Nine-year old girl is youngest person to become Microsoft Certified Professional
By Laura June 
posted December 23rd 2008 8:38PM
posted December 23rd 2008 8:38PM
[Thanks, Penny]
posted December 23rd 2008 8:38PM
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WTF ?!
I feel sorry for parents who push their kids as hard as this poor girl has probably been pushed.
This is Incredibly selfish on the parents part, IMO.
When was the last time they "let her out" to socialize?
I'm Caribbean. You may not have meant it, but we all know that if the little girl was Scottish or something you'd be far less likely to make a comment about tech support. You can bet a lot of Indian persons are particularly tired of and sensitive to tech support jokes.
because that wouldn't make any sense, there is no stereotype involving scotland and tech support...
now if she was the youngest person to die of alcohol poisoning, it would make more sense
At Boards of Canada: Yeah... you may want to brush up on your American pop culture before you come out of the closet to tell everyone about your anal endeavors.
Proof that Indian people are freakishly smart.
(and that's a good thing, I guess. Either way, damn her (waves fist in jealousy.))
Yes, in fact New Delhi is the world capital of the technology and Silicon Valley is just another city.
does anyone else get annoyed that non-american tech support rep's pick very plain american names, like shaun and tina?
Speaking from personal Experience (Worlds youngest MCP in anything decent (NT SERVER 4) at 13, MCSE (EXCHANGE + ISA) at 15, MCT at 16) its wrong what she is doing.
I am now 23, and although i do value the skills and experience i have gained, i always feel that ive missed a massive important part of my life. I havent really updated my certifications as i realised that at the end of the day any one can get that certificate. Its just a piece of paper, Memorise around 500 possible questions, answer them on the test and BOSH, youre an MCP.
Its not fair on the child, she will miss the majority of her childhood, the important bits of her life that make will build her up and shape her character.
I Now run the IT Department for a TV Broadcasting Centre, But theres not many people who would readily take me on Because they would assume that i am one of these manufactured engineers(kind of like cyborgs). I worked hard for my experience, and have stopped doing certifications because of all this hype. Get anyone of these kids and sit them down in a real life comms room, with real servers and real problems. The day that they can upgrade a physical SBS 2003 server to Server 2008 with Exchange 2007 will be the day that i burn my laptop and become a farmer, because only then will they truly be amazing, otherwise its just a kid who knows how to memorise things.
Let the Girl have a quality of life. Let her grow old and remember the days when she used to sit and play with her toys, not sat there with hundreds of books around her. Let nature run its course, and let her make the choice of career.
I agree with your post but trust me, certs or not, experience it's usually what gets you the job (unless they hire a kid with no experience = cheaper.) Certs only mean that you are proactive about learning.
@ the didge. what you say is perfectly reasonable and i am hoping you would be against any child mastering a skill. spelling bees, math competitions, tennis or anything. any thing a child does every day as a robot is done with their parent's guidance.
In college we were given a voucher to take the certification exam after each class we took in our core curriculum. So I took maybe the first three tests but became far too busy with working 2 jobs and going to school full-time. Then, all the people I was in school with that worked part time at McDonald's and lived at home had all the time in the world to take their exams but yet somehow still f*cked their educational goals up! I'm the network administrator for a collective business of 2 distributorships and a trucking company here in California and I personally am satisfied with my career. So far I've had 2 guys in my graduating class with the same degree I have visit my location. One fixed my copying machine and the other delivered janitorial supplies. Needless to say they were pissed when they saw me and couldn't help but ask me how I did it (like I somehow used the force or something to get this gig). I just told them that at the end of the day it doesn't matter how many certifications you have under your belt because if you have zero experience and/or you don't know how to apply yourself and sell yourself in a job interview then you'll end up getting a job instead of a career.
So yeah... certifications are crap unless your employer is willing to pay you more if you have them (haven't found one yet that would) or if you're an instructor. This girl should just worry about living life and building her personality and character instead of cramming her head in books.
guys, instead of playing with her friends...playing with her toys, she did a MS exam? for God sake!!!
sorry to say this and all, but I thought she would end up being the next Dell Support Agent! lol
The Microsoft certifications are useless now.
They used to be worth something 10 years ago, but now they're just another credential you can buy with enough money.
Not just MS, every Cert. It's part of the business.
Companies see Certs as part of their marketing strategy. For instance, Jupiner network equipment is much better than Cisco in a lot of people's opinions but Cisco came out with their certs which created a whole system of learning (books, classes, software, etc, etc.) and because it's easier to find information about Cisco well, why bother with something else?
Great,
just export more and more jobs to india and the likes and here we go next crisis starting to bake well.
Companies are going there because it's cheaper - we'll see how cheap it would be when they'll become ultimate source of IT skills and the rest of the world would have to rely on them to actually get any software services.
People are greedy and that's real barrier for a growth, because no one is willing to pay for growth, everyone just want to make profit.
BTW not a racist myself - indians very nice people and have few friends, but exporting IT skills and jobs there - huge mistake.
It's impossible to diss a 9 year old kid, because she's just a kid. It's just not the path I have chosen. I have a kid myself and you know what, there are book out there that can teach your kid reading, writing, and math by the age of two. They work, too. The question is why. I asked myself: If my boy can do math at 2, does that make him Einstein by 20? Somehow, I don't think so. He'll learn math. If he loves it, he'll be great at it. If he doesn't, he will still pick up the basics.
So I decided to instead to let my little boy do whatever it is he wants to do. I spend as much time with him as possible. He learns incessantly - he learns something from anything he does, in part because babies have amazing memories and soak everything up, in part because there's nothing to unlearn.
I have actually learned from him: Joy and enthusiasm as well as no fear of mistakes makes for a fierce learner, for somebody who can pick up complicated things in a snap. I think that's true for adults as well, if only we had no fear of failure.
Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. And he was right. Imagination, of course, is not something that's taught in school. It's what happens all by itself when we are free.
I wonder which braindump she used...paper MCP.
This is what happens when kids stop playing video games. They take over the real world.
Does she know how to program?
MCP is just a memory exam, where you must remember some topics and nothing else much.
Of course, a real world problem can be (and usually is) out of the scope of a single Microsoft certified.
Yeah, but which is MORE FUN? I submit that finding Carmen is a thousand times more fun than anything relating to Microsoft. Who wins the world record for most fun as a 9 year old? It's me, not this kid. >:-[
@thelolman:
Michael Jackson may have been racist to blacks when he was black...
Or maybe he just went a bit mad.
It's only racist if you are.
Im an MCP, and have around 7 years on experience on IT, im 26 years old, from what i have learn companies really cares your know-how if ur certified is nice but is not really necesarry, i have battle conversatiuons with peaple with more certifications or bigger than me and they have to shame themselves because i know more than then, this even happen with microsoft guys, so experience is the real value now and days even a University Degree is not enough because is has proven that is does not really teach enough for you to be prepared in the world, thats why a lot of this people is hard for them to get jobs, because they can have any titles but no experiences is like having nothing of value, honestly u will be very very lucky to get a job like this, and if u do, take advantage and get some experience.
Im a consultant on Infrastructure and Security , work on a Consulting Company Microsoft Partner, is very funny when people that have a lot of titiles come to u and says stuff thinking they know a lot because they took a test, but then you come up and prove them wrong with evidence, they're boss will love you but they will hate you because you showed them that titles are only nice to have but not that huge of of importance.
This 9 year girl notice that she likes to break memory types of records, it means and is obviouse this girl pass the exam not because she knows the stuff is because she have a nice concept of memory retention like Photo Memory and such. Those parents are taking advantage of that instead of using that ability to see a real potential.
@ marky-b
Yea, I just called HP the other day and the ladies name was Jessica! Thats why I like my AppleCare tech support where almost all the agents are in the United States (I think in Texas) and they all speak good english!
Blame American GOVT, Blame Corp Ameria, Blame American Young generation who is not interested in Education
Yes, it all depends on which MCP she took. It's extremely simple for someone to get MCP in something like Word or Excel.
Now she's going for MCSE?? She'll be disappointed to know that it's being phased out.
I just got done getting my MCPD: Web. It was one of the more difficult MCP exams I have taken. Mostly because the questions can be 5-6 paragraphs long and they like to make one little word change the entire outcome. It was more reading and re-reading it just to make sure they weren't tricking you.
I was wrong, it's only MCAD, MCSD and MCDBA that are being phased out
ALL YOU ASSHOLES ARE JEALOUS. JUST BECAUSE NONE OF YOU'LL COULD CARRY OUT SUCH A THING AT SUCH A SMALL AGE, AND THE FACT THAT YOU ARE JEALOUS OF INDIA BECAUSE YOUR STUPID USA IS GOING BANKRUPT, THAT YOU ARE INSULTING THAT NINE YEAR OLD GENIUS...
Screw you all man... Seriously..
INDIA IS NOT KNOWN FOR TECH SUPPORT ALONE!!! ITS GOT **STABLE** COMPANIES... NOT COMPANIES WHICH GO BANKRUPT LIKE EVERY SECOND DAY... FOR GOD'S SAKE..
DELETE MY COMMENT, LOW RANK ME, DO WHATEVER.. BUT IT'S NOT GONNA FRIGGIN' AFFECT ME!!!
--
A proud Indian.
Is this the same tech support that HP has?
I couldn't make it to hibernate because an HP keyboard was messed up and their advice was "put your WinXP disc in the CD drive, we're going to reinstall the OS". I asked her "is this the only answer you have, really?. I can do it myself, thanks".
In this case, yes, a 9 year old kid can get certified.
"Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Exam" What engineer, I only see a technician?
She is not an engineer, so please remove a word "engineer" from the Microsoft certification. Engineers are people who has finished at lest a BS in engineering school and work in specific environment, some of the engineering profession must have a PE because of the public safety. Most of the technician would like to be called "engineer" so they give themself a title to make them feel important.
It says she's studying for that. She passed the "Microsoft Certified Professional Exam".
Either she's a genius, or Microsoft has low standards.
Give her a few years and she WILL realize she would of been better off learnin' her some UNIX.
Is there anywhere you can do like an example for a MCSE test? Im 15 and im sure i could do one of these. Im fed up of the condescending fuck-wit head of computing at my high school claiming i don't know anything about computers.
:\
What ever it is who ever say what ever, a 9 year old passing MCP is a great thing; especially when she is the one and only 9 year old passing the same in this whole world !!! Admit and Appreciate it !!!
becoming Microsoft Certified is not that hard at all. Reciting what she did at 3 is.
No wonder its such a pain to call M$ and have to hassle with non-speaking indians
w t f?
Well she is 9 years old. I was already programming 2000 lines games on my VIC-20 by then. So yeah, it's not that hard to imagine. Doubt she even has an actual interest in programming.
If you see her earlier achievements, you'll see that she's extremely good at memorizing stuff (Thousands of lines of poetry anyone?). Certification exams are all about memorizing a couple of hundred canned questions, so it's hardly surprising she managed to do it.
Next step:
Reciting all 10 million Linux kernel source! :-D
Way to go kid-o!!!! Definitely NOT an easy accomplishment.
May i correct ,it is 1330 not 1300 couplets in Thirukurral. I had classmate who could recite that when he was even three(he didn't even know how to read while he learnt the first 600).He can recite it in a flash if just say any number from 1 to 1330. He could do 11 digit math and some algebra without paper.