Throughout his life, Adam’s had an affinity for puzzles. He’s always enjoyed breaking things down and putting them back together—it keeps his mind engaged and active.
Even with considerable support in school, Adam struggled with feeling like he was doing the “bare minimum” and not fully applying himself. He was rarely challenged by the academic material in high school, and the higher-level courses he took in college brought on new hurdles he had to face. He started to feel there may be more to consider than dismissing these challenges as “not giving it his all.”
During his college years, Adam explored a few different paths—engineering like both of his parents and a collegiate golf program—before deciding college wasn’t for him and pivoting to a golf apprenticeship. He eventually took a job in the service industry at a local brewery, moving back home and continuing his work there. At age 23, Adam was diagnosed with ADHD, which he says helped things start to make sense.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and brewery operations shut down, Adam decided to use that time to explore a career pivot. Knowing how much he enjoyed building things and taking them apart and having been briefly introduced to coding in a college physics course, Adam began to teach himself how to code. Using a library of online resources including an online full-stack bootcamp, Adam completed a 6-month program and began his path to a career in IT.
“That’s the way my mind works—I tend to want to break things down into the smallest pieces and try to understand the individual parts that make up the whole. That has really helped me with programming,” Adam says. “Especially if you start running into any issues, that can be the easiest way to figure out the root cause—just break it down and put it back together.”
Once it came time to look for a new job, Adam knew he wanted a role with a more consistent routine than he had in the service industry. He connected with a friend from high school who works in software development and quickly learned more about which coding language to learn, as well as some software development best practices. Armed with this knowledge, Adam began his job search and found CAI Neurodiverse Solutions.
During his Talent Discovery Session, Adam enjoyed learning more about a traditional office environment and collaborating with the 15 other virtual participants. At the conclusion of this process, Adam was offered the opportunity to work on the Intelligent Automation (IA) team at CAI. He researched IA and robotic process automation (RPA) and instantly realized how much he enjoyed the field. During his interview, he even shared a project he’d put together—an automated Sudoku solver that used JavaScript code. The solver used backtracking to try and solve for the Sudoku grid. If it got to a point where there were no more correct solutions, the solver would go back and try another number for the previous option.
Once offered the role on the IA team, Adam began UiPath training to get to know the software he would be using to develop automations. Now fully trained and in his role, he provides RPA support and identifies bugs that may be breaking code that’s in production. He conducts business analyses for new automation processes—creating process design documents, laying out the manual processes, and generating solution design documents that show how a robot will complete the process. In some cases, Adam helps put together estimates of process costs. If they’re approved, he gets everything set up and builds out the process via code.
“In the year Adam has been with our team, he learned the UiPath development platform, obtained UiPath Advanced Developer Certification, designed and implemented cutting edge solutions for both CAI and our clients, and recently passed his UiPath Service Network (USN) Partner Developer exam demonstrating his development excellence. Adam is the type of team member that all managers dream of. He works independently, is self-motivated, and he’s always willing to help team members and explore new ways of solving problems.”
Adam enjoys the variety he sees in his work, appreciating that he can do “a little bit of everything” and keep his mind engaged. He feels supported by his team and feels his input is valued when he shares what he wants to learn next and where he wants his career to go. His team praises his dedication, hard work, and quick accomplishments, with his service delivery manager Kayla Cullen sharing, “I really can’t say enough great things about Adam. He’s our main internal automation point of contact—so he was able to start out from not knowing much about RPA, and within less than a year, he is a leader on our team and very insightful on all of our automations. He’s really taken that undertaking of learning, accepting the challenge, and rising to meet the expectations.”
“I’m really happy I found CAI because I’ve been more than happy with everything provided for me and how they treat everybody here. Just the fact that the CAI Neurodiverse Solutions program exists is a huge benefit, and a good sign that the organization actually cares about inclusion.”
After only a year in his role, Adam was promoted from Junior Software Developer to Software Developer, advancing to senior level. As the team grows, he continues to grow in his role and become more of a leader. Enjoying the variety, collaboration, and work/life balance offered by his role, Adam has found a great fit for his career development with CAI Neurodiverse Solutions.
