Preparing for a Job Interview
This is a fun interview I did with career coach, Kenneth Lang. What made it fun was that he was interviewing for a position about 90 minutes after we wrapped up. Thus we discussed his preparation and I added some ideas to help.
Jeff Altman 00:05
So my guest today is Kenneth Lang.
Jeff Altman 00:07
Kenneth is the co founder of MyNetworkingCentral, a searchable database for networking events and speakers. He facilitates an online weekly LinkedIn live on Tuesday afternoons with guests where he discusses LinkedIn best practice practices. Kenneth is also a volunteer career career coach for the Rutgers New Star Career Network, which provides older (age 45+) long term unemployed New Jersey job seekers with access to free personalized career services. Plus he mentors students from William Paterson University’s I believe that we pronounced Pesci institute– like Joe Pesci. Welcome.
Kenneth Lang 00:53
Thank you very much.
Jeff Altman 00:55
Thanks for making time today. I appreciate it.
Kenneth Lang 00:57
Great to be here.
Jeff Altman 01:00
For someone who does career coaching, how the heck did you get into this field?
Kenneth Lang 01:06
Well, I got into it, because when I was looking for a job way back when in 2008 2009. I didn’t really have a heck of a lot of support, didn’t really have a roadmap as to what I wanted to do. So once I got back into working, I wanted to pay it forward, sharing what worked and what didn’t work, from experiences as someone looking for a job, not someone who’s just going being a career coach, and just got the certification, kind of like real world stuff.
Jeff Altman 01:32
Gotcha. And, you know, I do it from a real world perspective also, even though the last time I looked for a job, I can’t tell you how many presidencies ago. It’s that far back. But folks, we’ve got a fun scenario that we’re going to use as a teaching piece today. And that is Kenneth has an interview for a part time gig this afternoon. So we’re gonna start looking at his preparation for the interview. And let me just start by asking, So you told me earlier, we’re recording this from 11 till 12. And he scheduled the appointment for what time?
Kenneth Lang 02:10
For 1:30. And I did that, because I wanted to block out time afterward to kind of decompress, to make sure that I changed, obviously, because I’m not going to go an interview like this. And also just to kind of get settled. And so it’s easier for me. And as part of preparations, to give yourself time for last minute stuff. And you know, and even checking the connection. You know, I checked that this morning for the umpteenth time to make sure I could actually get the connection.
Jeff Altman 02:39
Interesting. So, when you said the connection, it sounds like it’s a video interview.
Kenneth Lang 02:44
It’s on Microsoft Teams.
Jeff Altman 02:50
So notice, he gave him himself time to decompress, get focused, get ready get changed, all that sort of stuff because we know, the interviewer’s gonna see him from here up, he wants to look well, and he just wants to make sure mentally he’s able to focus after what’s going to be an uproarious interview with me.
Kenneth Lang 03:13
You know, it’s funny, because we didn’t really think this was gonna be the topic. And I actually got contacted about this last week from one of my connections. And it just happened so fast. And, you know, I have a lot of, you know, I thought about it for a while, because I wasn’t looking for it. But at the same time, I’m not going to turn down, if nothing else a chance to interview again, just even so I can share the experience with others. Even if it doesn’t lead to an opportunity, I can share what it’s like.
Jeff Altman 03:40
You betcha. And again, this goes back to the idea of real world experience and for him, who hasn’t interviewed for a while, you know, there’s an emotional side of interviewing, right? And he may have his nose up.
Kenneth Lang 03:57
I didn’t sleep that well, last night. I can be honest about that. I didn’t sleep that well. And it’s weird, because I know that I’m very confident about the ability and my experience has always taught me once the interview starts, I will be fine. But it is leading up to it. Right?
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Jeff Altman 04:12
And many of you have the same reactions like Kenneth is having. You get nervous, have trouble sleeping, can you meditate beforehand? What can you do to ground yourself so you can be present and perform at the time of the interview. So in his case, he’s giving himself at least an hour and a half, to be able to be ready to get on Teams and deliver the goods. Excellent, good opening lesson. How else did you prepare for this interview?
