00:20:36:13
Kyle
I was always interested in computers and learning and through that and I think I just gravitated towards that naturally.
00:20:37:14 - 00:20:42:11
Anthony
Now, were you a gamer at any point?
00:20:42:11 - 00:20:44:24
Kyle
I guess a little.
00:20:45:07 - 00:21:14:21
Anthony
Little? So I reflect on where my son is at the age of 17 and he is a gamer himself, so, you know, I'm hoping he parlays what he knows about gaming into a stronger future right? So I appreciate that go, no doubt about that. And I think really it's evident that all of you are excelling in your careers, especially from hearing what you share so far.
00:21:15:06 - 00:21:31:16
Anthony
Matt you earlier shared what you kind of most enjoy about your current role. What are you looking forward to accomplishing next within this role? And it could be any goals you might have or a project you're working on, whatever it may be.
00:21:36:17 - 00:22:44:22
Matt
So right now, business is going through like the UAT, the user acceptance testing, like phase of our cycle, you know, like the business users get to try out the scripts that we designed for themselves and evaluate, and right now it seems to be going quite well based on what I saw. So I can tell is so in that regard, I'm looking forward to like building more professional relationships with the business users who from various parts of the world. Actually, we have users from Japan, from various European countries that I've been on calls with, and I'm hoping to, like, get to know them better, help perhaps build a professional relationship with them. I'm also hoping to step into a bit more of a mentor role as well with regards to our testing software and our applications, whatnot.
00:22:44:22 - 00:23:17:00
Matt
Because I feel like I've been able to pick up knowledge of those systems pretty quickly, all things considered. And frankly, I'm still learning quite a bit about SAP, like it's a vast, vast application. But, I want I'd really like to help like some of the newer team members, you know, get acclimated to like Worksoft and to SAP, you know, and help them like try to understand these systems and applications.
00:23:17:10 - 00:23:30:14
Matt
What have you? So I'm looking forward to perhaps leaning into that a little bit, you know. So yeah.
00:23:31:15 - 00:24:02:12
Anthony
And I think it's awesome that you want to look to help new team members who are joining because you once sat in their seat as well. Now you've kind of progressed and learned the ropes and the systems. So I think it's admirable that you want to go kind of a little bit farther with that into the mentorship piece of it. So I think you'd be a great mentor. I think you're going to teach some folks a lot about the job responsibilities. So thank you for for going down that path.
00:24:03:28 - 00:24:27:27
Anthony
And I think Tim like looking ahead Tim and based off, you know, the previous experiences that you had that we talked about, what would you recommend organizations do today to improve their inclusion and accessibility efforts? How can companies better practice that workplace inclusion?
00:24:29:11 - 00:24:55:28
Tim
Yeah. So to me, one of the most important considerations for accessibility or inclusion is being flexible. I think sometimes we can lose track of how easily the circumstances of someone you may be interacting with for a potential opportunity could happen or be you. I mean, I've hired people and it's certainly a consideration as far as large employment gaps or some kind of limitations, but you have to be open.
00:24:55:28 - 00:25:18:05
Tim
That person may be moving beyond their comfort zone, returning to work, or trying to find a new career path like I did. That's scary and daunting. I think diversity is one of the greatest organizational strengths, which includes people of all kinds. We should give people a chance to build the structure, help them succeed with what? In many cases, it's not enormous changes, just some things that make a job double for someone.
00:25:18:21 - 00:25:39:07
Tim
I think we're all working for similar reasons and keeping that in mind is a good way to begin that conversation. Like this person is trying to support themselves or their family wants to work, grow and thrive. Can they do the job? And what will make that easy and most successful? I don't think it's a vastly different consideration compared to enabling organizational efficiency in general.
00:25:39:22 - 00:25:40:27
Tim
Thanks. I hope that made sense.
00:25:41:18 - 00:26:11:12
Anthony
No, no. It absolutely did make sense. And you know, I think CAI Neurodiverse Solutions, we do you talked about kind of the talent discovery sessions a little bit previous to this. And, you know, it's almost like that extended interview and that's where the inclusion comes into play, right? We're figuring out how people bring their best self to work with what we're marrying up the job skills to with the client needs.
00:26:11:21 - 00:26:42:09
Anthony
And I think understanding people just in general is inclusive. I think we're going to step further to make sure that is permeated both here at CAI and with our clients. So thank you. I appreciate you going into detail about that. But unfortunately, our time today is over. We had some great question and answers. I appreciate all of you taking the time.
00:26:42:21 - 00:27:10:01
Anthony
I'd like to thank all 4 of you hardworking CAI Neurodiverse Solutions team members for joining me and us here on LinkedIn Live today and sharing your stories with us. It's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you all today. I'd also like to thank our audience for your attention and participation. Later, we're going to be sending everyone that attended a recording of this event to share with your colleagues and peers.
00:27:10:15 - 00:27:41:16
Anthony
And in the meantime, if you're interested in learning more about CAI Neurodiverse solutions or know someone that is, visit our website at cai.io and fill out our contact form and or contact one of our team members via LinkedIn. Thank you and have a great rest of your day.
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In recognition of Autism Acceptance Month, four neurodivergent CAI associates candidly share their career journeys and discuss experiences growing up and securing employment, the value neurodiversity brings to the workplace, and more. Watch the LinkedIn Live Event replay.
If you are an individual interested in CAI Neurodiverse Solutions, please visit this page to provide us your contact information to connect with you directly.
