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Women in IT - Rhona Hutchon

Rhona Hutchon | Wednesday August 13, 2008



Rhona Hutchon is Director of Harvey Nash Plc, a global professional recruitment consultancy and IT outsourcing provider. Their market leading IT recruitment business provides clients with highly skilled IT specialists for contract and permanent roles, and the very best executive talent for board level and senior IT appointments. The group is a trusted advisor to some of the world’s leading business, governments and institutions. Harvey Nash has recently added an Edinburgh office to their existing global network of 30 offices which cover the USA, Europe and Asia.


Hi-Tech Scotland (HTS): Describe your current role.

Rhona Hutchon (RH): I’m the Director of Harvey Nash in Scotland and only recently joined the company to set up the business here in Edinburgh. My role is to oversee the financial, strategic and operational management of the business with a strong focus on developing client relationships. I’m still very hands-on and carry out recruitment of senior roles for clients, so I spend a lot of my time networking and meeting candidates. As anyone who has been part of a start-up will know, no two days are the same.

HTS: When did you first become interested in technology as a career?

RH: After graduating from Glasgow University, I went to work in Barcelona and returned to Scotland in 1998 at the start of the pre-millennium technology boom and started working in IT recruitment. I didn’t have a technical degree or any real technical aptitude apart from some early programming on my Commodore 64! What really appealed to me was how fast paced the IT industry was and the variety of roles and uses for technology in industry. I am really lucky as I get to speak with a wide variety of companies and it gives me in a great view of emerging trends and technologies. I have a low boredom threshold, so the ever changing aspect of the technology industry suits me.

HTS: Do you think that being a woman has ever been an advantage or disadvantage to you in your career?

RH: I can’t say it has ever been something I’ve really noticed, although people probably remember a woman at IT networking events more easily as they are still in the minority. I’ve always found the IT industry in Scotland friendly and inclusive and have always felt judged on my ability to deliver rather than anything else.

HTS: What can be done to encourage more women to consider careers in technology?

RH: Well, something needs to be done as we are seeing fewer young women walking through our doors than I did 10 years ago. Harvey Nash is really passionate about female equality in the workplace and a couple of weeks ago we hosted a conference featuring Cherie Blair talking about “Diversity & Women in Business in the emerging economies”. I think there is still a lot companies could do to tackle work/life issues, which in fairness is not just an issue for women, but this would help retain female talent. A lot more needs to be done at schools and universities to demonstrate that careers in technology span a huge range of possibilities. As IT departments become increasingly focused on enabling the business, rather than focusing on purely technical issues, the IT professionals of the future will need a wider range of skills. Successful IT people will be people who can understand the business, promote technology to the business, establish relationships, empathise and mentor.

HTS: What are the ‘hot’ topics or issues among your client base at the moment?

RH: At Harvey Nash, we commission an annual report on this very topic from Senior IT stakeholders throughout the UK then feed back the results through a series of focused events, and we will be starting to hold these in Scotland. The event we ran last month had opinions from Gordon Lovell-Reed, CIO of Siemens, Nigel Underwood, CIO of DHL, John Sillitoe, Interim CIO of Mouchel and Jonathan Merry, CIO of Pfizer. Interesting that there were no women amongst the group!
One “hot” topic the panel discussed was a concern around the lack of leadership skills in the IT function. It was observed that the standard career path in IT has radically changed. It’s no longer sufficient to learn functional skills – being politically savvy was high on the agenda of functional leaders. Knowing how to influence and negotiate with demanding business owners around the deployment of resources in favour of new and emerging markets was a challenge that IT leaders are faced with. To this end many of our speakers said that to be a leader in IT (CIO or equivalent) people should pick up general management experience.


HTS: Do you have any remaining ambitions – career-based or otherwise?

RH: Setting up Harvey Nash in Scotland is allowing me to fulfil my greatest career ambition which has always been to build and grow my own business. My father had his own engineering business so it must be in the blood! This was just the ideal opportunity for me as it allows me to start something from scratch and build a really high quality Scottish business but link in to the benefits of being part of a global organisation. I hope to make Harvey Nash the obvious port of call for IT companies and professionals looking for a really good service. I also want to make it a great place for my team to work.
As for personal ambitions – well, I have just had 3 months gardening leave between jobs and was amazed how easily I filled my days. I got really into running and did a lot of sport and I travelled, and saw a lot more of friends and family. My ambition is that I manage to keep doing some of those things and it doesn’t become all work and no play!

www.harveynash.com

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