Youngest Network Manager?

kadshah

Man they're getting younger. Sorry for the off topic but see for yourself.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032708-netkid.html?nwwpkg=slideshows

He'll be on this forum any day now.

pryde7

Great kid!! Keep up!

Skill and opportunity enhances growth. He was smart with budding skills and opportunity stroke!! The school could not hire a pro immidiately, he thus benefited since there are kids of his age or above his age who are not savvy enough.

"be prepared for you don't know when the son of man will come" likewise take your interest or career seriously for you don't know when that golden door will open infront of you.

mikearama

My only "issue" with the story is the use of Network Manager... must be something the media came up with. Still, even if he's ONLY technical support, that's still a huge step up for the little guy.

Skill + Opportunity = Advancement. Clearly, they both existed for this little dude, and he took advantage of it.

dynamik

Yea, I saw this on Digg yesterday. It was really disappointing to see all the negative comments. I hope he has a CCIE and a Porsche by the time he finishes high school.

http://digg.com/security/11_year_old_takes_school_network_by_the_horns

Goldmember

If that kid gets to put "Network Manager" on his resume, I should be able to put GOD on mine.

sthomas

The kid is smart and has a bright future ahead of him. I think he should keep up the good work and learn everything he can about computers. However, I have issues with the fact that the school is relying on him for 100% of the IT work since he is only 11 years old, at least that is what I got from the article. I think it would be beneficial for the school to hire an IT consultant for some of the major IT work. I know some good consultants who give discounts for schools. Also, I hope the kid is getting paid at least something for his work.

nel

Hope his getting well paid

Seriously though, im very suprised anyone letting that go on. But im very pleased for the young kid!

Claymoore

kadshah wrote:

Man they're getting younger. Sorry for the off topic but see for yourself.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032708-netkid.html?nwwpkg=slideshows

He'll be on this forum any day now.

And his first post will be something like:

Hi, I have been in IT for 4 years and am unhappy with my salary.

Certs I have:
A+, MCSA, CCNA

Currently working on:
Drivers license, high school diploma.

Any advice, please?

Seriously, though I think this kid has a bright future. The attitude he has shown by siezing the opportunity when it presented itself will serve him well his entire life, regardless of whether he pursues a career in IT or not. I wish some of my HelpDesk staff would show that kind of drive.

hetty

Claymoore wrote:

kadshah wrote:

Man they're getting younger. Sorry for the off topic but see for yourself.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032708-netkid.html?nwwpkg=slideshows

He'll be on this forum any day now.

And his first post will be something like:

Hi, I have been in IT for 4 years and am unhappy with my salary.

Certs I have:
A+, MCSA, CCNA

Currently working on:
Drivers license, high school diploma.

Any advice, please?

Seriously, though I think this kid has a bright future. The attitude he has shown by siezing the opportunity when it presented itself will serve him well his entire life, regardless of whether he pursues a career in IT or not. I wish some of my HelpDesk staff would show that kind of drive.

I think it will be something more like

Its way past my bedtime how do you suppose I can convince my parents that I do actually need to do another internetwork expert lab. Do you guys have this problem too?

Ehhhh no.

Slowhand

That little guy's definitely got a nice future to look forward to. He's living out the "I wish I'd started when I was younger" dream we all seem to have at one time or another. Given, by the time he's in college, he might start getting bored with IT and want to move on to other things, I'm pretty sure he'll have scholarships and job-study opportunities raining down on him. Whatever he chooses to do, the doors are wide open. (I wish I'd taken as much initiative in my quest to become a geek, at his age. )

He's doing what he likes to do, and the jealous little bastards on Digg that feel the need to bash him for what particular AV software or operating system he chose should remember what they said. Someday, they'll be walking into an office with this kid's name on the door, their resumes in hand, and they'll be calling him "sir".

darkuser

i had my 8 year old son reboot my cisco asa
does that count ?

yukky

darkuser wrote:

i had my 8 year old son reboot my cisco asa
does that count ?

It depends if you let him decide and schedule the reboot, or if he's just a button pusher.

hugolucky

interesting alright, reading the comments from Jons parents and from the school officials made it even more so

- according to his dad... "He knows Linux pretty well, has it running on his laptop at home and ran it on the family computer for a while. He stuck with Windows because the school wanted to stay with it."

- according to his mom he recieves no compensation and doesnt want any because Jon feels it "quits being fun and you can't choose what you want to do."

- according to the school... "I want to thank you for your comments concerning Jon and our school. Jon loves to work on the network and does a fine job. This is not Jon's first love. Jon is a follower of Christ and is living out Christ's example of serving others by taking on this task. The school board knows Jon, knows his God giving talents and knows his love for others. We firmly believe God places people in our lives at the right time for the right reason. For Victory Baptist School, Jon was placed where God wants him and will continue to serve as God has called him."

