In their own words, hiring managers and candidates share how Ken Leiner Associates helped transform their companies and careers. Email marisa@ITsearch.com to share your own testimonial about working with us. Enjoy, and thanks for visiting! – Team KLA
Testimonials: Hiring managers & Candidates
I tell my connections, “If you’re open to opportunities, these are the people (recruiters) you need to call.” I had an amazing experience with Ken Leiner Associates. I would say individualized service, exceptional coaching, and honest feedback are three things that stood out. Ken was really, really engaging and very, very personalized, which made a huge difference… and was very deliberate and honest. He does a great job of helping you prepare to transition, and what to expect, with a lot of good career advice. And his associate Amy Shepardson was absolute dynamite as well.
Ken Leiner Associates was working with a company I really wanted to work for: Better Up. I’m in my mid-50’s. I’d been working for 20, 30 years, at a dozen jobs or so and had never used a professional recruiter before. So, I was going from a role where I was leading a team to being an individual contributor – and going from a company that was pretty well established to kind of a startup. The forethought around what it’s like to transition from one opportunity to another was really very, very valuable. Ken was strategic in the sense of how you look at this big picture and Amy was an exceptional coach through the second part of the process, which was my interface with Better Up — a great coach in helping me prepare, without being someone who just gave me all the answers. She was very much about, like, what you’re thinking about for the job, where you are in their process, what they’re looking for, how things go, where you did really well or where you could’ve done better. Amy was just fantastic.
It’s that personalized connection – you’re not a commodity; you’re not a piece on the chessboard. Ken was invested in me being successful after I got there. And he called me eight months into the job to check in and see how I was doing. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. Absolutely love it! Yeah – it’s great.
Stephen Ripley, BetterUp
“I have worked together with Ken and Ken Leiner Associates for about 15 years both as a hiring manager and individual looking for a new role. KLA always delivered quality candidates at previous companies I worked at, so why not do it again? When I joined CyberRes, a Division of Micro Focus, it was to rebuild the US Federal Civilian business and regain lost market share. A key part of our strategy was to up-level our talent and expand roles to ensure we could meet market demands. While we have a strong footprint within the federal government, our recruiting team did not have much Federal expertise and looked to engage a company with the expertise in this space that could jump start our talent search. Beth Kandianis was assigned to our account and has honestly become an extension of my team to ensure that we bring on the right candidates that not only fit where we are today, but where we’re going tomorrow.
Beth has done an exceptional job for each role we were looking to hire. She listened to what we needed, looked for the right fit both from experience and culture and made me feel like her only client. The screening of the candidates prior to me getting them has been fantastic; the communication and follow-up ensured we moved quickly and captured the best talent possible. Beth has helped staff about 80% of my team at this point. We’ve had a lot of different needs and each territory has needed just a little something different. She’s been very good at understanding what we need for each of these roles. That has even grown to the point where we’ve been able to get her engaged with some of my peers outside of Federal. She’s helped with state and local, she’s helped with some product specialists and now, she’s helping in Canada. She’s doing an amazing job.”
Sara Hobson, VP, Federal Sales at CyberRes, a Micro Focus line of business
If there’s one person I could look back on, singly, who made the biggest difference in my career it was Ken Leiner. None had more effect on my career and my income than Ken Leiner did.
It started in the 1990s. I wanted to leave a job and found him on the web. I was a manager at the time running a little business development group for a small company. Ken asked me to come to his office, to interview me, to learn about me, learn about my skills, and then find the right job for me. He also invited another KLA recruiter, Stuart Neuwelt. And he found me a great job opportunity. He introduced me to a company called EMC. I had a great career there and really increased my net worth quite a bit.
Ken develops great relationships and taught me how to grow great relationships… He’s easy to deal with. He’s a fun guy to talk to… So, when I wanted a new opportunity, Ken and Stuart me coached me, building on the tremendous successes I had at EMC, and then found me the next job Computer Associates (now CA Technologies) as a Federal Alliances Director. In fact, whenever I needed an opportunity, Ken or his team were always the first I would call to further my career.
I really felt like I had a personal and trusted relationship with Ken, Stuart and Gary, and others at KLA. I TRUSTED them to find great jobs that actually matched my skillset, as opposed to throwing me in front of prospective employers like a lot of other recruiters do where there’s really no relevance in my background that would show it would be a great career move. What I always liked about Ken, is that he doesn’t assume that all your skills are perfect. But, he knows how to help hone those skills, what to say and not to say in an interview and how to help brush up your resume so that it’s absolutely your best foot forward to get the attention of HR people or employers. All lifelong career tips.
Working with Ken Leiner Associates is key for working with professionals that have your best interest in mind, and finding jobs that are suitable to your background to enhance and grow your career.
I retired in 2022. After our very long business relationship, I picked up the phone to thank him for all he’s done for me. I owe my career and retirement to Ken and his team and will never forget them.
Charlie Rizzo, Retired, Federal Systems Integrator Sales Director