Interview Kickstart Review : A Waste Of Money

Interview Kickstart is an interview prep boot camp for software engineers. It's designed for professionals who already have extensive experience so that they can be more successful in their technical interviews, with a primary focus on helping SWEs get into the interviewing mindset.

However, Interview Kickstart has awful reviews from past customers, who say that the course material was poor, their sales team was extremely pushy, and that Interview Kickstart did not honor its refund policy.

In this Interview Kickstart review, I'll outline the program's advantages, disadvantages, and why I believe Tech Interview Pro offers better value for most software engineers.

Interview Kickstart Features

Here are some of the features Interview Kickstart advertises on its website:

#1 Structured & Guided Curriculum

The old way of preparing for technical interviews was to do 200-300 questions from LeetCode, hoping to solve one of those questions in your interview.

However, companies today have databases of 16,000+ technical questions they can pull from, while the entirety of LeetCode has just 1,000 questions. Doing it the old way is simply not an option anymore.

So, instead of focusing on interview questions alone, Interview Kickstart teaches you problem solving patterns that enable you to solve any programming question you're faced with, even if you've never seen it before.

#2 Proven Track Record

Interview Kickstart has a proven track record of over 4,000 job offers generated by their students, the majority of which are experienced engineers. 

This further increases the credibility of the course, but it also means that you'll have specific feedback from a wide array of different companies.

This enables you to make better decisions when you're on the job hunt.

#3 Personalized For Everyone

Interview Kickstart also offers personalized feedback loops from your instructors to learn exactly where you could be lagging behind.

This will allow you to address problem areas pretty quickly, and it will allow you to become a stronger software engineer overall.

#4 Extensive Community

The Interview Kickstart community is 5,000+ members strong, which is a lot of software engineers who can help you with any problems or questions you might run into.

You can get feedback on your interviews and offers, and having a community this big is also useful for meeting other engineers who have successfully landed jobs in FAANG and other tech firms. 

#5 Mock Interviews

Interview Kickstart also offers mock interviews that will enable you to get detailed feedback on all aspects of the interview, helps you pinpoint your weak areas so you can work on them, and allows you to practice solving tough coding questions in front of an interviewer all in one place.

One of the biggest advantages of a mock interview is that it allows you to make all your mistakes before the actual interview while you're still in an interview setting. Any course that has this feature is one worth considering.

Is Interview Kickstart Worth It?

In my opinion, Interview Kickstart is not worth the money (and it does cost a lot of money, as you'll see in a minute). It has several major weaknesses, with cost being one of the major ones, and .

Weaknesses Of Interview Kickstart

Here are the major complaints Interview Kickstart students have with the program and the company as a whole:

#1 Interview Kickstart Price

The full price of Interview Kickstart is $6,200: $600 for the trial, and $5,600 towards the full course. That's 10x the price of other programs that have higher success rates than Interview Kickstart, making Interview Kickstart an extremely expensive program for what you get.

I also don't like that Interview Kickstart doesn't tell you how much their program costs on their site—instead, they force you to inquire about it by contacting them. This is a classic strategy employed by high-pressure salespeople, and stands out as a big red flag for me.

#2 Low Overall Quality

Interview Kickstart advertises 60+ instructors to choose from, some of whom are hiring managers or tech leads at various well-respected companies, including FAANG companies. They say the quality of their program is excellent, though students don't feel the same way.

Interview Kickstart students describe the course material as “lackluster”, “boring” and “ineffective.” Students have publicly expressed their concerns about Interview Kickstart's instructors, and have questioned the company on the efficacy of its teachings.

#3 Poor Interview Preparation

Some students say that the training they received from Interview Kickstart didn't prepare them well for interviews with tier-1 companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon. students have also said that they don't receive replies from Interview Kickstart and its instructors after the training is complete, leaving them with poor job prospects and no clear path to improve.

Interview Kickstart may be helpful if you're seeking a job at a less prestigious company, but if that's the case, the cost of the program is prohibitively expensive.