Kenneth Lang 04:43
Well, I did. I went and researched the company online. I researched the person I was going to be interviewing with, not just, ‘well, here’s the website.’ That’s great. Here’s the website, but I want to know more about them because again, I know enough from reading about. I want to get a real sense of what they’re about? So I did some… I actually Googled the company, got some news articles, just to get even a better sense.
Jeff Altman 05:09
Interesting. And without revealing who they are, because it’s irrelevant to the story, right? What were you looking for in googling the firm, looking on LinkedIn about them, and the other things that you did? Were there other things that you did that allowed you to get information about them?
Kenneth Lang 05:27
I mean, the one thing I looked at now, especially in this economy is Is it a growth company? How’s it been doing? Because even though it’s part time, I want to make sure it’s something that’s going to last more than a week or two. And it’s not something they’re necessarily going to share right away. So I’m confident that way, because this company has a lot of different things going on. The most important thing, though, besides anything else, is actually went back and looked at the job spec and looked at my resume. And I tried to anticipate questions I was going to ask that they were going to ask me.
Jeff Altman 05:59
That’s great. And one of the things I coach people about folks, is, if you were them trying to hire you, what would you ask to evaluate you to see if you’re qualified for the role? Is that what you wound up doing?
Kenneth Lang 05:59
Yeah. And one of the questions I always ask right off the bat, is this is a new position? Or is this going to be replacing someone? Is this a new team? I mean, again, just give me an idea what I’m walking into. If this is a new team from the ground up and I have to think about it from a development standpoint, building the team and that stuff, if it’s replacing someone else, I have to think about. How am I going to mesh in. So that’s why it’s kind of good to get that idea right off the bat.
Jeff Altman 06:17
And if it’s replacing someone, folks, remember, you can always ask what happened in the last person. Invariably, invariably, they’re going to say, they left for a better opportunity, which is some generic way that they think they can get rid of you. But if you ask one more question, which is ‘what made it a better opportunity,’ sometimes you’ll learn something interesting about the environment that will help you make decisions later on. And you can’t sound antagonistic when you ask it. But, curious.
Kenneth Lang 07:15
So let me ask you a question from a recruiting standpoint. The recruiter sent me the information about who you’re going to interview and all that. I got for the umpteenth time, here’s the interview tips. Here’s the things to ask and not ask and all that. And I’m saying to myself, This is not my first rodeo. I don’t really need it, but at the same time, is that stuff really…Is that what you normally do?
Jeff Altman 07:39
The answer was I overly prepped people when I did recruiting, I didn’t send some generic file that has tips that have been compiled from the web. And as you know, I’ve developed my own methodology around interviewing, that when I would prep people, I learned through my clients, how to best do this and notice different reactions along the way. So for me, no, I would never send one of those documents because it was boring. It was flat, everyone would look at it. It was the same crap and they wouldn’t read it.
Kenneth Lang 08:15
But what’s helpful for me this time is the recruiter shared with me some of the feedback that they’ve gotten from the hiring manager in the past. So I knew kind of what they were looking for based on that. And that is something which I think is so important. If you can get that sense from the recruiter, as to what the job applicants … where they’ve been failed or succeeded or not, that’s kind of helpful for you.
Jeff Altman 08:38
Great, and one of the fun things is, if they start giving you a generic answer, like they may not have sent anyone in. You may be the first one walking in. Have they worked with this manager before? ‘Oh, yeah, terrific woman, I really love her a lot.’ ‘Why is that? It’s always the next question that reveals something about the relationship. And what’s really cool about that. Recruiters are very skillful at making you think that they’re trusted individuals that you can trust, have knowledge, at least at the point that they’re scheduling the interview. Up until that point, I know a lot of you are skeptical, and rightly so. You don’t know if they’re competent or not.
Jeff Altman 09:22
And the other thing I did today is I confirmed just before this call was that I was actually having the interview today because too many times, especially in the summer, if people get sick or something, you know, you want to make sure that you’re checking in with them and that they’re checking as well and it’s on. But again, it’s just another little thing.
