At 22, David Carlton is a software engineer for Microsoft.

Growing up in Kent, he was home-schooled for almost his entire education by his mother, taking only one class in his local school district.

``When I was younger, I didn't really know much about public school. It seemed like a strange environment,'' Carlton said.

When he did take a history class at his local junior high school, Carlton thought the course was tedious and found that there was no love lost between him and his classmates. Fitting into a social clique held no interest for Carlton, who felt pressured to dress in trendy clothes and hide his intellect to be accepted by his peers.

At home, he could work at his own quick pace and dress in whatever clothes he chose, although there were days he didn't feel like doing much at all.

``When I was obstinate, my mom would threaten to send me to the public high school,'' he joked.

In truth, there were a few downsides to home schooling, he said. Had Carlton been enrolled at a public school, he would have been more involved in athletics and felt comfortable attending school dances and other social activities.

But those desires were outweighed by the benefits of Carlton's quick passage through school to the professional sector. At 13, Carlton started in the Running Start program, which allows students to earn college credits free of charge. At 16, he started at the University of Washington. He graduated at 18 with a degree in computer science and started working immediately with a computer game company, a long-term goal of his. Soon after, Carlton shifted gears slightly and got hired at Microsoft at 20 years old.

``There's a nice ring to it,'' said Carlton, who now lives in Seattle.

While he thinks about his home-schooling background occasionally, it doesn't come up much in conversation. He did, however, note that his co-workers are very aware of his age and position at Microsoft and wonder how he achieved so much so early.

``Most people just assume there's some sort of genius program you go through,'' he said with a laugh.