Elon Musk

Musk hires a 14-year-old to work as a software engineer at SpaceX. Having been described as a genius and a “wonder kid” for his academic achievements, Kairan Quazi’s IQ tests suggest he is in the 99.9th percentile of the general population. He already completed an internship at Intel, and after he graduates from Santa Clara University (where he is set to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and Engineering), he will work on SpaceX’s Starlink team, which is building the world’s largest satellite internet network. On LinkedIn, Quazi wrote:

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 One of the rare companies that did not use my age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability.

His LinkedIn profile has since been removed, because the platform requires users to be at least 16 years old. On Instagram, Quazi posted that his removal from LinkedIn was “illogical, primitive nonsense” that amounted to discrimination.

I can be qualified enough to land one of the most coveted engineering jobs in the world but not qualified enough to have access to a professional social media platform? LinkedIn showing everyone how regressive some tech company policies are.

LinkedIn spokesperson:

We appreciate his enthusiasm to join LinkedIn and applaud his incredible success, however we have an age limit in place of 16 years of age and that extends to all members.