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09:40
Right? And you confirmed that with the recruiter?
Kenneth Lang 09:43
Yes.
Jeff Altman 09:44
Great. So the cool thing is asking the question about what their relationship is with the firm, with this interviewer, and finding out where other people haven’t cut the mustard or gotten through and gotten hired? Is this texture to the answer? If you hear things like ‘Nah, they just weren’t strong enough,’ that’s generic. Generic is never good. If they say things like, ‘this person, they were really close, but they missed on this one point where they said something dumb during the interview,’ that gives you a sense that they really know. And they’re not just making up stuff for you to perform and move you on to the next thing.
Kenneth Lang 10:32
Well, that’s the thing too, even from a technical side, I know what they want to happen. I’m not going to go into nuts and bolts about my technical background, because it’s there. And I can speak to it, but it’s much more important to go into what the process has been like, and just the the advantages and disadvantages because they may not even know about as much about the platform as as you think they do.
Jeff Altman 10:55
Yeah. And when you say the platform, again, we understand it’s a coaching role. Am I correct?
Kenneth Lang 11:01
Well, no, actually, it’s not. They’re looking for someone who knows Salesforce. They’re looking for someone who knows Salesforce, and they’re looking for a product developer.
Jeff Altman 11:11
Gotcha.
Kenneth Lang 11:12
And it’s in an Agile environment. So, I know enough about the job spec to know that there’s things that shouldn’t be there, things that aren’t really thought through yet. But the questions I have are more about the job title related to the role. Because it seems like a typical job spec; it seems like a wish list. Okay, let’s cut to the chaste. And I’m saying this to you, not to him. So what are the main things? I mean, what’s going on here? What are the priorities?
Jeff Altman 11:42
And for those of you who’ve watched me before, or listened to me, you know that I believe that use the job hunter always starts the interview. You don’t wait for them to do it. And you do it, but with a very simple thing. In his case, once he connects on teams, and he sees the other person on camera, and everyone smiles at one another and starts off with the pleasantries, you start off by saying, ‘hey, thanks so much for making time to meet with me today. I really appreciate it. I recall the position description, but I want to get your take on the role. Because sometimes the job descriptions are a little bit different. Could you tell me about the job as you see it and what I can do to help,’ because this allows you to Number one, you level, the power in the interview because you’re now on the same level. It’s not them being superior, you being in the subordinate role. You get the current thinking about the job, so that this way, you can tailor your answers to what matters to them, and not just talk about what you’ve done. So I like that you’re doing this. Have you attended one of my interview training classes?
Kenneth Lang 12:50
No, I haven’t. But I have to say one of the reasons I ask a question like that is it gives me a chance to think and just read a little bit and not be bombarded by question after question.
Kenneth Lang 13:00
It slows down their freight train.
Kenneth Lang 13:03
Definitely.
Jeff Altman 13:04
Again, you know, because so often, they go right into selling mode. Tell me about yourself and what you’ve been doing professionally. You’re there to perform like the trained monkey for the organ grinder. For those of you who are younger, that’s something if you watch an old movie, during the Depression era, there were these people who made money by having a hand cranked orgon, and a little monkey that would dance in front of it. Don’t worry about it. It’s not important.
Kenneth Lang 13:32
I also want to ask what they like about the company, how long have they been there? Now? I looked them up on LinkedIn. So I can kind of get the answer to that. But it gives me an insight as to a little bit about them.
Kenneth Lang 13:44
Right. So how else did you prepare here? Was there other things that you did?
Kenneth Lang 13:50
What I did is I reached out to a couple of contacts, I knew a company on LinkedIn. So they told me certain things they told me about the mentality. it’s, the position is definitely going to stay remote. But what I found most interesting was that this is a role which from what they told me is a new role, because they’re just they’re looking to do some more stuff. But they’re building out a new team. This is what people told me internally, I want them to tell me that as well. And I got a good sense about the comfort level because of my age, you know, again I’m a certain age. I want to make sure that that age question gets dealt with right off the bat. They don’t have an issue with that. But again, you don’t want to bring it up per se, but you want to acknowledge it.
