Elon Musk’s space ambitions will be aided by the ‘youngest employed software engineer on the planet’.
Kieran Kazi, 14, landed a prestigious job on the space exploration company’s satellite team days before his upcoming graduation from Santa Clara University.
The teenage genius could speak full sentences at just two years old and complete complex maths equations at six, but admits his school years were a struggle as his peers failed to keep up.
‘It was physically painful for me to be stuck in a classroom, existentially bored, for hours and months – and eventually years – on end, and not learning at the level I needed physically, intellectually and emotionally,’ she told SFCChronicle.
14-year-old Kieran Kazee landed a prestigious job with SpaceX after graduating college at just 14.
Prodigy is ready to work with the Star Link engineering team, providing satellite internet technology to rural areas
Along with his age, Kazi’s budding career at SpaceX would be enough to place him at the top of his industry, with less than one percent of applicants accepted by the tech giant.
His early-age accomplishments were honored by the Santa Clara City Council earlier this month, where he tried to express concern for putting his youth to rest.
“For those of you out there who are concerned that my childhood is being destroyed, I’m really here to tell you that it’s not right,” he said.
Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gilmour responded that she felt ‘a bit of an underachiever’ compared to Prodigy, as she called him ‘the youngest employed software engineer on the planet… on the planet!’
He has been characterized as a ‘profoundly gifted’ young man with a near superhuman level of intelligence. Asked about his IQ, Kieran admits he doesn’t know, but claims ‘the doctor told me I did the maximum’.
After spending his childhood soaring above other kids, the young wonder quickly enrolled in a school for gifted youth, but said it still failed to meet his intellectual needs.
Kazi (left) impressed throughout his childhood, and even claimed a doctor told him he had ‘maximized’ his IQ. He is pictured with California Governor Gavin Newsom (right).
While other employers have been put off by Kazi’s age, he claims Elon Musk’s (pictured) SpaceX was excited by his commitment.
After graduating from community college and earning her degree, Kieran was ready to have her brain tested, but she said she quickly realized that mentioning her age didn’t impress employers.
That was until he interviewed for SpaceX, which he claimed was actually too young.
But in his earlier years, he felt frustrated as his intellect expanded beyond his fellow schoolkids. Feeling ‘nothing polished or dignified’ about his education, Kazi wanted to take things up a notch, but found it impossible to concentrate on easy classes.
His mother said he embarked on an ‘elementary school rebellion’ phase, where he would argue with his teachers and prefer being sent to the principal’s office to sit in the classroom.
However, Mastermind said he never saw grades as ‘a good representation of the whole person’, a view shared by his parents who he claims ‘never cared about grades’.
His mother Julia Kazi recalls several telling moments from his childhood that give a glimpse of his promising smarts.
He claimed that he was often seen ‘arguing with his preschool teachers about the constitutional requirements of being President of the United States’.
In a third-grade lesson, she confronted her teacher about how it would be possible to discuss supply and demand in China without talking about U.S. trade policy, Julia said.
He recalled that he was so frustrated by the slow curriculum at his gifted school, he announced to his teachers ‘they’d find him in the computer room looking for a job on the CIA website’.
‘Our approach was no censorship and no focus on grades,’ said his mother. ‘If we go to a library or Barnes & Noble and he grabs a book, he can get it.’
Keiran (centre) pictured with his parents Mustahid (right) and Julia (left), who said Prouda started to show his talent at the age of just two.
As a frustrated young man, Kazi’s search for a CIA job turned into technology when he took a college calculus test and his parents realized he was a gifted mathematician.
But it was more than his predilection for equations that caught people’s attention—his pediatrician once warned his parents about his outstanding emotional intelligence.
This was evident even at the age of two, when the fully articulate child ‘walked around introducing himself’ at social events, his mother said.
‘He would find a seat with the adults and try to insert himself into the conversation,’ she added.
After years of trying to nurture his ‘curiosity that knew no bounds’, he thrived at Santa Clara University, surprising his classmates and professors alike.
‘My brain is able to process and synthesize information faster,’ he said, when asked by SFChronicle how he was able to reach such astonishing heights at such a young age.
‘I can read a textbook once and have a deep understanding,’ he claimed.
Despite seemingly excelling in everything, Kazi said two particular talents eluded him. ‘I’ve always enjoyed tennis and playing the piano… but I’m very bad at both,’ he said.
Kazi dazzled his classmates and professors throughout his childhood, allowing him to recently graduate from college despite being only 14 years old.
He claims to have a superhuman ability to ‘read a textbook once and gain deep understanding’
Now, with a degree in computer science and engineering, Kazi’s quest to cash in on his intelligence has seen him land one of the most lucrative roles in his field.
But her job hunt didn’t always go to plan, with the then-13-year-old getting rejected from every firm she applied to while shopping her CV last fall.
Kieran says he’s constantly called out for ‘aging’, including a recent incident in which his LinkedIn profile was scrubbed from the platform because he was under 16.
‘This is absurd, primitive nonsense that I constantly encounter,’ he said in a furious response on Instagram.
‘I might be qualified enough for the world’s most coveted engineering job but not qualified enough to access a professional social media platform?’
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