Kevin Grunewald

Recruiting | Sales | Marketing | Engineering | Tech | Career Guide

10 years of experience in Talent Acquisition with 3 years of experience in Workday HRIS. 
Strategic thinker and effective communicator with a mix of technical competence and an innate ability to communicate with industry professionals, consistently delivering high-impact results. 

*Accomplishments*
>2021, hired 100 people in Biopharma, Technical Engineering & Tech.
>2022, hired 125 people in Technical Engineering across all sectors of Renewables.
>2023, hired 150 people across the United States in Renewables, Skilled Trades, and Field Operations.
>2024, hired 150 people across the Midwest in Skilled Trades, Engineering, IT, Supply Chain.

Outside of work, I'm passionate about creating impactful, authentic content that connects with real people, whether it's career tips, personal branding insights, or everyday motivation. As a content creator and career strategist, I love partnering with brands that align with my message and audience.

If you’re a brand looking to collaborate on sponsored content, campaigns, or creative partnerships that drive value and visibility, let’s connect. You can reach out to me about potential partnerships or brand deals at kgrunewald22@gmail.com 

Check out the links on my website to learn more!


DISCLAIMER! 
1:1 calls are not to discuss opportunities at my current employer, nor is it a guarantee of employment.

Talent Acquisition Partner II

-Working together with my regional ops managers on projects at our San Jose, Sacramento,
  Arizona & North Hollywood offices for our technical install and service teams.
-Currently working in a multi-functional team across multiple time zones.
-In an unfavorable market, I've been able to hire residential electricians for multiple locations
across the US.
-Working with candidates internally and externally to get referrals.
-Rewriting job descriptions and doing market research with the Sr. leadership team.
-Negotiating compensation on offers to candidates.
-Increased applicant pool by 30% in the last 5 months by sourcing and doing deep dive
Boolean searches, resulting in higher quality hires for our residential Install and service teams.
-Grew a previously stagnant talent pool by 25% in the last 2 months, resulting in a 35%
reduction in time-to-fill for our residential electrician roles.

Digital Marketing and Technology Recruiter @ Knak Digital | Fractional Talent Acquisition | Hitting Hiring Roadblocks? I can help 🙋🏻‍♀️ Job Search Advisor & Myth Debunker | Baltimore & D.C. 🔊 (Riv-Knack)

Are you struggling to hire tech and marketing talent to keep up with your organization’s growth?

Maybe your internal applications are jammed with tons of inbound resumes, but very few that are actually on target. Meanwhile, your team is buried, deliverables are slipping, and the right roles stay open way too long.

That’s where I come in.

I’m Kelli Hrivnak, a Marketing & Tech Recruiter, who helps hypergrowth companies fill critical roles faster than traditional methods.  For nearly two decades, I've been a trusted ally to small to midmarket businesses in DC, Virginia, and Maryland, building teams that boost revenue, innovation, and collaborative success.  

My background in hospitality and outside sales taught me the art of relationship building and high-pressure, often intense, decision-making skills that translated to the recruiting world.  That experience shaped how I recruit.

Hiring Hurdles Impacting my Clients:

✔️ Speed to hire.   A vacant position is slowing down your project deliverables and product development.
✔️ Hiring surge and internal recruitment/TA team is swamped.
✔️ Burned by past mis-hires and unsuccessful track record of hiring
✔️ No time to review resumes or screen candidates thoroughly.
✔️ Job Postings that result in 100's of applicants with no time to review
✔️ Underlying need to replace underperformers, confidentially
✔️ Skills gap and the relentless competition for the same pool of talent

Knak Digital Solutions:

Placement & Sourcing:
✔️ 30,000+ vetted tech and marketing contacts in our proprietary database
✔️ 100% dedication to networking, sourcing, and interviewing for faster fill times
✔️ Tailored recruiting approach that fits your team’s culture
✔️ Project-based consultants when you don't need full-time specialists

Embedded Recruiting Support:
✔️ On-demand, flexible recruiting help that scales with your needs
✔️ Extra capacity during hiring spikes so your team doesn’t get overloaded
✔️ Alternative model to project-based searches, especially when hiring 3 or more roles.