Jeff Altman 14:41
And how much you would knowledge it during the interview. How do you think … we know it’s an indirect approach, but the audience doesn’t necessarily know ‘how am I to bring it up?’
Kenneth Lang 14:52
Well, I would just talk about, not just my experience, but how,in my recent jobs, how I’ve mentored people, how I’ve been a team playerv in that way, and that expertise to work in different places is an advantage. But I also recognize that people that are (and this person is probably about half my age, from what I can tell), I love to be always learning about stuff. You know, I’m not going to go in saying I know everything because that’s the perception of people of our age, we know everything we can’t be taught. We can’t train, you know, that sort of stuff.
Jeff Altman 15:22
It’s so true. The image that’s been created with older professionals, as long as I worked in recruiting, which I did 40 freakin years, was the older workers are know it alls. And as such, they’re uncoachable on manageable. They act like their *** doesn’t stink. And thus, they take no direction. They know better than the manager, and thus, they re unmanageable
Kenneth Lang 15:49
And even working remotely. I mean, I’ve worked remotely, besides the last two years, I was remote for years before that, as a developer. And you know, it’s when you have to deal with stuff outside of work, that helps. And so it might be reassuring this person that I’m gonna have no problem, you know, being independent and all that. But I think a lot of this, I’m going to take my lead from the tone of the interview. I mean, I’m anticipating as we’re talking now, but you know, you don’t want to have a script, and not be able to stray from the script.
Jeff Altman 16:19
And I encourage people to have a framework, rather than a script. The script is too robotic, right? And to me, when people hire competence is only one thing they look for. Its self confidence, character, chemistry, maybe a little bit of charisma, (charismatic people will always do better, but it’s not a requirement) that you care, that they can connect with you. And ultimately, they want to trust you. And only one of the skills is a hard skill. Everything else is soft skills.
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Kenneth Lang 16:55
I’m going to try a different final question today. First time in a while.
Jeff Altman 16:58
Ooh! What’s your final question?
Kenneth Lang 17:00
My final question is can be is there anything in my background that that you’re somewhat concerned about that I can put your mind at ease? Or I’m just have to think about the framing of it like, ‘Okay, we’ve had the conversation. Now, let’s kind of deal with what’s there? Is there anything I can help alleviate… I mean, I’m just but you know, what, I’m …
Jeff Altman 17:18
I’ll give you my version of that because, you know, again, I’m an MSW. I did postgraduate psychoanalytic training, I bring these skills into the process. ‘Is there anything that you’ve heard, or not heard, that gives you reason to be concerned about whether I’m qualified to do this job?’ And the key part is heard or not heard? Because one thing I figured out at one point is most hiring managers are untrained. And thus, they sometimes word things in ways that steer people in one direction, but they want to go in a different one. And the first time I started coaching people, this way, two folks came back to me after the interview and said, ‘ that last question was great,’ because each of them heard some kind of feedback that said, ‘I didn’t really hear a lot about such and such.’ And that they were able to say, ‘Oh, when you asked that question about this, I thought, I went in this direction. You wanted me to go in that one? Could I tell you about what I’ve done?’ They said, Sure. And each of them was invited back. One got hired, one was beaten out by someone else. But they got to the next step. So, heard or not heard, is great language that just allows them MAYBE because they can always lie, to open up and tell you about their concerns.
Kenneth Lang 17:30
But you have to feel comfortable and confident yourself to do that. Not the question of well, how soon can I follow up? Or anything like that, which is almost a throwaway question. You have to be willing to be open about that. And I am maybe and you have to feel that way.
