Career Talk JDR

Back in 1989, I was a Staff Accountant with a financial institution and found myself in a bit of a rut.  This was my first job out of college and I had interned there during college.  Every month…month end, accruals, account analysis and reconciliations.  At the time, the bank was in a slump (seems like a tiny, tiny slump compared to the slump we’re in today) and I couldn’t transfer to another department.

During my time at the bank, I did have the opportunity to recruit students graduating from my alma mater, Mississippi State University…it was refreshing and fun compared to my “regular job.”  I started keeping an eye out for anything that might be interesting in the newspaper and I happened to see a blind box ad for an Accounting Recruiter and thought I’d reply to it.  As it turns out, Jill Herrin called me at the office to chat.  By the end of the 10-minute conversation, she was pretty sure that I was her new Accounting Recruiter and I was wondering what in the world I had just said!  Jill has such a knack for putting you at ease.  When we met in person with her business partner, Danny McKinney, it was pretty clear that we all hit it off beautifully and my question was answered…she’s from London!  British and Southern accents combined can be interesting!

Almost 20 years later, here I am!  I tried my hand at recruiting, but ended up slipping back into a financial role after about three years.  As it turns out, Jill is more gifted with people and I’m more gifted with numbers.  Only, this time, the regular accounting is only a part of what I do.  I also handle Payroll, Benefits, Legal, Budgeting, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Human Resources, and anything else that comes up from a financial aspect.  In fact, I even placed someone with one of our clients just a couple of months ago.  I suppose I’ll always be a bit of a recruiter at heart.