Im sorry if this offends some folks, maybe im a bit too cynical but statements like that always make me wonder how the speaker is benefiting from a situation

after reading the comments and thinking on this a bit I feel Jon is being taken advantage of by the school. and the fact that hes doing something he loves to do and is getting a great headstart in his career in IT is a distraction away from the fact that the school should be paying an adult for this work and not getting free IT work from an underage student

phreak

hugolucky wrote:

is a distraction away from the fact that the school should be paying an adult for this work and not getting free IT work from an underage student

I will agree with this statement......


I applaud the young man in the article and wish that more of us had the opportunity to do what he does. I admit that if i were younger around his age, I'd be wanting a position like that.


On the flip side, the school is in the wrong. They need to pay a qualified individual to do this job. We all know how difficult it is to find a job in the industry and there is somewhere in that town a starving network manager or IT person that needs the money to pay his bills and feed himself or his family. By not going through the proper channels and hiring a qualified individual, the school is contributing to the unemployment or missed opportunities of current IT workers or potential IT workers. Shame on the school for doing this.

dynamik

You realize this is a tiny Christian school that only has 60 old computers as a result of a donation, right? The previous "IT systems overseer" was likely just a math teacher or something, and after he left they gave the IT responsibilities to the librarian. You really think these types of organizations are responsible for unemployed IT personnel?

I'm not sure why not paying him is such a big deal either. I bet a lot of people on these forums would jump at an opportunity to do something like that for free, just to get the experience. He wasn't forced to do this. It was a fun project for him and he gained some experience. You have to realize, that this is more than likely a small, tight-knit community. All the families probably pitch in to do things to help out the school. This isn't a traditional school system. Plus, I don't think the school could even legally pay him because of his age anyway. Don't child labor laws require the person to be 15 or 16?

hugolucky

small community? Sherwood Ark. is a suburb of the state capital of Little Rock and is in itself one of the top 20 largest cities in the state, and if the school itself is too small for a permanent IT person they could have hired a temp consultant to get them back on track with their networking needs, and then with some training handed it off to one of the adult staff, there is no need to have an 11 year old do this work paid or not

dynamik

I was referring to the "community" of people that are associated with the school. Maybe you just haven't had a lot of exposure to these small Christian schools. A lot of them have no money and will take whatever they can get. The article specifically states that they're on a shoe-string budget. It's easy to talk about what they should have done under optimal conditions, but that doesn't make it realistic.

Who knows though... Maybe it's a wealthy school that loves it's 1995-style website and ancient Windows 98 donation PCs, and they're just stingy when it comes to hiring IT people. I was just speaking generally from my personal experiences with these small organizations.

colebert

hugolucky wrote:

small community? Sherwood Ark. is a suburb of the state capital of Little Rock and is in itself one of the top 20 largest cities in the state, and if the school itself is too small for a permanent IT person they could have hired a temp consultant to get them back on track with their networking needs, and then with some training handed it off to one of the adult staff, there is no need to have an 11 year old do this work paid or not

I didn't even realize they were in arkansas. Maybe I should get the car and drive the 10 minutes and volunteer. Then the kid can go back to learning his muiltiplication tables.

colebert

dynamik wrote:

You realize this is a tiny Christian school that only has 60 old computers as a result of a donation, right? The previous "IT systems overseer" was likely just a math teacher or something, and after he left they gave the IT responsibilities to the librarian. You really think these types of organizations are responsible for unemployed IT personnel?

I'm not sure why not paying him is such a big deal either. I bet a lot of people on these forums would jump at an opportunity to do something like that for free, just to get the experience. He wasn't forced to do this. It was a fun project for him and he gained some experience. You have to realize, that this is more than likely a small, tight-knit community. All the families probably pitch in to do things to help out the school. This isn't a traditional school system. Plus, I don't think the school could even legally pay him because of his age anyway. Don't child labor laws require the person to be 15 or 16?

1. A church or non-profit is a great way to get experience when you're just starting out. They can afford to take a risk on you (how much worse could it get?) and they have all (or many) of the basic attributes of a corporate IT environment's needs.

2. Sherwood is pretty urbane and sophisticated, by Arkansas standards. Basically an exburb of Little Rock. Just because it has that ", Ark" on the end doesn't mean it's rural and poor. The only thing poor is this school, not the area. (I know you meant no offense.)

3. Arkansas is NOT suffering from a surplus of IT personell. As someone engaged in a hiring process (going on 2 years if you count the idiots we've had to fire) for a junior systems admin, I can tell you that the derth of COMPETENT and QUALIFIED people here in the state is VERY LOW. So I doubt anyone is losing work because of this kid.

hugolucky

damn, ya know i kinda feel like im raining on this kids parade, and yes i will admit i am a bit jealous that i didnt have this type of opprutunity when i was 11, heck i could draw like no other kid in school but i never got to run the art dept <sniff>

anyway, doesnt this smack just a bit of favoritism?, again not to knock Jon, I have nothing but props for him and his skills, but what about the other talented children at that school who's parent(s) are not on staff and therefore may not have the inside track?, there may be a potential world class chef somewhere in that school who has culinary skills but will never get a chance to be that chef becuase they were not given the keys to the schools kitchen at 11 years old, and was therefore not able to claim that experience later on.