Jeff Altman 19:00
And in my version of that question is, could you give me an idea about what next steps might be? And I when I coach people, I say there are three possible answers that you’ll get. We’ve got 24 more people to talk with. We’ll be back in touch when hell freezes over is one type of answer. Another one is early part of next week. And the third one is ‘I expect early part of next week, you’ll hear from HR. They’ll want to schedule you back to meet three people.’ The more specificity you hear, the better. And then you follow up because I’m a big believer in the follow up being the reveal. You follow up by saying ‘So if I haven’t heard from you by Wednesday, Thursday, is it okay if I get back in touch? And if they say ‘wait,’ not as good. If they say if they say ‘Sure no problem,’ great. And you have your feedback, not just the direct answer, but through the follow up
Kenneth Lang 19:58
Yeah, I mean, I agree. And that’s why, you know, the more that having gone through some of these scenarios in my life and talking them through with you, I think, I would hope it’s very beneficial for other people to kind of think that way. You know, it’s a conversation, not an inquisition.
Jeff Altman 20:15
And the sooner it becomes an inquisition, the more you wonder about how this person runs a department. Now, again, screeners are different. Screeners are different. And I got the impression from Kenneth that he was talking with someone who actually makes decisions.
Kenneth Lang 20:32
Apparently they do, because they are. They’re listed as they as the hiring manager. Now, if this person says, I want to, I want you to talk to a couple of technical people on the team another time, absolutely fine. I mean, again, I’m not. But then at least I have the ground the understanding. You know, this could be a one and done. It could be a week, two weeks, whatever it is, it is. I mean, I’m coming from a place of strength I feel.
Jeff Altman 20:57
Yeah, you’ve got something. And you’ve been approached by a recruiter about something part time that interests you.
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Kenneth Lang 21:06
Yep.
Jeff Altman 21:07
So other versions of preparation, like when you’ve coached people, or you’re looking at your own situation, how else do you tell people to prepare?
Kenneth Lang 21:17
Well, I say make sure you, you have certain stories prepared about your background, that lend themselves to the job. Like the interview today, I’m going to talk about some of my successes and my more recent jobs, and how they made me … put me in this place now. I’m not going to read off my resume. I’m not gonna do the 30 second elevator pitch. I mean, that’s not what this is about. I might make a small talk, comment about the weather. I don’t know, I’ll play it by ear. I mean, but it’s really just kind of, how’s your day going? It’s very gentle, and smiling, for sure.
Jeff Altman 21:56
Right? And because you’re on camera, the smile is important. And less when they get to the ‘tell me about yourself’ questions, the ‘walk me through your background’ question. By the way, folks, I’m doing a little coaching with Kenneth here, as we’re going along, to give him ideas of where he can perform using some of my ideas. You know, I believe it’s not a 30 second elevator pitch, because it’s not enough. I believe it’s a minute to minute 15 tops. And the first 20 seconds is the general summary that you would consider the elevator pitch. I’ve been in the field now for X number of years, I’ve worked with Salesforce for about (whatever it is). 20/25 seconds. But what’s probably most relevant in my background for this role is my experience with and then going into connecting the dots between what your background and what they just told you about in the run up to the question. Because, again, if you follow my advice, it’s your first hearing them tell you about the job, then they’re going into ‘Tell me about yourself.’ So the idea is to make the fit obvious to them right away, so that they have what people describe to me… it’s like a Scooby Doo moment, if you remember the cartoon dog. And their ears perk up, because that phrase, ‘What’s probably most relevant than my background for this role,’makes them go to attention. Because they know the next thing is important. So, yeah, I don’t believe in elevator pitches.
Kenneth Lang 23:34
I also believe this is something I’ve had to train myself to do is to wait a few seconds before answering a question to think before I respond back. So it gives me a chance to listen to the question instead of having that answer prepared. That’s a lesson learned from many years of interviewing.
Jeff Altman 23:54
And if you can illustrate how long it might be, if I were to ask you a question, could you illustrate the pause now?
Kenneth Lang 24:02
Sure . . . funny you should ask. Maybe 5, 10, 15 seconds, it might even be ‘Excuse me? Would you mind repeating the question,’ if I haven’t really gotten it because I don’t want to answer the incorrectly. I mean, it depends. It’s kind of like you and I are talking right now. So it’s kind of the way that would be, you know, this person on the other end, I’m selling myself he’s selling the company. And, you know, hopefully we have agreement.
