Tudor Coman on life at Adobe Romania all while still finishing high school

Tudor Coman discovered his passion for computers early. “I wrote my first line of code at eight or nine,” he says. “I taught myself programming on the internet, and by ninth grade I decided it was time to look for a job.”

His job search led him to the internship program in Adobe’s Romania office. “By then, I was studying computer science in school, but it was very theoretical. During my internship, I finally got to see applied technology in action.” Coman was digging deep into big data and machine learning, and finding fulfillment in his new professional relationships.

“As an intern at Adobe, everybody treats you like a real colleague. They don’t think you are too young or inexperienced, so that made it easy for me,” he says. “Everybody listens to you, whether you’re an intern or a research scientist in a senior position.”

After two years with Adobe’s internship program, Coman joined Adobe as a software development engineer with the Account IQ team—a job he does each day after his high-school classes are over.

Inventing new ways to stop online fraud with AI

As part of the Account IQ team at Adobe, Coman is working with artificial intelligence (AI) to help reduce online fraud.

“Our work will let companies see insights about users so they can help reduce online fraud, such as shared IDs and passwords,” he explains. “The most interesting part happens as we analyze users’ activities with machine learning, and we can begin to identify patterns—this helps us understand who might be sharing passwords.”

Coman’s work with Adobe has already contributed to three patent applications. And his accomplishments—including a first-place prize from NASA (at age 13) for his plan to build a permanent space settlement—have earned him high praise. He was also recently recognized on the Forbes Romania 30 Under 30 list.

On what’s ahead at Adobe and beyond

While he’s still early in his career, Coman plans on sticking with Adobe for the foreseeable future. “The culture at Adobe has been especially good for me,” he says. “I was the youngest one, so everybody knew me. It’s been easy to make new friends and it’s a very open culture—we debate, and problem solve a lot. There’s so much innovation.”

Next year, he plans to study computer science in college, and to stay in Bucharest so he can continue his work at Adobe.

Coman has some simple and wise advice for other young people planning to start their own careers: “Learn a lot. Everything can be used at some point in your life, and you never know when.”