Who got that job?

Were you one of the 105 people who applied for this job and wondered who got it?

Job title: Finance manager.

For: Merck Sharp & Dohme.


Pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme won an award last year for its programmes to help employees to balance work and life.

Justine Wong-Kam knew about its success and had read the magazine which had dubbed the research-driven company one of New Zealand's 16 best places to work.

So when the job of finance manager came up at the Manukau-based business, she was keen for a new challenge and leapt at the chance.

"Merck Sharp & Dohme are renowned for placing value in their people. Everyone I know who works there says they don't want to leave."

However, competition for the post was fierce - Wong-Kam was up against 105 other applicants, says Pohlen Kean consultant Kate Offord.

You could say, however, that Wong-Kam did have the natural advantage of having accounting in her blood: both dad Harry Kam and brother Sean Kam are accountants.

Wong-Kam, 31, did her commerce degree at the University of Auckland. She has worked for various top companies here and in England and is working out her last days for Epsom-based drugs company Astra Zeneca.

She is fascinated by medicine, and the prospect of working around cutting-edge research is exciting - "the fact that you're working in a company that's selling products that are benefiting people's health, or maybe prolonging someone's life."