Tudor G. is a 12th grade student at Avenor International High School and already has an impressive business record: several IT projects built from scratch. We invite you to discover more about Tudor’s journey in a new interview from the series created by Ioana – who is also a student in the 12th grade of Avenor High School – dedicated to the passions and talents of the members of the Avenor community.
Ioana: Spune-ne câteva cuvinte despre tine, cum te-ai prezenta?
Tudor: Pot spune că sunt o persoană liniștită, văd lucrurile obiectiv și îmi place să fac business.
Ioana: Where does your passion for Computer Science come from?
Tudor: It all started in 6th grade. I started attending Computer Science classes, I studied and I also participated in Computer Science related contests. Next, I wanted to learn and understand additional information about what was being studied in class and that’s how my love for it grew. After a year or two in which I kept on learning, I started a business with a friend, where I programmed non-stop, I made different websites and projects. Now I have other companies with other friends where I program less, but I still coordinate technically everything.
When I was younger, I wanted to become a scientist or a veterinarian, but there was nothing set in my mind. Anyway, with Computer Science, even though I was learning a lot, I didn’t think I would make a career out of it. It started as something fun to occupy my time with when I was 15. It wasn’t until about a year ago that things started to get more serious and I started to think more about my future and my career.
Ioana: I know you coordinate three big projects outside of school. Tell me about how it all started, how did you come up with the ideas and how you now manage to support yourself financially from your work?
Tudor: To be honest, until a year and a half or two ago, I didn’t consider money at all, just how cool it was that I had my own projects, where I designed a site or two. Anyway, from these websites, since we had just recently started them, we didn’t earn a lot of money. It was very interesting for me to learn how to do things by myself, how to start a business from scratch, just to try to see what comes out of it. That’s how I learned all the things I know now and because of this I am very comfortable with big projects and large sums of money. I got used to it from the beginning, to be aware of everything I do.
Ioana: How do you manage to divide your time between school and work? And especially, how do you manage to do it all at such a high level?
Tudor: That’s the hard part. I simply have a very strict schedule, meaning I have an app on my phone where I schedule my day up to the minute. I always follow this schedule, especially at school, because here the schedule is already very strict, with classes that start and end on time. If, for instance, I have a meeting and the person I was supposed to meet is very late, I’ll tell them that I’m sorry but I’m no longer available. Otherwise, I really can’t handle school, projects and homework simultaneously. Anyway, homework already takes up a lot of my time.
Ioana: How did the people around you support you and your businesses?
Tudor: My friends generally supported me, as well as my parents, but until the point where my projects began interfering with school work. They told me I had to prioritise school above all. Now, that they have seen the magnitude of my projects, they are 100% supportive of them, but still believe that I must remain focused on school. Overall, I can’t say I wasn’t supported because everyone around me just said “Go for it!”
Ioana: How was the transition from the Romanian system to the Cambridge system? Was the Cambridge system more convenient for you?
Tudor: I personally think the Cambridge system is better for me because I have much more independence. This was very helpful because I was very independent before anyway, and now I can organise my schedule the way I want. This would have been impossible to accomplish at a school following the Romanian curriculum.
Ioana: What other passions do you have? Do you have sufficient time for other hobbies as well? Do you have sufficient time for other hobbies as well?
Tudor: I like to do research on the scientific side of things and a little bit of medicine; I enjoy doing my projects separately from the business ones, when I have time. I still play games on the computer, but very little, maximum 3-4 hours a week. Instead, I go out every night with my friends, for an hour or two, because I can’t work every day from morning till night.
Ioana: You have already begun your career, working on your passion daily, which is very rare in people our age. What about your personal goals?
Tudor: Personally, I feel that all the projects I handle help me to ground myself and most importantly to keep being modest – this has always been my strong point, I always want to stay modest. I want to be a reasonable person and I feel like I’m almost there. I still have to work on certain aspects such as the fact that in some situations I tend to get angry a bit too quickly.
Ioana: There is this question I often ask: “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”. In your case, I would like to ask: “In 5 years, do you see yourself doing the same thing as now, or do you wish to explore other opportunities?”
Tudor: Honestly, I don’t want it to be a cliché, but if you had asked me a year ago where I see myself now, I couldn’t have imagined that I would reach this point in my life now. In 5 years, all the least! If things continue to run as they did this year, a year that wasn’t very good overall, but business-wise it went very well for me, I don’t even want to know what might happen! 😊
