Her Story
About Katy
Katy Wirissa is a Senior Recruiter at Amazon, where she has worked for the past 4 and a half years in tech. She sits on the MBA recruiting team within Amazon University Talent Acquisition, focusing on hiring MBAs into internships between their first and second year and full-time roles after completing their MBA programs. Wirissa also supports the newly launched Product Leadership Development Program. She earned her degree from Minnesota State University. Wirissa was recently promoted to her current senior role, which she considers her most notable professional achievement to date. She attributes her success to a strong network of mentorship from women in her organization and beyond, emphasizing women's empowerment and the importance of extending a hand to pull others up after rising. As a mother to a young child, she values having friends at work and a supportive system to balance her professional and personal responsibilities. Wirissa's core value is that honesty is kindness, applying constructive straightforwardness in both her work and personal life. She also follows career advice to always have an elevator pitch ready to quantify and articulate the scope, scale, and impact of her work to leaders.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Katy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I really love women's empowerment and the idea of after you rise up a level, you then extend your hand down to those on the level below to pull people up after you. Having that network, community, and mentorship from strong women in my organization and other parts of my life has been really important, especially as a mom to a young kid while excelling at work. I've sought out mentorship at Amazon from those in my organization and outside to get a broad range of perspective, and I believe in having friends at work because you spend 40 plus hours with them through the good, the bad, the ugly.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Navigating the world of big tech is challenging, so some advice I was given maybe 1 or 2 years into my journey at Amazon was to have your elevator pitch ready at any given time about what your impact is. It's all about being able to quantify and speak coherently to your impact, define the scope and scale of the thing you're working on so you can keep leaders aware, and it doesn't matter how hard you work if you're not able to articulate why what you're working on matters.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Working at Amazon is definitely not for the faint of heart. There's always so much to do and what feels like too few hours in the day. A challenge is being able to prioritize what needs to get done now and later, figuring out real tangible mechanisms that work for each individual. Balancing being an extremely present mom and also showing up at work in the way I need to can only be done with a supportive system at work, which I have, but it requires intentionality.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In the last 5 years, my mantra is honesty is kindness. In my personal life and work life, being totally honest and straightforward in a kind way, with constructive advice and a really kind, intentional straightforwardness. You're never gonna get to the best version of yourself if you're tiptoeing around areas for growth, so being totally honest and straightforward when friends or teammates come for advice is the best thing I can do.
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