Katya Hoodikoff has been aligning passion with purpose her whole life. Now, as senior recruiter at Houzz, she focuses on doing the same for the candidates she supports every day. Whether she’s guiding prospective Houzzers through their next career step or practicing mindfulness on her yoga mat, Katya brings intention and balance to everything she does.

In one sentence, how would you describe what you do here?
I help people find a sense of purpose in their lives by aligning them with a career that’s financially rewarding and personally fulfilling.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
My earliest memory is wanting to either be a doctor or a veterinarian, since I’ve always had a soft spot for animals. As I learned the ins and outs of what a veterinarian really does, I shifted my focus to helping people, where I knew I could also help solve problems and make a big impact. 

My background is in psychology and communications. After graduating university, my parents encouraged me to see what I could do with my degrees. I fell into recruiting and found it to be an amazing fit. I help people find work they’re passionate about, while simultaneously matching their talents to the needs of the business.

How did you hear about the recruiting team at Houzz?
After graduating, I was initially poking around trying to figure out what opportunities existed for someone with my background. My first recruiting role was with an agency, where there was a lot of hands-on learning. After a while, though, I decided I wanted to be an in-house recruiter, so I could genuinely talk about the company’s culture and work environment from my own experience.

The Houzz recruiting team reached out to me, and I fell in love with the company and opportunity. It was almost like fate: I was hiking a mountain and saw in the beautiful horizon the Houzz logo on the top of the building in Tempe, Arizona. [Note: Houzz is now a remote-first company.]  A week or two later, the hiring manager reached out, and I remember thinking, “That rings a bell!” 

I’m a big believer that nothing happens by chance. We’re all taking steps toward reaching our destiny. It was no coincidence!

What’s the ideal candidate experience you like to provide?
I value transparency and ensuring there’s a two-way conversation to understand what someone is looking for, clearly communicating what we have to offer and seeing if there is alignment there. I also want to talk about the person’s career goals and aspirations, and how they’re hoping to grow. 

I work primarily to support the sales team, and the biggest thing I love about Houzz is that we have a very robust development program in terms of advancing and promoting from within. We care about ensuring that this isn’t just a job or a placeholder role, but it can turn into a long-term career. And we have a lot of Houzzers who have been here almost since the beginning, which speaks a lot about the company, too.

You work a lot with candidates for our Sales Development Representative, or SDR, role. Can you explain why that’s so important to our business and what you look for when recruiting for it?
The SDR role is critical to our success. People in this position establish a positive first impression of Houzz, educate home construction and design professionals on our available products and resources, and work hand-in-hand with our sales teams to sign up new pros to use our software. An ideal SDR is highly personable, resourceful and passionate about using technology to improve the day-to-day lives of industry pros. Since we offer an extensive 12-month training program to help foster success in all our reps, we also aim to hire people who are coachable and adaptable. 

How do you talk about our culture or our remote-first experience when talking with potential Houzzers?
We have a lot of things we speak to, for example, our social intranet platform, team-oriented events and the virtual activities our People Experience team puts together. Because I’m recruiting for sales, I also talk about the quarterly dinners, the President’s Club awards and opportunities to come together for trade show events. There’s also the team-oriented nature of how we operate, like the three huddles per day, which gives a lot of face time with their team and provides many opportunities to help each other out and share best practices. 

And, personally speaking, the remote options we have here give me the opportunity to do a lot of travel. I am able to visit my grandparents and spend time with them in Canada. So that’s another thing that we’re able to highlight. A lot of people have maybe two weeks out of the year to do something they love. I’m grateful for the work-life balance and the opportunity to be able to see the world.

What would you say is the best part about working at Houzz?
Since I’m so passionate about helping people, I really love that we have opportunities for upward growth and mobility. I’ve had the advantage of working at other companies where everything looks very nice on paper, but I soon realized that professional development wasn’t as big of a priority as it is here. That’s something I really value about the company and what we do at Houzz.

We also have a very inclusive culture. Everyone has a voice. I feel very comfortable sharing my ideas, and feeling like those ideas are heard and taken seriously.

Adding to that, everyone has the opportunity to be a problem solver. It’s really smart to recognize where there are areas of opportunity, and before making those known, to think about some possible solutions. Taking it one step further not only helps elevate your voice, but ensures you get the stakeholder support that’s crucial for your vision to come to life.

That’s a good transition to Houzz Pro, which has many features that also brings a homeowner’s or pro’s vision to life. Do you have a favorite?
I love that it’s an all-in-one solution for pros, and its accessibility across mobile and desktop makes it a very easy product to use. From a consumer standpoint, if I were to work with someone using the Houzz Pro software, I like the 3D features – a two-dimensional idea can be converted to a 3D model. As much as I’d like to say I have great spatial orientation and could picture what everything would look like, being able to see an idea come to life and make live edits and tweaks is really fantastic.

What makes you most excited about the future of Houzz?
We are revolutionizing the home remodeling and design space, and I’m excited by how we continue innovating and adopting new features and tools. As a company, we embrace feedback, listen to our customers and continuously strive to be the top-tier solution for professionals. I’m so excited for what the future holds, because I know it’s going to be a bright one!

If you’re interested in joining our team, we’re hiring! Check out available opportunities at houzz.com/jobs.