Lawler Kang Interview

Lawler Kang is a nationally recognized author and speaker specializing in helping people and organizations align their missions with their means. In his new book, Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life, (Prentice Hall), Lawler shows how to pragmatically bring one’s passions to market. Garnering an MBA from The Wharton School, Lawler has followed his own passions into fulfilling efforts in strategy consulting and management, entrepreneurial forays, leading turnarounds, and working with non-profit bio-tech concerns.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Lawler Kang. He most graciously shared his thoughts on business school, admissions, resumes, and his new book, Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life.

Your received an MBA from Wharton School of Business. What made you choose Wharton over other business schools?

Great question as this feeds directly into my mission – to constructively rock the boat. I viewed Wharton as the kind of place where people tried to (legally) break the rules and push the boundaries of what is possible. Its top ranking in Entrepreneurial Studies was a nice supporting data point. I have to say, it did an excellent job of delivering on this perception.

In your opinion, how important are business school rankings and how much influence should they have on someone who is choosing a school?

I would downplay the rankings for the entire program, though if you are interested in a particular discipline, going to a top ranked program doesn't hurt in terms of the job search. The most important factor, by far, is your openness to and comfort level with, the structure of the program and the student body. Unquestionably visit each school you are seriously interested in, preferably before you apply, to understand that school's particular philosophy and personalities. Your abilities to perform, thrive, and succeed in the recruiting process are all significantly impacted by these factors.

How has business school influenced your career?

A major deliverable of the business school process is confidence. Confidence to boldly perform like you never thought you could before and it is the aggregate of my professional experiences that bring me (and your readers) where we are today. Access to the business school network is also extremely valuable.

You worked for admissions departments in both undergraduate and graduate school. What is the most common mistake made by applicants?

Simple: not answering the questions that are asked in either the application or interview. Admissions people need to compare your apple against the bushels of others that are rolling in, and these comparisons are framed by the questions that are asked. By not directly answering questions, your apple will lose its comparative polish, even before the picking process has begun.

What makes an applicant stand out among their peers?

Aside from simply answering the questions directly, being real. Admitting failure or describing adversity of whatever sort and the learnings that came from these experiences in a clean and clear voice. You might want to list three takeaways you want to stick in your reader's mind and then, when you have finished your essays, ask a friend to read them all in the space of 10 minutes and then ask them what three things they remember about them. Admissions folks typically go through 20 or 30 applications in a sitting - if you can't embed your special code into their short-term RAM, your chances drop dramatically.

During your career, you have also recruited a significant number of corporate employees and colleagues. Besides job skills, what do you look for on a resume?

The first thing I look at are those 'Other Activities' as SO much about a candidate's personality and cultural fit can be gleaned from this information. Be specific here too. If you like to run 10Ks or marathons, include the distances in addition to the activity. I also look for failures and obstacles that they have overcome as these inflexion points are critical to personal development. Finally, I look for a pattern in experiences that can help me glean a personal mission and supporting passions for my research and experience show that the way to make an organization whir, is to marry up the missions and passions of the employees with those of the management.

I really enjoyed your new book, Passion at Work: How to Find Work You Love and Live the Time of Your Life. What made you decide to write on this topic?

It is the cleanest and most scaleable release of my mission to date. I know it may sound a bit odd to write about doing what you love to do as 'rocking the boat' but unfortunately I believe that is the state of most of our nation's workforce.

Can we expect another book from you soon?

Hopefully yes!

Read a Review of Passion at Work