Jeff Altman 24:32
Yeah, for me, that felt long. And, I share that with you. I like the idea of the pause, as well as breaking eye contact. So you’re thinking of the answer, and then coming back to the eyes and answering. So if I were illustrating it for you, and you were to ask me a question just for a moment.
Kenneth Lang 24:55
How’s the interview going?
Jeff Altman 24:58
I think it’s going well. And notice how I use that brief, repetitive word I think I think it’s going well. It’s the same idea. It’s something that buys time to give you the sense and project the idea that you’re thinking.
Kenneth Lang 25:17
So do you like putting I think in the beginning of a sentence?
Jeff Altman 25:22
Not all the time.
Kenneth Lang 25:23
That’s why I want to, yeah,
Jeff Altman 25:25
I went through a transcription of an interview I did with someone else. And I didn’t get the idea that he was nervous. But he kept saying, ‘I think,’ and ‘right’ repetitively, like, in multiple sentences, in sequence, and there has to be 50 or 60 instances of each in a 30 minute conversation. And these words like this, if used too often lose the audience. So I’ve used I think, right, like, as words that are not powerful words. They’re filler words as they would say at Toastmasters, yet, it’s human, as long as I’m not doing it a ridiculous amount of time. So as you just did, and that was a perfect answer. But you haven’t repetitively said it. You can say I agree. And at times, I use that phrase, rather than right. I’ll say, I agree. And then get on to it. This is fun. Kenneth.
Kenneth Lang 26:48
Let me let me ask you the other side of this. Do you think that hiring managers are just as nervous as job seekers when they interview someone?
Jeff Altman 26:55
No, I think they’re disinterested until you grab them. And I say that because you’re an interruption to the day.They’ve got lots of things to do. And until you get their attention, and involve them in the interview, they don’t know whether they should pay attention, because the last time, people were a waste of their time. Often, I remember when I did recruiting, the owner of the agency would walk over to some of us and go, ‘could you talk to this person for about 20 minutes.’ I had no preparation. I just, I was asked to talk to someone for 20 minutes, and i knew they had something else to do. Managers sometimes are courteous enough not to push people off and do the interview. But no matter what, you’re an interruption to their day.
Kenneth Lang 27:50
So how do you know if an interview is going south from a recruiting/hiring manager?
Kenneth Lang 27:54
So what I found is a couple of things, obviously, you have a sense or feeling that you’ve lost. You can see the disengagement. They’re going in for the kill on the interview. And for those of you who listen to this podcast where Kenneth had a big smile on his face when I said ‘they’ll go in for the kill,’ they’ll just try and destroy you in some way. Often managers are more subtle than that. But if you think of the questions and your answers, you’ll pick up on certain body language, the eyes that get a little bit smaller, as being one signal. To me, the biggest buy signal is when they stop asking you questions and start talking more. The more they talk, the more they like you. And if it happens that they’re shifting, let’s say 20/25 minutes into a 30 minute interview and they do all the talking, they;re selling to you at that point. So, I have a video called The Headhunter Secret to Knowing You Did Well on an Interview.’ And that’s really it. The more they talk, the more they like you. And like I said, 25 minutes in, if they’re in there doing all the talking, they’re trying to persuade you about the opportunity. We’re a great place blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Jeff Altman 29:28
So what haven’t we covered about interview preparation we really should? Because I must tell you the time’s been flying. What haven’t we covered yet that we really should as part of your preparation, or how you coach people for their preparation?
Kenneth Lang 29:45
Well, I’m going to assume this this is over besides reaching out to the HR people letting them know, definitely going to send a thank you to the hiring manager, maybe a LinkedIn connection request. I don’t really know yet. Because it depends how the interview goes. But after that, I’m just going to lay low. I’m not going to be the pest every day or every other day. I will ask the recruiter since you went through an agency, when should I check back with you? And how should I check back with you? You know, Abby talked yesterday about texting being the thing.
