Kate Gjokmarkovic

Take us back to the beginning of your career. How did it all start?

I started my career in a small accounting firm in Mount Gravatt. I spent four years there, recording every six minutes of my time on a time sheet, wondering if this was the route for me. I like to give things a red-hot go before I make up my mind, so I moved to a second-tier firm for a year where I completed my Chartered Accounting qualification. I had an idea in my head that I needed to try working in commerce, so I moved into a finance role at an Australian law firm. Over time, this Australian law firm slowly merged with a global firm, then with an American firm. I spent about 13 years there, working my way up from Brisbane Finance Operations Supervisor to National Finance Operations Manager. This is when I really discovered how much I loved managing teams and working on systems and business improvement projects.

After that, I moved to another law firm and I spent a couple of years there before having two and a half years off to spend some time with my kids while they were young. I came back to work in March this year, initially as a payroll temp at Cornerstone Medical Recruitment and then I was offered the role I have now in a permanent capacity as the Finance Manager at Cornerstone. There's a lot of growth happening here. Within my first couple of weeks of working here, Cornerstone was recognised as one of Australia's Best Places To Work by the Australian Financial Review and I can understand why. I really love Cornerstone Medical Recruitment, the people here are amazing.

What challenges have you faced so far in your career?

Combining a career with young children has definitely been really challenging. One child was not too bad, but throwing another one into the mix was a whole other level. I returned to work after having my son and I was still breastfeeding. I was learning a new role at the same time the COVID pandemic started, and I was leading a team that were completely office based and reliant on paper as well. To top it off we also did a bank refinance in amongst all of that.

Finance Manager Cornerstone Medical Recruitment

One of the things I love here is that it's a really supportive culture. Cornerstone Medical Recruitment provides me with flexibility to do things that I need to do with my kids, and our CEO is a mother of three so she's a strong advocate for parents in the workplace. More than 27% of our team are working parents, so there's a lot of people that just get it.

What would surprise people about your role?

Contrary to the popular belief that finance people just crunch numbers all day, my role is actually all about people; the people that I lead, the teams within Cornerstone whom my team and I support, and the candidates all over Australia that we employ. Our candidates are the frontline healthcare workers in medical facilities across Australia, so it’s really purpose-driven work. At Cornerstone we all work for the common goal of creating great experiences and impacting communities all across Australia. Yes, there is number crunching involved, but I see my job as really being about people.

What piece of advice would you like to share with someone wanting to enter Accounting and Finance?

My piece of advice would be to take every opportunity that presents itself. Don't leave yourself wondering ‘what if’. When I started here, I was in the payroll team and I really hadn't considered this as a career pathway at the time, but I gave it a go. If I wasn’t open to new ideas and taking on different opportunities, I wouldn’t be where I am now.