Adam Sharkey: Workshop Apprentice to Senior Sales Advisor

In the autumn of 2013, Adam Sharkey joined Prototype Projects as a fresh-faced 21-year-old. He joined as an Apprentice in the RP Workshop where his role focused around the core work of finishing parts by hand, including sanding, priming, painting and cleaning SLAs, under the expert tutelage of Tim Rowell. Over time, he then developed the specialist skill of silicone tooling.

Having previously worked as a delivery driver for Tesco for a year, the world of prototyping was new and exciting. When Adam had originally begun searching for a more challenging position, he had little knowledge of prototyping and, as such, kind of fell into Prototype Projects.

Over the course of around five years, Adam developed a strong skillset from Tim. In his second year with Prototype Projects, he began operating the 3D Printers and, as his role continued to grow, he began helping with light office duties such as processing jobs and creating job cards for himself, demonstrating a desire to further himself.

Adam is highly motivated and hardworking, and his positive approach to work, along with his broad skillset, were soon recognised. He was promoted to Assistant Workshop Lead and became responsible for organising the work within the RP Workshop.

Quietly ambitious by nature, Adam could see there was no room to progress further within the RP Workshop at that time and so, when the opportunity arose, he transitioned into the Sales team with the late Gary Turner and Hannah Game.

Having been hands-on for so many years, Adam quickly refreshed his computer skills as he began producing basic quotes for customers. He reminisces how the quoting system ‘was much harder to use back then that it is now!’

With Gary’s untimely passing in the summer of 2021, Adam, like his colleagues, felt the great loss of a person he highly respected and took much inspiration from. As such, winning the first Turner’s Prize of Excellence at the end of 2021 meant so much to Adam.

Over this last year, Adam’s role has changed considerably. He is now the Senior Sales Advisor and, drawing on his earlier workshop experience, Adam now manages the quotes for Vacuum Casting as well as the larger, more complex, assembly jobs, painted parts and model making requests. He also hosts many of the tours that our customers take of our facilities, here in Royston.

Adam said, “Before I transitioned into the Sales team, I hadn’t assumed it was an easy environment to work in but it was certainly harder than I expected. I spend much of my time liaising with the customer and the RP team, while also drawing on my previous experience to consider how best to make the part, and therefore, how to quote for it and meet the customers’ expectations from a time perspective. Working in the office demands a very different mental focus than when I was in the RP workshop.”

Outside of work involves, well, the outside! Adam recognises how important being outdoors is for his mental health and can often be found cycling, kayaking and climbing, both near and far. With his thirtieth birthday looming, he jokes how ‘I don’t bounce like I used to,’ as he refers to a recent bad landing on his bike which hurt a little more than it would have before. Adam is always ready for adventure; there’s always a bike in the back of his Fiesta. Alongside his best friend/work buddy, Alex Barnett, Adam is doing the three peaks challenge, albeit most likely over three years!