January 2006
I Didn’t Get Where I Am Today
WHO?
Karen Molloy
WHAT?
Director, Thorpe Molloy Recruitment, Aberdeen
WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY DO?
I am one of the two founding directors of Thorpe Molloy Recruitment. We strive to provide a superior recruitment service to our clients covering accountancy, office support and HR vacancies.
WHY?
The two fundamental reasons were the desire to provide a specialist service to the North East job market; we just knew that we could do it better; and secondly we both wanted to be masters of our own destiny.
FIRST SENIOR JOB?
I suppose it was immediately before returning to the UK from Hong Kong; where I’d been working in recruitment; when I spent four months working as a Scuba Dive Master in the Philippines.
My first senior professional job was when I moved to Aberdeen and joined Hays. After completing my training with Hays I set up their office in Aberdeen.
DO YOU WORK FOR LOVE OR MONEY?
Now I work for both, but in the early days of Thorpe Molloy it was definitely a case of working for love. To begin with I didn’t draw a salary from Thorpe Molloy as we were concentrating on building the business. Having been in both situations I know that, for me, it has always been vital to be interested and stimulated at work, having something to do that is challenging is far more important than earning lots of money.
WAS YOUR FIRST JOB FOR POCKET MONEY PENNIES OR WAS IT THE FIRST RUNG ON THE LADDER?
My parents were great believers in making sure that my sisters and I knew the value of money, so my first job was for pocket money pennies. It wasn’t very glamorous; I worked in the basement at Preston’s of Bolton printing velvet jewellery boxes at the age of 15 – health and safety would have a fit now!
SEAMLESS PROGRESSION OR DID FATE LEND A HAND?
Fate has certainly lent a hand. Meeting Judith, the Thorpe part of Thorpe Molloy, when we were both working at Hays was a pivotal point in my career progression. Judith and I get on extremely well together both at work and also as friends.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT STAGE OF YOUR CAREER?
Meeting Judith and making the decision to set up our own recruitment agency.
WHICH STAGE HAS BEEN MOST CHALLENGING AND WHY?
Setting up Thorpe Molloy was extremely challenging, although Judith and I had experience of recruitment neither of us had set up a business before and we were incredibly naïve.
Just before the business was due to open I got married and went on honeymoon, even during that time I was dealing with teething problems relating to the opening of the business. When we returned from honeymoon, Mike pitched in and helped out by being our receptionist when we needed him. Many of our friends also found themselves being given paintbrushes and enlisted to help with the decorating of our offices.
Also, looking back another major challenge was combining the role of being a mother, following the birth of my first child, Ben, in July 1999, with being very hands on at work as the business was still in its very early stages. I have since had two more children; Jessie was born in July 2001 and Louis in February 2004.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENT THAT HAS GOT YOU WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
Determination and independence, two qualities that for me go hand in hand. My Dad even remarked on my independent nature is his speech on my wedding day. It must be hereditary, as I can see the same traits emerging in my own children.
ANY LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC MOMENTS ALONG THE WAY?
Going to work in Hong Kong has to qualify as a life changing moment, so many things happened there that have shaped who and where I am today.
Bored on a Woolworths graduate management programme - which seemed to involve a lot of shelf stacking - I got my first taste of recruitment. I was enlisted by a senior member of staff to assist with sifting through CVs to identify potential employees. Returning from a girl’s holiday in Greece I booked a one way ticket to Hong Kong – my then boyfriend to follow me five days later. I set off armed only with my ticket and the phone number for a friend of a friend who would meet me at the airport. He was a pilot based there.
Fate stepped in as he met me off the plane and it was love at first sight. We have now been married for eight years and have three children.
My career path developed when Mike was posted back to Birmingham in the UK. It was only at the eleventh hour that we found out that he would actually be based in Aberdeen.
ANY REGRETS?
Not telling my boyfriend that I’d met the love of my life before he left the UK on a one way ticket to Hong Kong
WHAT DO YOU LIKE LEAST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
That would have to be when I have to terminate someone’s employment because they are not the right person for the job and it isn’t working out, it’s much harder to have to do it in those circumstances.
MINIMUM 12-HOUR DAY OR OUT THE DOOR BY FIVE?
In the very early days of setting up Thorpe Molloy a 12-hour day was a luxury, as were weekends. Now however I am usually in the office by 8.15 and I leave at 2.30 so that I can collect Ben, my eldest son from school.
EARLY BIRD OR NIGHT OWL?
Being a mother has necessitated me turning into an early bird, I don’t think that young children know the meaning the phrase ‘lie-in’.
TECHNOGEEK OR TECHNOPHOBE?
Technophobe, without a shadow of a doubt, I don’t know if it is something to do with being creative but technology bores me and I tend to switch off. Luckily there is usually someone around who knows how to work things.
BEST UNDER PRESSURE OR WELL CHILLED?
I definitely work best under pressure; I’m not sure how much I would get done if I was well chilled all the time.
CREATIVE OR LOGICAL?
Definitely creative, I don’t think that logical could be used to describe me.
NUMBERS OR PICTURES?
Pictures – it must have something to do with being a technophobe.
TEAM PLAYER OR LONE WOLF?
Team player. These days I truly miss sitting out in the office with the team of people and catching up on what everyone got up to over the weekend.
DESK/OFFICE ESSENTIALS?
My desk is organised chaos with photos of my family on it and also my notebooks and a diary. I also tend to have a cup of tea on my desk as well as a bowl of fruit in an attempt to be healthy – although the fruit does have a tendency to go off before I get round to eating it!
CRYSTAL-BALL GAZE FIVE YEARS FROM NOW?
Five years from now I would like to see Thorpe Molloy having doubled in size, both in terms of staff and turnover with bigger premises. I also think that by that time we might well have opened an overseas office.
Personally, maybe I’ll have had another baby, although four would be the most I would have. I’ll aim to still be working part time and will have each summer off to spend at the house that we are having built in Spain. I think we will probably have moved house, perhaps out of Aberdeen to somewhere in the country.
YOU'VE WON THE LOTTERY: WHAT DO YOU DO (CAREER-WISE)?
I would like to pass the business on to Thorpe Molloy employees who would care for it, look after it and continue to grow it with the same interest and determination that both Judith and I have shown.
Being completely honest I would give up work and move out to Spain, the lifestyle there is much more relaxed and more family oriented than in the UK. We have family out there too, so it would be nice to spend more time with them.
YOUR DREAM JOB?
If I could be absolutely anything I would love to be a really good singer; someone like Bono who comes across as being intelligent and having integrity.
I really admire him for several reasons including the way he uses his position to make a real difference in the world and also on a personal level that he has four children and a seemingly happy marriage – something that’s quite unusual in today’s entertainment business; not to mention that he gets to plan (in a band) with his friends and get paid for doing so. On a lighter note I can only imagine what it must feel like to go on stage in front of thousands of people and know that they are to see you, wow, that must be incredible. Seeing as this is a dream job, I would want to remain anonymous in my everyday life and not be a celebrity - but having said that I would enjoy a little red carpet glamour every now and then!
PERFECT RECIPE FOR WINDING DOWN?
The children are in bed and asleep, there is a good bottle of red wine open, some fine food and I am listening to music in the company of my husband.
YOUR BEST-KEPT SECRET?
Not many people know that I have previously earned money by washing cars in my bikini – not recently though; this was when I was travelling around Australia and I ran out of money so I washed cars and made enough money to finance the next part of my trip.
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