Is Interview Kickstart Worth Your Money?

There is a sea of online courses that can supposedly help you prepare for interviews and get into your dream company. But how many of them can really do it? And are they worth spending your hard-earned money on? One name that often comes up in the tech interview prep space is Interview Kickstart. While highly rated, the program is also expensive.

Whether or not a program is worth its cost can be ascertained using several factors, such as the teaching methods used, instructors, concepts covered, etc. Interview Kickstart says it has trained over 13,500 software engineers in the last eight years. One of the best aspects of the program, according to the website, is its team of instructors.

As per their claims, all their instructors are from FAANG and other tier-1 companies.

But the question remains, is Interview Kickstart worth it?

We decided to take a deep dive to figure this out.

The Instructors Of Interview Kickstart

They have a team of over 500 instructors, including hiring managers and tech leads from companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, and so on.

Several reviews posted by their alums rave about how good the instructors are:

Interview Kickstart has 18 courses tailored to different engineering fields, which are taught by experts in that field.

Here’s a look at some of their instructors:

• Nick Camilleri, Head of Career Curriculum, ex-LinkedIn
• Omkar Deshpande, Director of Curriculum, ex-Walmart Labs
• Christian Santos, Front-End Engineer, Facebook
• Adrian Fernandez, Engineering Manager, Doordash, ex-LinkedIn, ex-Google
• Christian Monson, ML Expert, ex-Amazon
• Jayash Koshal, Applied Research Scientist, Pinterest Ads, ex-Amazon
• Wolfgang Kandek, SVP Site Reliability Engineering, ex-Google
• John Nguyen, iOS Engineer, Redfin, ex-Amazon
• Adell Hanson-Kahn, Staff Software Engineer - Android, Imprint, ex-Airbnb

But are quality instructors enough to justify the cost of Interview Kickstart? Let’s look at some other highlights of the program:

Interview Kickstart’s Curriculum

They have 18 courses that cover different tech roles. It makes their program a good bet for those who want a more specific approach toward interview prep and train for a particular engineering role. The different courses they offer are:

• Back-end Engineering
• Full Stack Engineering
• Front-end Engineering
• Engineering Manager
• Early Engineering
• Embedded Systems
• Machine Learning
• Data Engineering
• Site Reliability Engineering
• iOS Engineering
• Android Engineering
• Test Engineering
• Technical Program Manager
• Data Science
• Product Manager (Tech)
• Cybersecurity
• Cloud Engineering
• Business Intelligence Analyst

Each course has been designed and developed by tech leads, hiring managers, and recruiters from FAANG and other tier-1 companies. While the duration varies from course to course, they all include domain-specific core concepts, behavioral skills, and career skills.

Mock Interviews

Another point that stands out in Interview Kickstart reviews are the mock interviews they offer with every course. Students can schedule and practice at their convenience. These mock interviews give students a chance to practice in standard interview settings with their course instructors.

The mock interviews also help students quell their interview anxiety.

6-Month Support Period

Interview Kickstart courses come with a 6-month long support period for the students. As compared to several other programs, six months is on the shorter side. But they do offer several things during this period:

• Revamping of LinkedIn profiles and resumes
• Salary negotiation masterclass (something not many prep programs offer)
• Interview and behavioral strategies

Students can also revise and retake classes, attend mock interviews, brush up on behavioral skills, get mentorship by instructors, and so on. This can be helpful for those who weren’t able to attend or missed out on some important topics.

Final Verdict: Is The Price Of Interview Kickstart Justified?

After going through all the highlights of the interview prep program, the answer to the question ultimately depends on you and what you expect out of a course.

While the price of Interview Kickstart might be steep, students who’ve invested in the course report improvement in their interview skills and careers. The return on investment is what makes the cost of Interview Kickstart worth it for them.

In many reviews, students have clearly stated that they did have to put in hours of work, but the exhaustive curriculum helped them prepare better and therefore, get better jobs at some of the top tech companies.

You can go for this program if:

• You want to train with instructors from big tech companies
• You want interview training specific to your job role
• You can put in the hours and work hard

Avoid it if:

• You’re looking for a more economical option
• You don’t have experience in coding

Thanks for reading!

Juan Cruz Martinez

¡Hola!

Soy Juan Cruz Martinez, el fundador de LiveCodeStream.dev. Me encanta programar y creo en el poder de la programación no solo para construir un mundo mejor, sino para hacer que TU vida sea mejor.

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