Alt text: Photo of Seija in front of colorful, striped background.

Alt text: Photo of Seija (headshot) Seija is comfortable with she/they pronouns.

We are so excited to welcome Seija Emerson to our recruiting team! She is a breath of fresh air—her unique and fun spirit is a great addition to the Allovus family. Here’s a little introduction to Seija.

Allovus: Tell us a little about yourself!

Seija: I’m an only child and have always been obsessed with books and movies. I have an interest in stories that are transgressive and counter-cultural narratives—things my parents didn’t approve of.

Now my genre of choice is horror. I read a ton of horror and watch a lot of horror movies. I’m a collector of antiques, weird objects, art, and collage. There’s a lot of unusual art in my house. I enjoy going to antique malls—Tacoma is fabulous if you like antique shopping. I definitely gravitate toward the odd and obscure.

Alt text: Seija holding a white hen.

I also love to sing. That’s how Courtney Comfort (Allovus Studio Lead) and I met—we bonded over karaoke. I play the ukulele, too. The pandemic has made me realize how important singing with other people is to me.

I’m an animal lover. My two cats and one dog basically run my life. My animals are my babies.

Allovus: How did you decide to become a recruiter and how long have you been in this field?

Seija: My road to recruiting started when I was the assistant manager at the University Book Store. I got involved in the hiring process and started doing interviews. That’s when I discovered I love interviewing people. It requires a lot of empathy to be done well. That was my first taste. Then I kind of fell into a human resources team at the UW. It was serendipitous. Over the next three years, I moved into a recruiting role.

Allovus: What is your favorite part of the job? What drives you to do what you do?

Seija: I love the balance between working independently and working on a team. It’s exciting to solve people challenges. I also like the independence of it. It’s a unique job.

Allovus: What made you decide to come to Allovus?

Seija: When a friend refers you to their own workplace, that can be challenging in many ways. Courtney and I know each other so well, but we’re not working together on a day-to-day basis, so it’s not weird for our friendship to work at the same company.

After meeting the team at Allovus, I was blown away that the company actually follows and lives by their own philosophy. There aren’t many places that this happens in a healthy and empathetic way. It makes me wish more people would have this work experience. There are so many people who never feel supported at work. If I can help people feel that support in one way or another, I’ll be satisfied.

Alt text: Seija and her husband with their arms around each other with mountains in background.

Allovus: What do you hope to bring to Allovus?

Seija: I hope to bring awareness of equity and inclusion. I do recruiting not only through the lens of making sure the candidate’s experience is great, but also thinking about the bigger picture, especially when it comes to representation. It’s important to have ethics in technology and to find out who is being left out, and who will be hurt. It’s really easy to ignore this issue. But somebody has to bring up the people who are not in the room and find a way to include them.

Allovus: What are your favorite things to do outside work?

Seija: Singing karaoke (Rock Box in Seattle), being outside with my husband and my dog, exploring parks, little trips around Washington—we have so many beautiful parks! I had a free summer and took advantage of cooking, weird art making, collaborating with friends on art projects, and travel.