Work 1:1 with Anton Kazakov, a Director of Engineering at casavi, ex-Canonical. Weekly interview reps and real loop prep – mentees who put in the work are usually running real loops at their target companies in 3–6 months.
Anton Kazakov
Director of Engineering
casavi, ex-Canonical
Helps mentees with
5.0
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Meet your mentor
Why mentees come here
Most mentees arrive with one of these goals. If you see yourself in the list, you are in the right place.
Land a role at FAANG or top tech
Prep the full loop – system design, behavioural, negotiation. You want a mentor who has actually hired at the bar you are targeting, and you want weekly reps, not a one-off mock.
Level up in your current role
Mid to senior, senior to staff, IC to manager – or deciding which of those paths is even right. Someone a couple of steps ahead points out what actually moves the needle vs. busywork that doesn't.
Make a career switch without starting from zero
Change domains and find the angle where your existing skills are the differentiator, not the obstacle. Works with hard constraints too – "not sales", "not freelance", "not management".
Land your first engineering role
Break in without the traditional CV. Portfolio, story, outreach and screens – all the things that get skipped in courses but decide whether you get the offer.
Ship a side project or indie launch
Get a real project shipped instead of stuck in setup-mode. Scope, pricing, positioning, the unglamorous middle months – get pushed through them by someone who has already been.
Scale your engineering org past the founder-as-bottleneck stage
For tech founders and engineering leaders past traction – hire the senior team, fix the ops, stop being the person every decision routes through.
Not quite your situation? Mention what you are working on in your intro and Anton will tell you if they are the right fit – or point you to someone who is.
Why pay for this
Most of what you'd pay Anton for is the parts the free options don't do – context that builds week over week, and someone who actually pushes back when you're about to do the wrong thing.
vs. YouTube + courses
Great when you don't know what you don't know. Useless once your blocker is specific to your situation – and the answer to "what should I do next" is whichever video the algorithm serves you.
vs. ChatGPT
Endlessly patient, instantly available, and will never tell you the plan you just shared is bad. Anton will. That feedback is most of what you came for.
vs. one-off coaching calls
Fine for a single decision. Less great when the work is iterative – every call resets, your coach re-learns who you are, and the accountability disappears the second the call ends.
vs. volunteer mentors
Good for one introductory chat. Hard to ask a volunteer to keep showing up for you every week, review your work, and hold you accountable for months. Paid mentorship is for that.
vs. asking friends
Friends are kind. Anton is honest because that's the job. The unblocked version of you a few months from now is mostly built on feedback that wasn't comfortable to hear.
vs. doing it alone
Possible, but the failure mode is silent: you drift, you avoid the hard parts, you don't know which feedback to trust. Most of what mentorship gives you is the part that prevents the year you wasted figuring this out yourself.
What you actually get
Mentor vetting, cadence, and accountability are the parts long-term progress quietly depends on – and the parts the free options don't do.
We interview every mentor personally. You work with someone already doing the thing you want to do.
Anton keeps the long-term context on your goals, work, and career. Every session is sharper than the last – no re-explaining yourself, no starting from scratch.
Message Anton directly when questions come up. Tighter feedback loops mean faster progress, not a week-long wait for the next call.
Weekly targets you work on together. Built-in accountability keeps you from drifting – the thing most self-learners quietly lose to.
Mentee outcomes
Every review comes from someone who paid for mentorship on MentorCruise and wrote about the experience afterwards. No incentives, no editing.
Reviews from other MentorCruise mentees about their own mentors.
“Working with Sung has been incredibly fruitful so far. His expertise of the tech industry and his deep experience of how organizations work have accelerated immensely my way towards clarity on what to do next with my ca…”
— Juan, mentee for 1 month
“Tom has been an incredible mentor! Incredibly patient, always asks good questions and has helped me center our marketing strategy around our core values, so it feels incredibly well-aligned with how I want to work.”
— Simon, mentee for 6 months
“Krithika is an amazing mentor, very patient and extremely knowledgable. I am so glad to have connected with her, grateful for all the time she gives to help out with any doubts. You cannot go wrong in her guidance. ”
— Aanchal, mentee for 1 month
“Working with Jasmine was a real pleasure. She gave me valuable advice regarding interview prep, tailoring the resume, how to approach product ideas. She also provided me with a ton of great resources and reading materia…”
— Ahmed, mentee for 4 months
“I had a really positive experience working with Otavio during my mentroship period on MentorCruise. What stood out most to me was that he didn’t try to impose a generic “growth creator” mindset on my work. Instead, h…”
— Ertunç, mentee for 1 month
“I really appreciate your kind approach and thoughtful mentorship for teaching me the distributed back-end concepts like docker and kafka and Fast API and how the big tech companies do code reviews I am really thankf…”
— Nilesh, mentee for 5 months
Trusted by thousands of mentees since 2018.
How we'd work together
One simple plan. Try the full experience for 7 days. Cancel before day 8 and pay nothing.
Standard
Best suited to address complex topics at a good pace: leadership upskilling, career planning, etc.
What's included
Anton walks you through the plan that fits your goals once you start. No card required up front – cancel any time during your 7-day trial and pay nothing.
Questions
Still unsure? Email [email protected] and we'll personally walk you through it.
Your move
Try mentorship with Anton free for 7 days. No credit card required, cancel any time.
Try free for 7 days7-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel any time
7 days free · No card required
Start with Anton
Book a free intro call with Anton
Connect with Anton in a quick call (usually under 30 minutes)
One-off sessions with Anton
One-off sessions are a great option if you're looking for specific advice on a certain topic.
Whatever doesn't fit the mold: Get 30 minutes with a mentor to discuss your needs. Be it help with some code, discussing through an issue …
Whatever doesn't fit the mold: Get a full hour with a mentor to discuss your needs. Be it help with coding something, deciding on a …
What's included in the trial?
Every trial is a little different–here's what Anton says about their trial:
We'll meet for a quick call (usually under 30 minutes) where we:
- Break the ice and introduce ourselves
- Discuss your goals and how I can support you
- Coordinate logistics like time zones, meeting frequency, and communication methods