By Divyanshi Sharma: Elon Musk’s space explorer company, SpaceX , has a new employee. And it is 14-year-old prodigy who is super excited to join the ‘coolest company on the planet’ in capacity of a Software Engineer. Yup, you read that right. If this reminds you of popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, you are not alone. Now we know that Sheldon hates engineers but the fact that this boy is only 14 and has graduated from college already bears strong resemblance to the character. In the show Young Sheldon as well, Cooper is seen starting college at the age of 11 and graduating at 14.
Now that we have your attention, allow us to tell you more about Musk’s new recruit – the real-life Sheldon Cooper.
14 year old joins Elon Musk’s SpaceX
14-year-old Santa Clara University graduate Kairan Quazi is all set to begin his job as a software engineer soon. He announced the same via a LinkedIn post and called SpaceX ‘one of the rare companies that did not use his age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability’.
Quazi’s LinkedIn post reads, “I guess this will be my LinkedIn “I’m excited to announce…” post! I am graduating from Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering where I learned that “engineering with a mission” is not a gimmicky tagline. Where a culture of rigor, collaboration, accountability, and impact deeply resonated with the needs of a radically accelerated learner.”
Adding that he is joining SpaceX, Quazi wrote, “Next stop: SpaceX! I will be joining the coolest company on the planet as a Software Engineer on the Starlink engineering team. One of the rare companies that did not use my age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability.”
Journey began at the age of 2
A Los Angeles Times reported that Quazi’s journey began when he was just 2 years old, when he learnt how to speak in complete sentences. When he was in kindergarten, he used to tell other kids and teachers about the news that he would hear on the radio, the report adds. The child prodigy, however, felt that his school was not challenging him enough when he was in grade 3, aged 9. His parents then helped him to get an admission at a community college in California.
Talking about how he got introduced to transformational leadership at the age of 9, Quazi wrote further in his LinkedIn post, “My early access to transformational leadership began as a 9-year-old. First, when the administrators of a local community college Las Positas College enrolled a third-grade graduate with no prior acceleration into a fulltime mathematics A.S. degree program.”
He then went on to share how he worked at Intel Labs as an intern, a move that ‘changed his career trajectory’.
“And again, a few months later, when I walked into a meeting with Lama Nachman at Intel Labs and walked out with a generative AI opportunity that would change my career trajectory. Lama recognized that outlier circumstances demanded outlier access to influential mentors and challenging opportunities.
“In a sea of so many “no’s” by Silicon Valley’s most vaunted companies, that ONE leader saying “yes”…one door opening…changed everything,” his post read.
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