Video transcript: Miriam Taris
Title: Audit New Zealand logo
Miriam Taris (Chief Executive Officer, Western Bay of Plenty District Council):
People often ask me what attracted me to auditing – why would you be interested in it? And really, I fell into it. I didn’t go straight to Audit New Zealand from university. I was approached by KPMG, one of the large corporates, and they asked if I’d be interested in going to work for them. And initially I thought, well, auditing doesn’t really sound like my cup of tea. But I gave it a go. And I fell into a career that I really loved.
I spent some years there and then that enabled me to move onto the public sector in Audit New Zealand as an Audit Manager. When I worked in the commercial sector prior to that I found that it had a very narrow scope and it was more about profits and I was more interested in people. I thought it would be more interesting to do something that was more in line with my values and my interests. That’s really how I got into public sector auditing. And then from there really it grew in terms of, it was interesting for me, I had a wide variety of clients, and I was well supported by Audit New Zealand all the time that I worked for them. And that was almost ten years.
Working for Audit New Zealand was great because I found them very professional, very supportive, and a lot of like-minded people who had the same aspirations and the same interests. Primarily it was because the organisation was a credible organisation that was well respected and I knew that I was going to get the right training and I knew that I was going to get the right support. And that all happened for me. And that really helped in my career advancement to the point where I am today as chief executive of a council.
I would say to people looking to join the organisation that you really can’t go wrong. You’re going to get the best support that you need. You’re going to get great training and it’s going to set you up for life. Because it’s going to give you a wide range of skills and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wanted to join the public sector.
Title: Great Job Better Future. For more information, please visit our website: www.auditnz.govt.nz