As Founder and CEO of MyNewTerm, Wayne Cartmel leads with purpose, juggling everything from tech and product to national education events and school visits. The variety keeps things exciting — and fuels his drive to grow an EdTech platform that truly makes a difference.
Wayne’s journey began in teaching, where he quickly spotted how outdated the recruitment process was. That frustration sparked MyNewTerm. Today, what he finds most rewarding is hearing how the platform is changing lives. Outside of work, you’ll often find him refereeing football matches at a national level.
What does a typical day in your role look like?
No such thing as a typical day. One minute I might be working with the product and development teams supporting a technical project, liaising with marketing on a new brand concept, presenting at a national education event, to visiting customers directly. There is so much variety that comes with leading a fast-growing EdTech business.
How did you get started in this industry?
After completing my A-levels, I did a degree in Business with Finance. I had always had a strong interest in business. Following graduation, I worked in industry for a while before enrolling on a teacher training course at the University of Bedfordshire. I completed my PGCE and went on to teach Maths and Business at secondary in Bedfordshire. It was while completing my training that I came across the process to apply for jobs in education. I couldn’t believe just how repetitive the process was, and thought there must be a better way. MyNewTerm was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.
What do you find most rewarding about your job?
Hearing from schools and candidates about the impact MyNewTerm has had on them personally. I have the pleasure of reading so many reviews and testimonials of people kindly sharing their very personal experiences. It’s so rewarding to know something you’ve created has had a positive impact on someone’s life. It could be someone who’s secured their first ever job, or someone working in a school who we’ve had such an impact on their role by reducing their workload and saving them hours every week on repetitive HR admin.
What’s your go-to productivity hack or tool?
Keep things simple. So often, things are overcomplicated and unnecessary. I am always clear on trying to strip things back and keep things as simple as they possibly can be.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got” – someone said this quote to me many years ago, and it’s always stuck. So many people do things the way they do because that’s all they’ve ever known, and they don’t stop to actually question why and how it can be done better.
What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I am also a National List Football Referee. This means I officiate games across the National League, Football League and Premier League 2.
If you could swap jobs with anyone for a day, who would it be? (internally)
Ikunyemi – I can turn my hand to most roles in the business, but the one I would struggle with and wish I had learned was coding. I may well sit down to try and learn key languages one day.
Ikunyemi leads our development team and has done an amazing job building the system from scratch – his knowledge is incredible. I’d do a terrible job trying to do his job for the day, but I could occupy his desk and try to look busy staring at some black screens of code!
Want to connect with Wayne Cartmel and learn more about how MyNewTerm is transforming school recruitment? You can reach out here.
