Interview Kickstart Review: How Xianghong Sun Cracked the Google SWE Interview

FAANG+ companies hire the best talent in the industry and offer highly competitive salaries and lucrative perks. Clearing interviews in these companies can be grueling. Still, with its focused curriculum, FAANG+ instructors, and premier resources, Interview Kickstart has helped thousands of candidates land their dream jobs in FAANG and other Tier-1 companies.

In this post, we’ll talk about Xianghong Sun’s journey to Google. Xianghong worked as a full-stack engineer in a small CD manufacturing company. His job was to assist in the modification of the web pages. He felt he didn't have many opportunities to grow and desired a high-paying position at a FAANG+ company.

Xianghong Sun answers some critical questions about how Interview Kickstart helped him crack a FAANG interview:

• Can you tell us a bit about your background?
• How did IK help in overcoming the challenges?
• Which areas improved most after joining IK?
• What challenges did you face in terms of your job?
• How did career coaches help at IK?
• How did the course at IK change your life?
• What advice would you give others who want to follow in your footsteps?

Let’s jump right in and learn from Xianghong Sun what the Interview Kickstart experience was like for him. 

Can you tell us a bit about your background? 

I came to the US 10 years ago to get my bachelor's degree. Even when I was in China, my English was poor. The most crucial point is that it's more competitive in China to find work, but everyone's more flexible here. My engineering courses are pretty good, but I'm super bad at communication. 

I'm super shy. I don't talk a lot, even with my classmates. So, even after I graduated with my master's degree, I still couldn't find a job.

I heard about Interview Kickstart and googled it. I thought it might help improve my English and communication skills. That's why I ended up here, and with the help of Interview Kickstart, I just got an offer from Google, making it a happy ending.

How did IK help in overcoming the challenges? 

So one of the best things I got from Interview Kickstart is the mock interviews. Not only did they help me improve my communication, but they also helped me know what I needed to do during an interview. IK’s mock interviewers are super helpful. 

They're particular when trying to teach you what you should do and will just tell you, “hey, you should do this.” or “you should do that.” In the beginning, I didn't explain or talk to interviewers, so they just pointed out, “hey, you should speak more like you’re talking to us,” or “you should speak more.” So talking to the interviewer did help me a lot. I mean, all of them are helpful in many aspects.

You can watch his full interview here:

According to you, which area is Interview Kickstart best at? 

IK is excellent at being structured. So, let us take the case where you need to study a topic this week. If you're not that great at this topic, you always have someone to ask for help. For example, if you're stuck in some Leetcode coding problem, you can just grab that code, send it to IK and say, “Hey, I need you to help out with this problem.” They give you an idea of what you should do and why you should code this way.

What challenges did you face in terms of your job? 

Everyone has to face significant pressures if they don't have a job. Sometimes, when I’m under pressure, I feel more energy. But when you have two minutes, you just feel like you’d burn out. However, since I had my family’s support, I was not worried much about burnout. So my suggestion is just to take it and take your time. Burnout happens, and sometimes you cannot deal with it very efficiently.

How did career coaches help at IK?

I did meet a mock interviewer that helped me a lot. I think the mock interviewers get assigned randomly. But for some reason, I'm not sure if it's luck. I got an interviewer three times in a row! He truly helped me get into Google.

I asked him for the referral when I passed my first virtual. I mean, it's on call at the core interview or screen interview, and he just helped me simulate how Google interviewed and how it works, and it helped me to have precise instructions on what I need to do. Yeah, I mean, he did help a lot.

How did the course at IK change your life?

When I came to IK, my interviewing skills improved a lot. I say the improvement was huge because now I know what I need to do. IK has very structured courses to improve every aspect of your interview, not just your coding but also your soft skills and salary negotiation skills.

They’ve covered every aspect. So after taking the IK course, I believe I will never worry about my next interview. Even if I quit my current job, I'm pretty confident I can get and clear another interview, maybe a better position with a higher salary. I think this program got me to another level when I got to Google, and my salary increased. I don't know; I don't feel it's real.

What advice would you give others who want to follow in your footsteps?

For new learners, I would just say that my biggest challenge is communication, so I have to step out of my comfort zone. If you want to improve yourself, you cannot just stay in your comfort zone because if you stay there, you cannot improve. I'm super nervous when I schedule an appointment with a mock interviewer, but I have to click that button and schedule it. When you feel uneasy or don't want to do it, sometimes you just have to click that button. And your comfort zone will extend when you practice a couple of times. Then you'll just get better.

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