About | Ascent Ready

What we do & How we do it

At Ascent Ready, We go beyond candidate resumes

We focus on the people behind them

With over 20 years of experience building high-performing teams through complex transformations, we've refined a recruitment methodology that identifies the true predictors of new-hire success—validated through long-term tracking of retention, promotion, skill growth, and job satisfaction. We deliver passive talent through our battle-tested and evolved tactical approach to both the candidate and customer experience which was once reserved for executive search in representing you, your organization, and the opportunity you're hiring for no matter what level or skill; and we do so at no additional cost.

Our process drastically increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness, we've set a new standard in candidate experience, employer branding, prospect evaluation through our high-touch personal approach that gets to know the person you're considering hiring behind the professional lens, giving you the industry's highest rates of retention and advancement. We aim to not just fill roles with somebody who can do the job; we're looking to place members of your organization who will enhance the talent around them, arriving with enthusiasm for the opportunity and focused on making an impact. Whether on your teams or leading them. Hiring an Ascent Ready prospect offers higher ROI throughout your organization, not just in the roles they're hired into.

Ascent Ready's high-touch, relationship-focused service approach is standard for all our talent acquisition service offerings, providing you with a more comprehensive understanding of the candidate. Through predictive insights suggesting potential impact in the role, to visibility into what drives them, our clients experience greater retention, higher quality of hire, increased levels of advancement, and ultimately higher ROI of hire rates both short-term following onboarding, and long-term as they grow with you and your team. Our analysis of candidates is based on combining passive sourcing strategy and providing the synopsis of hard skills, providing evidence gathered suggesting the most influential and critical indicators of predicting new hire impact potential and long-term performance and overall value, including:

Intrinsic Drive / Motivation
Emotional Intelligence (EQi 2.0)
Personality Profile Analysis
Growth Mindset

Partner with Us & Let’s Elevate! Together!

Meet our Founder: Aaron Krueger

Aaron is first and foremost the lucky husband to his wife, and very proud father to both his daughter and son,.. and pup-pop to the best Labrador Retriever this side of the Mississippi. He is also the Founder of and Principal Talent Strategy Consultant for Ascent Ready.

With 20+ years of experience, he’s helped scale teams from startups to Fortune 500s by identifying and placing growth-minded, intrinsically driven talent that fuels transformation. A certified MHS EQi 2.0 coach, Aaron blends emotional intelligence with deep insight into talent potential to create lasting organizational impact.

Clients trust Aaron for end-to-end talent solutions and leadership placements. His people-first approach aligns purpose with opportunity, ensuring candidates are not just qualified—but inspired.

Beyond recruitment, Aaron has led talent strategy, business development, and operations across multiple organizations. From 2010–2022, he consulted and served in senior leadership roles during major technical and business transformations. He’s also designed programs to enhance talent attraction, candidate experience, and organizational development.

Passionate about community impact, Aaron led large-scale civic hackathons, including Milwaukee’s 2016 Tournivation and Hack America Day of Civic Hacking. Among what he's most proud of is having been a founding board member of i.c. Stars Milwaukee, for which he was honored as a “Founding Father” (one of only 5 to receive the prestigious designation in recognition for his influential role from 2015-17 both initiating and helping lead collaborative effort and drove corporate sponsorship funding to bring i.c. Stars to Milwaukee) at StarBash 2025 in December of 2024. Aaron remains highly active with the organization and it's cycle members functioning as a mentor to the cycle participants and presenter to the cycle teams. He was recently reinvited to service on the i.c. Stars Milwaukee Board of Advisors as of June of 2025, and serves on it's Growth, Sponsorship, and Development Committee.

Aaron's most recent speaking engagements from the time this was written, include the Keynote Leadership Panel discussion at the 2024 MMAC Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Summit in July of 2024, presenting on Growth Mindset in Professional Drive at the WWDA TDCON25 (Wisconsin Workforce Development Association) in April if 2025, and being the keynote presenter on Leveraging Intrinsic Drive / Motivation at the WI Alliance of Women in Workers’ Compensation conference in May 2025.