Official StumbleUpon Blog

Five Questions: Christine Boyle, StumbleUpon HR Manager

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Christine Boyle graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in Creative Writing. True to her StumbleUpon username, she writes poetry and loves the color yellow. Christine is a proud resident of Oakland, CA and enjoys dancing, electronic music, camping, and the arts. When Christine isn't working, she likes to spend time with her best friends Reiko and Tuere, her brother Dennis, and her boyfriend Sanne.

What's your role at StumbleUpon, and how long have you been with the company?
I currently lead HR and recruiting for StumbleUpon. I began working with the company in July of 2006 as a part-time Office Manager. As the company grew both online and off, my role took on many new shapes and forms. My most favorite part of my job is finding creative ways to make StumbleUpon a great place to work. In addition to HR and recruiting, I enjoy coordinating our internal and external StumbleUpon events.

What's surprised you most about working for StumbleUpon?
StumbleUpon's rapid growth has surprised me the most. I clearly remember my interview with gmc, Geoff and Justin; arriving at a tiny one-room office in downtown San Francisco with only a few desks and chairs. When I accepted the position of part-time Office Manager, I had no idea of the exciting professional journey I was about to embark on. In July 2006, there were just a handful of employees compared to the 30+ we have today, and only 1.5 million stumblers compared to the 6+ million we have today. It's been an amazing experience working here and for the first time in my life I can say, "I love my job!"

What can you tell us about the company art program you initiated?
In the early days at StumbleUpon, we asked each employee to select a poster and thumbtack it to the wall. While this spiced up our decor, the office somewhat resembled a college dorm. After several office redesigns and a waning interest in posters, the StumbleUpon art program took shape in Summer of 2008.

Every two months, emerging Bay Area artists and photographers will display their work throughout our office; in exchange, StumbleUpon will deliver traffic to their Web site. Not only does the program allow StumbleUpon employees to enjoy original art while working, it allows us to support talented artists in our community.

Ken Farkash was StumbleUpon's first featured artist, and you can see his work at www.kenfarkash.com. Kajahl Benes and Robin Winn are the current featured artists, and are showcasing their work through November 2008. If you're a Bay Area artist or photographer interested in participating in the StumbleUpon art program, please send me a message with your Web site. We'd love to work with local artists who are Stumblers!

When you tell people where you work, how do you describe StumbleUpon?
When I tell people where I work, I always describe my amazing group of colleagues. Similar to the StumbleUpon online community, the StumbleUpon employees are from all corners of the globe. Over ten languages are spoken fluently among us and many have traveled the world over. The StumbleUpon staff is made up of artists, writers, musicians, martial artists, athletes, poets, drummers, DJs, singers, photographers, bicyclists, scientists, parents, hobbyists and adventurers. We have a great team and all rally around our cause: to help people discover interesting content online.

If you didn't work at StumbleUpon, what do you think you might be doing?
If I didn't work at StumbleUpon, I would be getting in trouble for Stumbling at work in a job I didn't like