Today, we’re handing the baton over to Kenny Nestle for an insider look at a day in the life of a remote Recruiter working out of Massachusetts. Kenny fuses passion, empathy, and creativity to connect the right person with the right job - and has been doing so for many years! A champion of inclusion and belonging, Kenny has contributed to candidate accessibility projects at HubSpot.

Continue reading to get your daily dose of ‘Kenergy,’.

Can you tell us a little about your background and journey to HubSpot?

I have been recruiting for seven years. I had always heard of HubSpot since I live just north of Boston, MA. The imposter syndrome was real and I thought I’d never be able to showcase my skills for a great company but I applied. I loved the transparency during the interview process when I applied to HubSpot and it made me feel comfortable throughout the entire journey. This helped solidify why I wanted to join - I have never felt that at a company prior to HubSpot.

Describe a typical day in your role.

In recruiting you never know what to expect and every day can be a little bit different. At the moment, I’m currently working on several positions from Finance, to Legal, to People Ops. Depending where we are in each req, I will balance out my day. First thing in the morning, I clean up the application review stage. From there, I’ll have calls with my candidates and I have meetings with my hiring managers on a weekly basis to check in on the health of the recruiting pipeline and to ensure we’re both aligned and on target. From there I will pivot and source passive candidates via LinkedIn to have a diverse pipeline as well. It’s never the same day and I truly like it, time flies here! 

What do you like most about your role?

The collaboration. I love being able to work with so many bright minds on my team or the teams I support from recruiting - I love being a sponge and absorbing as much as I can to add it to my recruiting repertoire. I love learning and getting out of my comfort zone. My team spans from Washington to London to Dublin and we are still very much connected.

Speaking of, I have an emoji that was created for me "Kenergy" from my team  - I didn't make it, I promise! Basically, whenever someone on the team is excited and super passionate about a topic and just wants to embrace it, the team will use it and to me, it’s hilarious and makes work even more fun at the end of day because of something so small like creating an emoji.

How do you navigate work/life balance as a parent? And how does HubSpot support this?

My daughter Ella is the sweetest, funniest, most active little girl. When she was a baby we started noticing that she was not talking as much as some of her peers. We quickly got her into Early Intervention, and speech therapy. She has worked so hard at learning to communicate and now she uses an AAC Device ( Augmentative and Alternative Communication) which we call her “talker”. Even though she may not be able to verbally communicate all she wants to say, she can express herself just as well as children her age using her “talker”. It was a journey to get to where she is today, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. She has taught us so much about the importance of patience and listening. She has shown us that love needs no words!

HubSpot has been incredible at understanding the needs of my daughter and my family. I have specific times blocked off in my schedule for my daughter. For example, every Thursday I get to pick her up from school and we go to Occupational Therapy followed by a dinner date with just her and I. HubSpot truly understands the importance of balancing family and work.

What resources have you found helpful in your journey?

There's an internal Slack channel called caring-for-special-needs that resonates. I truthfully thought I was alone. It’s been incredible to have colleagues who understand the unique needs of a parent of a neurodivergent child. 

There's a sense of community within our company culture that made me even prouder to be a HubSpotter because of something like this where I can ask for advice or talk about a challenge we are going through. It is truly remarkable.

How can we all better educate ourselves on neurodiversity and become better allies?

The best thing that we can do is to always keep learning! The one thing that I want others to understand is that autism is a neurotype - it is how an individual’s brain is “wired”. Autism does not need to be “fixed”. We live in a world that can be challenging for neurodivergent individuals to navigate, but it is our responsibility to make the necessary accommodations to help make everyone feel included and valued. 

Just this past year, I was able to work on a project at HubSpot around candidate accessibility and it truly resonated. The sense of inclusion and belonging starts from the application process and interview and now that the project went live, the accommodation requests are on every job description here at HubSpot and I’m so proud of the work the team did to get this up and running. It is truly remarkable and it’s made me proud as a parent of a neurodiverse child that there are companies out there like HubSpot that will look out for the best interest of the candidates and employees.

Who are you outside of HubSpot?

When I’m not at my “other” full time job being a Dad, I play in an acoustic pop band @familiarstrangersmusic on Instagram - we do covers from the 80's to now. It was a hobby that turned into a real passion of mine. We play shows at local bars and shops here in the North Shore. I'm also an avid wrestling fan, I've been watching it since I was three and now I’ve become a “sneaker-head”. 

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