Talent Consulting:
✔️ Discreet searches for underperformers, leadership changes, and succession planning
✔️ Employer brand support to improve candidate attraction
✔️ Market intel on competitors, salary trends, and talent movement

Ready to break through your hiring bottlenecks?  Let's start a conversation. 

📧 Email: kelli@Knakdigital.com

Search job listings here ▶ https://jobs.crelate.com/portal/knakdigital

Kelli Hrivnak

When you outreach to a Yahoo address thinking it’s inactive…and it delivers.

And they actually write back.  #recruiterwin

IYKYK.

Toggling from tech to GTM recruiting, there is one interesting difference.

In some tech searches, fraud is an issue.  As in bait and switch, deepfakes, or just fraudulent profiles in general.

In GTM, I haven't come across this (yet).   The only deception is the interpretation of results.

Quota numbers.  Millions worth of business.  Strong pipelines.  But the nuance of not knowing team dynamic, support, and strength of territory can change things.

A few weeks ago, I was talking through this exact problem with a sales leader, specifically how to sniff out BS.  So how to get past the actual numbers and understand what a candidate actually did to drive them. 

Because any outcome is only meaningful with context around strategy and process.

Anyone can put those important numbers in a resume.  It's the story behind the numbers that is a differentiator.

What questions are you asking to gain clarity around metrics in a resume?

Attention to my lady community interested in building apps!  

In honor of International Women's Day, Lovable is offering free usage of its platform for 24 hours on March 8th.   Anthropic is throwing in $100 worth of API credits, too.

If you have time next Sunday, this could be a good opportunity to bring an idea to prototype.

Open article: SheBuilds on Lovable for International Women's Day by shebuilds.lovable.app

SheBuilds on Lovable for International Women's Day

Some hiring managers don't see what goes into a search.  Here is what is happening in my day when leaders are focused on scaling business:

🔹Researching the landscape first, before a single outreach goes out. This is mapping competitors, understanding the skill sets, and finding those gems that are adjacent and could be overlooked.  (Yes, there are AI tools that can help, but they don't always pick up nuance.)

🔹Fielding and engaging in emails, texts, calls, and video conversations with prospects.  This can consume hours on end per day.

🔹Creating and maintaining a running list of these targets. In an ATS or even a simple spreadsheet.  Tracking who's a miss and why (comp misaligned, timing off with a growing family, skill set not quite there)

🔹Gathering real-time comp data, not what's published on Level.Fyi.

🔹Learning WHY talent is passing.  This is the intel to bring back to hiring teams when time-to-fill exceeds the usual TTF.

🔹Hearing where your brand resonates and where it doesn't.

Every prospect who passes is still giving data.  Hesitations on equity, comp, benefits, team structure, title inflation, or off-leveling.

Some of those things just can't be changed, period. Budget or onsite needs. But bringing those market realities back to a hiring team, with legit intel instead of gut or opinion, is where that advisory piece comes in.   

 At the end of the day, a search is the outbound strategy. Inbound is dandy, especially when it attracts solid talent, but it's not JUST the plan.

Are you validating your hiring strategy with real candidate feedback?

Attrition.  There tends to be two waves.

The first wave could be a single employee departure on a team or a mass RIF.  

The second wave is one I think most should anticipate but often don't:  the people who stayed.

The disruption of the team dynamic can stir up a feeling of instability and uncertainty.  And some can power through.  In some cases, a toxic employee peaced out, which can improve the dynamic among the standing soldiers.

The adverse?  Workloads are reshuffled and reporting lines are changed.  Teams could be understaffed and overworked.    Just the catalyst for those still on the team to start thinking and planning for options outside the company.   Typical in M&As.

If you're hiring right now for a replacement role or just leading a team through it, pay attention to who's still standing and check in on them.

taplio

The Battle

Kevin Grunewald

Kelli Hrivnak

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taplio

The Battle

Kevin Grunewald

Kelli Hrivnak

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Kelli Hrivnak's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreKelli Hrivnak's LinkedIn Performance