challenges to you IT professionals!

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I started 2 posts asking if I was the youngest MCT and CTT+. Thanks for the good comments, but I really don't plan on battling the comments about me bragging my age. Actually, I found this forums while searching the record of "youngest MCT". I thought the forum would help me finding an answer to it.

Why do I want to know. I co-founded with my mom and my brother a non-profit dedeveryicated to help group home children last year. I thought my age and my certificate would inspire them to take the right career path. (I passed all my certificate by self-studying and videos) I can understand how some people would take me wrong by calling me bragging about my age, but I felt a little disappointed at "Professionals" still thinking I tried to put on audults shoes after I posted my reasons and my ambition to help others. Really, I am disappointed. If everyone should follow the traditional path to success, then Bill Gates won't drop out of college and start Microsoft and Yahoo and youtube won't be here today.

I will paste my last reply below and hopefully, one of you will be inspired and try to help others. Maybe the world will be a better place tomorrow.

Pasted below was my reply to comments about me bragging my age.

Actually, I did forget that everyone can look at my profile age. However, I thought if you read the CompTIA Forums, you will be proud of the fact that CompTIA does not discriminate on age. (as if you know it is a pretty difficult exam and tough performance evaluation) In my schools, other than 2 family friends, no one knows my certificates, and I am a normal 14 year old in a public high school, attending marching band and have friends at my age.
I posted the videos so if you feel I am only a paper MCP, you can see that I did earn my CTT+ as a fair game.
I thought my experience would be inspiring to others so if they do not have $ to go to college, they can create their own career path with very limited investment.
After I passed my first certificate, we realized this can be a way for poor teenager to take control of their future. We started a non-profit organization 2self.org and we started going to a group home (orphanage) and tutoring teenagers Microsoft Word. We used our own money to buy them Chrismas gifts and spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. My mom loaned the group home our laptop so they can learn. We took the laptop back after 1 kid stole it and tried to sell in school, and we stopped going after the group home closed when their landlord lost the home to foreclosure. To continue our mission, we got the support of NR Computer learning center who agreed to host free classes to people in need. That's when I taught my first 3 free PowerPoint classes. They are now teaching Free Excel.
Why do I need to confirm if I am the youngest MCT and CTT+, because if I can confirm that, it will be very inspiring to the people I tried to help.
And why do I tried to be an adult at age 14? How many of you, the real, truly qualified IT Professionals would spend precious weekend working for free. If I wait another 4 years, how many people I could have helped would be deprived of that chance to learn?
I work for $10/hour on Sat. as a front desk receptionist at a dental office. When you send your kids to summer camp or dance lessons, I chose to work and earn my money. My family and I believe that is the best education a 14 year can get. ( I do still continue my piano lesson) I have worked for 5 months now and I still have a job. I guess that means I took my job seriously and did OK. (I actually use Excel a lot at work)
I do not mind your Criticism. Don't think I am challenging you with my age. Think I am challenging you so you can do something to help people around you. I know very little in IT. But I decided to use my certificate and my age to make a difference to people's lives. If you are looking at this thread, you must know IT 100 times better than me. Have you thought of sharing what you know with a person who need help? Guide a troubled youth to a right career path? Donate your old PC to charity? Don’t you agree computer skills is the easiest to learn and does not really require degree? I shared my experience and encourage people to take the exam and to share their experience with others. In 1 year, I had 2 students achieved Microsoft Office Master status, and one of them already helped another of his friend to become MOS certified at age 13.

Help can be in any form.

 

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OK - can we stop all this now please? It's starting to get tedious - I suggest that we close this post off, along with one of the others that deals with basically the same thing. If you want to continue to brag about how young you are and have a particular cert, then cool - but can I suggest that you keep it to one thread rather than opening two more for it?

Thanks

 

@OP What is your point, exactly?

 

"AM I THE YOUNGEST ...?"

Silly question Jonny

 

Am i the youngest person to watch the whole of the West Wing boxset?

I dont know, because I dont ask everyone.

Nothing wrong with learning the stuff, when i was 14 i just wanted to kill people.

 

Yeah - me to..... wait.... what?

 

I think it's great that you're trying to help individuals in need of mentoring, etc.. And you've done pretty well for yourself. I remember when I was 14, I was also into computers but I never knew about certifications. You're ahead of your game and I'll give you that. However with that being said, please understand that this forum is to help each other out and asking questions regarding being the youngest doesn't really do much. I am sure you're up there in terms of being really young and having certifications but you could always Google that information. Unless someone keeps track, no one really looks up this kind of information. If I wanted to know who is the youngest MCP or MCSE I would look it up on Google instead of asking here.

With that said I still do encourage you to continue your studies and work hard towards your goal and also help others. Don't take this personal... on this forum we have a lot of talented and willing to help individuals so lets not criticize them either.

 

I agree.

I don't think it's "bragging" at all. I've watched the videos posted and think she does a creditable job. She's also in the US and I think we need to remember that attitudes and perceptions vary from country to country.

Perhaps a more sensible question to ask is "have any of your trainees ever commented negatively about your age ?". If not, then carry on !

My one word of caution, Valerie, would be to just recognise that experience and maturity can be a great help when training (or teaching). Just remember that in some cases your studnets will wnat that from you, and it will take you a bit of time before you have that. In the meantime, keep going !

 

Its great what you do.

But rather than being bothered or cocky about being only 14 with the certs you have maybe you need to work on maturing a little bit.

It doesn't mean tits if your 14 or 114, age has nothing to do with it.

What if I bragged about that in 1996 I was the only person in Cumbria who grew up in the care system to go to university? Which is a fact by the way, there will have been other kids in care in other counties that had done it before me so who gives a rats ass?

 

stop bragging, gbl

 

Having watched the videos, i'd concentrate less on your age and more on your presentation abilities.

Your confidence is good, but try not to use so much theory in a skills based lesson. Watching your instructor read the contents of a power point presentation can be very boring, keep the slides brief and only use the points to reinforce what you are saying.

 

but to be fair i have seen worse instructors and you have to remember this instructor is 14 years old and is also inexperienced at presentation! All in all i think she was professional, confident and courteous, time and experience will help develop her skills! good luck!

 

You didn't grow up GBL

Seriously though, to sum up the OPs post, it's attention seeking. It's not his age that he wants admiration for, it's the whole package. He is craving the attention and people to go "Wow, you're really good", the reasons for that are anyone's guess, but a High School kid craving attention is nothing new, and it's not even a bad thing, it's natural, hell, not many people didn't want approval from their peers when they were at high school. I like the OPs style, but it is getting tedious and I think we can guide her/him in the right direction, which isn't craving approval and praise for every little success.

and in all honesty, she has more confidence than I do in front of that group.

 

Actually you have a point there I haven't grown since I was 13, apart from side ways

But yep point her in the right direction is a good way to go.

 

Is this a new trend or something? Been off the forum for a few days and there seem to be a few of these pointless age threads around - why would anybody care how old you are when you have your certs?

Hopefully the mods will delete rubbish like this!

 

Fair do's to you passing at 14

 

Try here Linky

 

My spamometer's pegged.

 

Well, I haven't passed anything to do with IT just yet and I would love to be competing against you in the interview stages.

Think on that.