If youre gonna give this kind of learning opprutunity to one child that displays talent, you should provide it to every other child with the potential to benefit from their own head-start experience, whatever that experience may be, or you should give it to none. You are asking for trouble from resentful parents and jealous kids to do otherwise, and Ide be willing to bet Jons real popular with the schools staff, after all hes saving them money, time, and effort, but ide also bet that his popularity with the other kids has fallen.

I wish Jon the best i really do, and im sure he will be very sucessful in this field, but this whole thing reeks of exploitation and favoritism to me

pooker

congrats, i liked saying where his mom said gifts like this should be used to fight evil. Makes IT sound horroic.

sprkymrk

hugolucky wrote:

anyway, doesnt this smack just a bit of favoritism?, again not to knock Jon, I have nothing but props for him and his skills, but what about the other talented children at that school who's parent(s) are not on staff and therefore may not have the inside track?, there may be a potential world class chef somewhere in that school who has culinary skills but will never get a chance to be that chef becuase they were not given the keys to the schools kitchen at 11 years old, and was therefore not able to claim that experience later on.

If youre gonna give this kind of learning opprutunity to one child that displays talent, you should provide it to every other child with the potential to benefit from their own head-start experience, whatever that experience may be, or you should give it to none. You are asking for trouble from resentful parents and jealous kids to do otherwise, and Ide be willing to bet Jons real popular with the schools staff, after all hes saving them money, time, and effort, but ide also bet that his popularity with the other kids has fallen.

I wish Jon the best i really do, and im sure he will be very sucessful in this field, but this whole thing reeks of exploitation and favoritism to me

Let the others step up to plate like Jon did then. Or would it have been better if this kid never got a chance to help because it would be unfair to others? Then the school could go right along with a bunch of old decrepit W98 computers and no network or AV just so other kids and parents wouldn't be jealous.

Seriously, the critics here really have no leg to stand on, whether you are criticizing the school, the parents or Jon.

TechJunky

This is cool... However, how many of you here did the same thing at that age but didn't get any recognition for it?

I know I was one. I remember my dad showing me foxpro back in the day and helping him code late at night. Plus, any 11yr old kid can pickup computer stuff now adays because its everywhere. Most 11yr olds know how to work an ipod and modify it better than I can. Why? Because its cool and they have all the time in the world. Back when I was a kid you would have gotten called a nerd and beaten up. Now its cool to know technology so more kids dig it.

I remember when I was 14 modifying paq files in quake to ****. Wall hacks, sticks coming out of guys so I could know if they were below me etc.

Props for him being inginuitive, but IMO anyone can youtube or google antivirus or security and get a million answers on how to be a pro. For most of us here it was done by experience, not reading a book or the internet and suggesting some known solutions.

Shoot my little sister can code SQL and she is only 14.

Times are changing.

mikej412

At least no one has commented on his lack of a professional cabling solution in the slide 3 picture

Talic

I think he should of installed Linux on those machines rather then mess with the junk known as Windows 98. That would of taken care of the virus problems too.

Xubuntu would of fit nicely.

edit : He probably could of kept the old nics too. People and the mindset that everything needs to be spoon fed from Microsoft

HeroPsycho

hugolucky wrote:

"We firmly believe God places people in our lives at the right time for the right reason. For Victory Baptist School, Jon was placed where God wants him and will continue to serve as God has called him."

This reminds me of an internship I did getting into IT for a large fundamentalist Christian organization, the name of which I won't mention.

I came in one day, and one of the Exchange databases wouldn't mount. So they were trying to resurrect (pardon the Christian pun) the database by...

...and I kid you not...

...standing in a circle around the Exchange server praying.

I asked the guy who got me the internship what the heck was going on, and he laughed, and told me. I walked in, politely said, "Excuse me, let me try something...". Ran eseutil /r and mounted the database.

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Apparently, I had been sent from God to mount their Exchange database. That's literally what they told me.

Don't get me wrong. I consider myself a Christian, but I'd like to think that God has more important things to do than divinely intervene to make sure a Jerry Falwell can check his email.

Another fun fact: a position opened within the organization, and I got passed over by yet another person who along with the rest of the IT staff didn't know anything about Exchange because I refused to state my religion on my application on principle. I could have sued, but why would I ever want to work for an organization that would do that?

The difference between that and this story about the 11-year-old? At least the 11-year-old seems to know what he's doing, so it's less crazy.