I graduated from a rural engineering college in 2008-09 and pursued my master’s in Embedded Intelligence Systems in the UK. I started my career at a storage startup there for 2.5 years, then moved back to India and worked at Toshiba, EMC, and now IBM. Throughout, I’ve focused on systems engineering, building deep expertise in that domain.
I was at a career crossroads with solid experience but major gaps in distributed systems skills. My goal: break into FAANG companies. My success rate was zero FAANG prep felt impossible. Interview Kickstart caught my eye after advisors highlighted FAANG mentors across domains, including embedded systems and backend engineering.
Balancing full-time work and prep was toughest—time management and mindset clarity were key. Work-from-anywhere helped squeeze in sessions. IK’s well-paced curriculum (in-class problems, weekend practice, extra variations) cleared doubts daily. FAANG-mentored mocks slashed anxiety with actionable feedback, especially on microservices for my non-CS background.
I landed my dream backend role at Zuus, the exact position I’d chased for over 2 years after clearing it in one attempt. Beyond the role, I got a 100%+ salary increase and transitioned from systems to application/backend engineering. Interview Kickstart was the best career decision.
If you have passion and grit, ignore myths like “FAANG is unreachable.” I got rejected by Zuus for 2+ years, but proper prep changed that. With IK’s structure and mindset shift, any goal is possible. Don’t underestimate yourself companies you dream of are within reach.
Sushil’s story shows how targeted FAANG interview preparation can transform tech careers, even from a non-traditional background.
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Join 25,000+ tech professionals who’ve accelerated their careers with cutting-edge AI skills
Join 25,000+ tech professionals who’ve accelerated their careers with cutting-edge AI skills
Webinar Slot Blocked
Time Zone: Asia/Kolkata
Hands-on AI/ML learning + interview prep to help you win
Time Zone: Asia/Kolkata
Hands-on AI/ML learning + interview prep to help you win
Explore your personalized path to AI/ML/Gen AI success
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