Wonolo
Let’s meet Kirstyn!
Hello! I am Kirstyn Sullivan and I’m the Lead Recruiter here at Wonolo. My focus at Wonolo has primarily been owning business marketplace recruiting, however, I have recently begun full-desk recruiting for tech hiring as well. If you are interested in a new opportunity… let’s chat!
What events in your life have brought you to your current role today?
From as early as I can remember, I have always been extremely competitive. Whether it be how many consecutive rounds of Yahtzee I could win my 4 siblings (I am the middle child of 5), how many A’s I received on my report card, or how many premium margaritas I could sell during my nights serving at Cozymel’s in college… I love to win. I have oftentimes found myself gamifying my own day to make my goals feel like mini wins. As an intern, I would try to cold call 100 prospects before I went to lunch. As a mortgage processor, I would try to beat how many loans I could submit from the previous day. I even challenge myself on how many glasses of water I can drink in a day! For me, happiness is all about setting goals and exceeding them.
This desire to be constantly challenged is what ultimately led me to the tech-startup world. I embarked on my start-up journey at Houzz, the home remodeling and design website. I was one of the first 25 recruits to found the San Diego office and quickly learned what hyper-growth meant. During my 4 year tenure, our Houzz San Diego office grew more than 5x and we launched new corporate offices in both Phoenix and Nashville which scaled to hundreds of employees at both locations. It was at Houzz that I uncovered my love for recruiting.
In spending much of my days scouring LinkedIn, I received a message from Wonolo’s Head of Talent asking me to chat about leading business recruiting for their series C start-up backed by Sequoia and Bain Capital. With a mission to serve underserved communities, a culture of transparency, inspiring leadership and the opportunity to help build a function from scratch, how could I have said no? I was all in with Wonolo.
Recruiting has become this elaborate puzzle where I have the ability to find incredible talent and match them with the job opportunity of their dreams. Everything from hunting great passive candidates to watching them flourish in their careers, that is why I love what I do. To me, there is magic in hearing the excitement in a recruit’s voice as they accept the job offer and watching him/her get promoted. I don’t think there are many wins that are better than that! I am grateful that I have the opportunity to be challenged, do what I love, and to make an impact.
When you have to make a difficult decision, what do you lean on?
When I have a difficult decision to make, I try my best to envision the big picture and the long-term consequences of my decision. How will this choice affect others? Will there be an immediate benefit for choosing one option but a better long-term outcome for choosing the other? I will admit, I catch myself at times overanalyzing the situation to the point of needing to take a breather and sometimes step away from the problem for a short period of time to assess everything. Most of the time, if I am able to make my decision outside of an immediate, reactionary mode, the decision fairs better long-term.
Lastly, once I have made a decision, I also do my best to commit. I try to not second-guess if I made the right decision but rather really own the path I set and move forward. Playing the game of could have, should have, would have, does not help the here and now.
What is one piece of life advice you can give to anyone?
Don’t sweat the small stuff. And likely, whatever you’re worried about, it’s small stuff. When faced with a problem it is easy to let your mind run wild with conjuring up every possible negative scenario or outcome that could happen. What I have learned is that the time spent worrying about something that hasn’t happened really does not serve you at all. Rather than stress, reflect on the positives, envision the best possible outcome, and manifest it into existence.
I also recommend playing the game of “5 years from now, 5 months from now, 5 days from now… will this matter?” 9 times out of 10, the answer is no. Give yourself the grace to know that this too shall pass and everything will ultimately pan out.
If you really knew me, you would know that…
During college, I minored in Spanish, studied abroad in Madrid during my fall semester of junior year, y hablo espanol.
I adore yoga and would love to show you my tripod headstand.
I am majorly addicted to my side-hustle on Poshmark and frequent my local post office at least once a week to ship treasures.
