The 14yo boy who Elon Musk has hired as a SpaceX engineer

A teen genius who is already a university graduate at the age of 14 has just landed a wild job with Elon Musk.

Elon Musk has hired 14-year-old uni graduate Kairan Quazi as SpaceX's youngest space software engineer. Picture: Instagram/thepythonkairan

While most 14-year-olds are focused on their first years of high school, child prodigy Kairan Quazi is gearing up to launch his career at SpaceX working as a software engineer.

Kairan will begin working on Elon Musk’s satellite internet constellation, Starlink, making him the youngest ever space software engineer.

“I was speaking in full sentences at age two. I started doing programming at seven, and I was reading complicated books. I remember I was just six or seven, I think, and my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and I really wanted to buy a pre-calc book,” Kairan explained during his appearance on FOX Business’ The Claman Countdown on Wednesday.

“That was one of my first exposures to very advanced math. And, unbeknownst to them, I did learn from it. And so that really helped when I started community college at age nine,” he continued.

Kairan enrolled in Las Positas College, a community college in Livermore, California, at a mere nine years old. Two years later, he transferred to Santa Clara University to study computer science and engineering and recently became the school’s youngest-ever graduate.

Kairan said college felt “natural” and was a place where he felt he could completely be himself.

“It really feels natural, like I’m with people that I can completely be myself around. I don’t have to censor my speech or conversations. I’m also very active on campus, and I’m lucky to be embraced by a lot of very close friends, which does include a few professors,” he said.

The California native went on to describe his traditional education as “slow suffocation”.

“My experience in traditional schools was a slow suffocation for me. It was physically, emotionally and intellectually painful for me to sit in the classroom for days and months and eventually, years on end, not learning at an appropriate pace for me. And while I did look forward to recess and spending time with friends and of course, my daily trip to the principal’s office, it was very painful,” Kairan explained.

Kairan explained that he received a “variety of infractions” because “it turns out that teachers don’t really like it when you want to be a co-instructor.”

Despite his impressive background, Kairan was rejected by 95 different companies in his job application search following graduation. Fortunately, he eventually received three offers — one of which was from Elon Musk.

Kairan has been hired to work at Elon Musk SpaceX. Picture: Alain Jocard/AFP

He’ll work on SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation, Starlink, making him the youngest-ever space software engineer. Picture: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP

“My journey was not easy,” Kairan began. “Both due to my circumstances and biases as well as market timing. I received 95 rejections, two offers that were placed on hiatus, and then finally three offers, one of which was SpaceX.”

SpaceX is known for having a cripplingly rigorous interview process, but according to Kairan, his experience in the company’s 10-round interview process was “a lot of fun.”

“I heard a lot about the SpaceX interview process being among the most difficult of any companies. I think it takes up something like what, 0.2 per cent of applicants? But it turns out that their interview philosophy, which heavily focuses on wide-ranging technical skills and the ability to think under pressure, really suits my background. I had something like ten interview rounds across various different formats. But they were a lot of fun for me,” he told FOX Business.

Kairan is scheduled to begin at SpaceX’s Starlink in July, where he will catapult his career working as a space software engineer.

This article originally appeared on FOX Business and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as The 14yo boy who Elon Musk has hired as a SpaceX engineer