Kenneth Lang 30:18
Abby is someone that he interviewed named Abby Kohut
Jeff Altman 30:23
She said, I’d much rather prefer a text than an email or a phone call. And I’m happy to do that. What I’ve learned from experience is, if they, if they call you up on the phone, it’s usually bad news. That they send an email, it’s usually good news. My experience from a recruiting standpoint,
Jeff Altman 30:42
Interesting. I know, when I called people back in the Stone Ages. it was, you know, I want to schedule another interview, I wanted to pre-close them at a particular price, because I have a sense of what my client was ready to offer. And I wanted to make sure that was that number was going to be okay with the person. And I heard you say something to the contrary, like, if you get a phone call, you’re thinking bad news?
Kenneth Lang 31:14
Well, because more times, unless, unless the message is ‘Hi! This is the recruiter, I’ve got great news here.’ But if it starts going, ‘Hi, this is someone from the agency,’ you can tell from the tone of the voice, this is not going to go well. That’s been my experience. And it’s okay, to some extent. But if they said, they’re never going to send an email back as a next step. It’s always going to be a phone call, from my experience only because it’s probably easier for them. And again, this is my this is my background. Because I think the emails, it’s more about, well, here’s the onboarding stuff. Here’s the next thing we have to do, because they probably have to make a lot of those calls all day. And they’re maybe doing it from somewhat of a script. And they don’t want to get it over with, you know, in some cases,
Jeff Altman 31:59
And I would assume they have something programmed into the ATS or into Outlook. Look, I know, my, my system was relatively primitive. So I had a signature file in Outlook that was named rejection. So I could just send an email that said, ‘you know, one of the most difficult things I have to do as a recruiter, is to let someone know that they’ve been turned down for a position. That unfortunately, is the case with you.’ And I would go into some nice pleasantries to try to help you. But in this particular case, the doors closed. And I would do that by email for the simple reason that I couldn’t make that call all the time because I just had too many instances where people would argue with me about how poor the interviewer was, they didn’t really do this or ask about that. They want to know why they were turned down. Sometimes I didn’t have that information. Because the client didn’t want to say, you acted like a jerk.
Kenneth Lang 33:03
I can only go by my background. Generally speaking, when I have interviews that I expect to have a follow up from, that’s one thing, I’m not talking about a one off, I never hear back. And I would rather have the conversation and thank them for their time. I mean, this interview, this person today, we’ve been in touch for years, and we just stay in touch every once in a while. And so the follow up is so important. And if you have to have a few good recruits, you know, you’re not going to be able to stay in touch with 50 or 60, or 70. But it’s about building a relationship with anything you do.
Jeff Altman 33:37
We agree. Kenneth, this has been a lot of fun. How can people find out more about you, the work that you do, for as long as you do it?
Kenneth Lang 33:45
Well, that’s the reason it’s part time. I mean, it’ll, it’ll be good to do it remotely. I’m not ready to delve back into corporate, probably never. You can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. I love that. And if you go to mynetworkingcentral.com, you’ll see a list of all of our events and our speakers. And if anyone ever wants to have a chat about their LinkedIn profile, they can always reach out to me because that’s what I love to do. Is I love to work with people. And Jeff, thank you very much for having me today.
Jeff Altman 34:14
My pleasure. And what’s the URL for your LinkedIn profile?
Kenneth Lang 34:18
It’s why it’s linkedin.com/in/ langk. And I mean, again, that’s just I know that that like the back of my hand. I wish there was some way I can actually just put it right here. But if you look at Kenneth Lang, I’ll probably be the first one.
Jeff Altman 34:42
Excellent. Kenneth, thanks for making time and folks, we’ll be back soon with more. I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. Hope you enjoyed this interview. If you did and you’re watching on YouTube, share it, leave a comment, do something that lets people know it was worthwhile. Also, visit my website, TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a ton on the blog that you that will help you. Plus you can find out about my courses that you could rent or buy, my books and guides, it’s just a lot there they’ll be of service to you. Also, connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter. Have a terrific day and most importantly,
Kenneth Lang 35:21
Take care. Good luck everyone.
Jeff Altman 35:22
Be great. Take care
Recognizing the Signals And What to Do
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3000 episodes.
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