5.0
(26 reviews)
12+ years of experience in Software Engineering
United States of America
Speaks English and Chinese
Active today Usually responds in half a day

Services

$560 / month

Start free, decide later

  1. 1 Free intro call
    No card needed to book.
  2. 2 Ongoing calls + chat
    2 × 60-min calls per month, unlimited Q&A. Replies in 24 hours or less.
  3. 3 No lock-in
    Month to month, no contract.
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MentorCruise summary

Rick is a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix. He has more than 12 years of software engineering experience across FAANG companies and startups, and has founded two startups. He has mentored engineers and non-engineers through work, volunteering, and bootcamps. He helps software engineers prepare for interviews, improve resumes and system design skills, and plan career moves.

Based on 18 verified mentee reviews

  • Reviewers often praise his structured interview plans and mock practice for coding, system design, and behavioral interviews.
  • Mentees value his detailed, actionable feedback on resumes and career direction.
  • Several reviewers credit his technical guidance with improving problem solving, engineering skills, and production-level work.

About

Hi, I'm Rick! With over 12 years as a Software Engineer at FAANG companies and startups, I specialize in Backend Distributed Systems and have a broad skill set in various technologies. I've also founded two startups. In the past, I mentored many engineers/non-engineers through work, volunteering, and bootcamps, focusing on career planning, learning new technologies, and interview preparation.

My mentorships are personalized to each mentee's goals. I offer 3 plans for different mentorship needs:
Lite Plan
- Focusing on discussing career questions. We'll have bi-weekly 30-min calls to catch up and use chat for async conversation.
- Ideal mentee: someone who needs guidance on the career topics (interaction with teammate/manager, choosing the right project, getting promoted, switching teams/companies, job search strategies, etc.)

Standard Plan
- Focusing on heavier technical topics and hands-on work. We’ll come with up a plan for achieving your goals. I’ll provide all the support needed for executing the plan. We'll have bi-weekly 60-min calls to address open questions or work on specific items of the plan (technical discussion, system design, PR review, mock interview, resume review, etc.)
- Ideal mentee: someone who is looking for a job change, trying to switch track, becoming a stronger engineer, learning new technologies, or switching from a non-tech role to a tech role.

Pro Plan
- This plan is for small businesses that need a technical consultant. We'll come up with a custom plan based on your business needs.

Notes:
- I will not provide any Netflix-specific interview preparation.

What mentees say

5 out of 5 stars

I’ve worked with Rick through two full recruiting seasons, first for internships and now for new grad roles, and he’s been a great mentor the whole way. He’s helped me with everything from refining my resume and running mock interviews to navigating the internship itself. What makes his advice so helpful is that he takes the mystery of recruiting and the confusion around prep and turns them into clear, achievable goals. He’s also very passionate about mentoring. He responds quickly and has been there for me every step of the way. I’d recommend Rick to anyone looking for a mentor to guide them through recruiting.

Mason

Mason

Standard Plan • 9 months

5 out of 5 stars

Rick was the best mentor I ever had on this platform. I've spent thousands on different ones but for general software engineer, he is by far the best. His experience, brilliance, and conscientiousness really shined through the many months he has been teaching me. He taught me everything from DSA, how to interview well, system design, and how to grow as an engineer. I highly recommend Rick as your best option to grow as an engineer. I promise you'll never regret it.

Francis

Francis

Lite Plan • 2 years

Francis wrote 2 more reviews for the same mentorship

5 out of 5 stars

Rick is the absolute best mentor I've ever had on Mentorcruise. I've been a software engineering/CS mentee for a long time (2+ years) and used several platforms for mentorship: Preply, TakeLessons, etc. in addition to this one, but he is the best engineer I've ever had the pleasure to learn from. He has given great insight and effective feedback as to how I could clear Big Tech Interviews and has been extremely supportive the entire time. Rick truly cares about his mentees and has irrefutable experience and skills to take their career to the next level. Rick helped me secure a SWE I role in a brutal job market and I can't thank him enough. I would even go so far to argue that *not* having Rick as a mentor (or someone like him) would be a huge missed opportunity for your development. Definitely recommend him!

Francis

Francis

5 out of 5 stars

Rick is by far the BEST software engineering tutor I have ever had, and I have trained under 5 different engineers. He goes above and beyond expectations and gives actionable insights as to how to improve my practical software engineering skill to rigorous production-grade industry standards. Training under Rick has taught me a more optimal way to learn as I grow in my SWE career in a variety of topics: systems design, best practice, designing and building a codebase from scratch, etc. I give him my highest commendation and have no doubt he will supercharge your learning!

Francis

Francis

5 out of 5 stars

Rick gave me lots of great advice and wisdom on navigating my career!

Hansel

Hansel

Lite Plan • 7 months

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What happens when you start

You tell Rick your goals. They see exactly what you want to work on before session one.

You meet within days. Rick reviews your application and books your first session, usually within a day or two.

You leave with a plan. Concrete next steps and a weekly rhythm from your very first week.

Start your mentorship