Founded in 2014, Interview Kickstart is a global leader in career up-leveling, committed to elevating the career trajectories of tech professionals by helping them land their dream jobs with top tech companies.
Essentially, we are a proven method of helping experienced engineers get really intimate with the basic core fundamentals of their profession.
The same core fundamentals that are used to evaluate their technical chops in tough interviews.
And we train them in much more than technical skills - we help them present themselves in the best possible light on their Resumes, LinkedIn profiles and most importantly in interviews.
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Soham Mehta, Co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer at Interview Kickstart, commenced his professional journey with Microsoft before navigating through the dynamic landscape of startups and mid-sized companies.
His versatile experiences at eBay as Senior Staff Software Engineer and at Box as Director of Engineering equipped him with invaluable insights that fueled the inception of Interview Kickstart. Beyond IK, Soham is a hands-on parent and indulges in all things AI. He adopts a holistic approach to life and work having undergone the Vipassana meditation experience an impressive five times.
But that’s not very interesting for this story. What is really interesting, is that along the way, I had the incredible opportunity to help our technical teams grow from 5 to 250 engineers. This meant living and breathing the interviewing machine exploring all its nooks and corners, and ups and downs.
Box was also a company that constantly questioned and improved its interviewing processes. That relentless focus helped us hire great engineers.
I noticed however, that despite all that attention, hiring took an unreasonably long amount of time and much agony. We’d go through hundreds of resumes, countless phone screens and countless onsite interviews for each open position.
That bothered me to no end. If most of our interviews were of reasonably average difficulty, our scoring method was well-structured, and our interviewers well-trained, why would only a few candidates clear our interviews? Yet, in the end, our pass rate was so low.
I dug into this extensively. I realized that while everyone was hard-working and very smart in their own way, they vastly under-estimated the amount of preparation it would take to clear programming interviews at top companies. They only had a vague idea of what to expect, and did not have enough practice to solve interview problems under time-pressure. Their daily jobs or schools did not prepare them for handling interviews.
I found more evidence of this from the career-coaching I did on the side (pro-bono). Many candidates would even want to change their careers, thinking they were not good at programming, simply because they weren't able to crack interviews.
I knew there had to be a better way to help candidates prepare for interviews. Something more focused than online sites loaded with a thousand random questions and equally random answers. Something more modern and interactive than books. Something more comprehensive, rigorous and deliberate, with immediate feedback, that helps you push yourselves hard. After all, getting into a good company improves entire trajectory of your life.
Interview Kickstart is my attempt to address that gap. I’m focusing on it full-time. Looking forward to helping you nail your next interview.
Ryan Valles, the adept CEO and Co-Founder of Interview Kickstart, is a seasoned leader with over two decades of entrepreneurial experience. His journey started in management consulting followed by a number of entrepreneurial stints including founding and growing companies like RYSA, Urbanspace, and Deals & You.
As an EIR with Accel Partners, he incubated multiple startups driving them to profitability. At IK, Ryan leads the growth functions. On the personal front, his life is a seamless blend of work and play. He loves to travel, enjoys pursuing multiple sports, and is a passionate musician - he sings, plays the piano & guitar.
The theme that I am obsessed with both as part of my professional and personal life has been Human Performance and all that we can achieve. Not believing that there are limits, pushing yourself and challenging yourself to reach ever higher personal and professional goals is the ONLY way to truly be the best that we can be and to make a dent in the world.
My Favorite quote and the rule that I live by is one by Mohammed Ali:
“Impossible is Nothing. It’s just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in a world that they have been given, than to explore the power that they have to change it. Impossible is not a Fact. It’s a an Opinion. Impossible is not a Declaration it’s a Dare. Impossible is Potential, impossible is Temporary. IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING!”
Interview Kickstart is my platform to amplify my passion and help enhance Human Performance at scale. A way for me to help you challenge yourself. A way for me to help you aim higher. A way for me to help you Uplevel your career. A way for me to help you believe that “Impossible is Nothing”.
