Asset Recruitment positions excellence once again
Asset Recruitment’s approach to matching clients and candidates proves beneficial for working mum, Karen Cartmill as she takes up new role with Tainui Group Holdings Ltd.
Karen Cartmill is a self-confessed numbers geek, but your average accountant she is not. That has given her a varied career history and, at times, has provided her chosen recruitment company with a challenge when it comes to finding new jobs.
“I did my BCom in Accounting at Canterbury University,” recalls Karen of her university days. “Then I went on and did Postgraduate Diploma in Finance at Massey University. I didn’t do my Chartered Accountancy qualification (CA) until much later.”
Instead, Karen packed her bags and headed to the UK before returning to New Zealand, this time to Wellington and the insurance industry. After receiving advice to do her Chartered Accountancy qualification for the better of her career, she added the letters CA after her name.
Recruitment recommendation
After eight years in Auckland, working for companies including Royal & Sun, Axiom and Turners and Growers, Karen moved to Hamilton in 2008 and was looking to be gainfully employed. “I had been recommended Asset Recruitment and they seemed to be the recruitment company in town that had the jobs. After meeting with Judy [Davison, Asset Recruitment’s permanent and executive recruitment consultant], she presented me with a few opportunities and placed me in a position with AFFCO.”
Karen’s role as a management accountant with AFFCO New Zealand Limited, one of New Zealand’s leading meat processing companies, was similar to what Karen had been doing at Turners and Growers and it also suited her personal circumstances at the time.
“I had a 10-month-old and a two and a half-year-old, so I wasn’t looking for giant leaps in my career at that stage. Instead, I was looking for an organisation that would fit with my crazy life and kids, but still keep me interested and challenged.”
Looking for a new challenge
The job with AFFCO stayed both interesting and challenging for 10 years, until Karen felt it was time for a change. Karen had kept in touch with Judy during her time at AFFCO and had utilised Asset Recruitment’s resources for hiring staff on more than one occasion, but this time Karen let Judy know she was ready for something new.
“Judy knows when a role is right for you and has a really good sense of whether you and an organisation are a good fit. She knows her clients and her potential candidates very well and would never put them anywhere that’s not right.”
Judy found that fit for Karen with Tainui Group Holdings Ltd, where Karen is now the Enterprise Improvement Manager. “The role is extremely varied. I’m in the commercial team but not specifically finance. I’m spread across the whole of the organisation which is how I like to be.”
Karen’s looking forward to the challenges her new role will bring and knows that should she ever need a hire she can turn to Asset Recruitment for support.
“When someone is moving to Hamilton, Asset is the first place I send them,” she says.