#4 Unfriendly To Beginners

Half of Interview Kickstart's students have 8-12 years of experience, and nearly everyone else in the community has at least 5+ years of experience under their belt. This means that if you've just recently graduated from college and are looking for resources to help you prepare for your first set of interviews, Interview Kickstart is not the place for you.

#5 Aggressive Sales Team

Interview Kickstart has become known in the industry for its aggressive sales team. Students and potential students say that once they give Interview Kickstart their phone number, the company called them multiple times per day for weeks on end trying to get them to sign up.

Some students even mention that Interview Kickstart makes those calls from multiple different phone numbers so that you can't block them or stop them from calling you. This is a concerning practice, and certainly not the kind of customer service you would expect from a company charging $6,200 for its service.

Tech Interview Pro vs. Interview Kickstart

If you're uneasy about paying $6,200+ for Interview Kickstart but feel like you need to to land a high-paying career, you're in luck: there are other programs out there that can help you. The one I personally recommend is Tech Interview Pro, a program designed by a former software engineer at Facebook and Google.

Here are a few of the reasons I recommend Tech Interview Pro over Interview Kickstart:

#1 Lower Cost, Higher Quality

Tech Interview Pro will cover all aspects of getting hired, including soft skills. It will also do so while costing around a tenth of Interview Kickstart's price.

Here’s Tech Interview Pro's course outline:

1. Understanding The Interview Process
2. Four Axes of the Interview
   1. Coding
   2. Data Structures & Algorithms
   3. Systems Design
   4. Communication
3. Interviewing Masterclass
4. Data Structures & Algorithms
5. 100+ Coding Sessions
6. The Mock Interview
7. Systems Design
8. Transitioning Careers
9. Negotiating & Accepting Your Offer

As you can see, the course outline dedicates the same amount of time to all three aspects of getting hired as a software engineer. You can also expect every single topic shown here to be covered as thoroughly as possible.

You can learn more about each of these nine modules in our thorough Tech Interview Pro review.

#2 Created By An Industry Insider

Tech Interview Pro is run by an industry veteran who has reverse-engineered the hiring process to give you the best chance of success.

TechLead (Patrick Shyu) has grown websites to millions of users, spent years working at Facebook and Google, and has conducted over 100 technical interviews for Google.

But before all that, TechLead applied for roles at Google for years before being accepted. It wasn't until he changed his approach that he finally got the job.

So if you're looking for someone who knows how to get a job at FAANG, TechLead is a great person to learn from.

#3 Bi-Weekly Q&A Sessions

TechLead hosts live Q&A sessions for all Tech Interview Pro students every two weeks. These Q&A sessions normally last for about an hour, with a lot packed into those sixty minutes. 

During these Q&A sessions, you can ask TechLead anything and get a personalized response. For example, you could ask:

• I want to land a job at Facebook. Where should I begin?
• I have an upcoming phone interview at Amazon. What should I look out for?
• I have an upcoming interview at Apple. How should I prepare?
• I didn’t get the internship I wanted at Google. What should I work on over the next 6 months to ensure I get the next one?

Also, it's worth mentioning that every Q&A session is recorded, so as soon as you join Tech Interview Pro, you’ll gain access to all previous Q&A sessions.

#4 Resume Reviews

Your resume will probably be a recruiter’s first interaction with you, and TechLead knows exactly just how crucial it is that their first glance at it knocks them out.

That's why TechLead will also personally review your resume and help you tailor it for the position and the company you’re pursuing. 

#5 Lifetime Access

Every Tech Interview Pro student gets lifetime access to everything within the course: this means new video lessons as they’re added, the private Facebook group, all of the live Q&A sessions, and everything else.

It doesn't matter if you're looking to land a job now or 10 years ahead: Tech Interview Pro has you covered.

In Summary

Interview Kickstart is an interview prep boot camp designed to help software engineers get into the interviewing mindset. However, its extremely high price point means that the people getting rich from it are primarily the Interview Kickstart team themselves.

If you're looking for a proven program that's landed thousands of engineers six-figure jobs at Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple, you should really consider Tech Interview Pro. With a money-back guarantee and promotions that go as low as $497, I can't recommend Tech Interview Pro enough.