When work isn’t work

October 2009

Since graduating from Monash University, Hilda Carmichael (BBusSys 1994) has had an interesting career which she says has never felt like work.

She is now a senior manager with KPMG in the UK providing IT advisory services to clients implementing SAP as part of a major business transformation program.

Hilda says she knew she wanted to work in the IT industry when it was an emerging field in 1988 – the year she was finishing at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College in Bentleigh.

“I was fortunate that during my final year in high school, the careers office had brochures for Bachelor of Business Systems and IT scholarships at Monash,” Hilda says. She obtained a scholarship.

She was drawn to IT by the potential for employment, the salaries and the fact that it was not female dominated.

“I have never looked back … till this day, I wake up and go to work but it doesn’t feel like work."

Using her project management skills, Hilda reviews her “client’s program governance, project management processes, skills and capabilities, and third party implementation partner management to ensure they are optimally structured to meet the program cost and benefit profile”.

She spends much of her time commuting between Leeds, Sheffield and London and working from her satellite office in Reading - the closest location to her home in Windsor.

“As a senior manager, I have tangible performance targets in three areas – utilisation of client work of approximately 75 per cent of my hours per week; sales and managed revenue of approximately £1.5 million per year; and mentoring or coaching two to three staff members,” she says.

Once Hilda completed her Bachelor of Business Systems degree at Monash, she targeted small-to-medium sized firms that would allow her to be part of all aspects of the business for about five years. She then worked in software development, technical consulting and pre-sales support. She later moved to consulting including with Deloitte Consulting.

In August 2004, Hilda transferred to London with her husband, Tim, and started working with BP International.

“I truly admire BP in developing and grooming true leaders,” she says. “I enjoyed the diversity of leading teams across many cultures and varied personal motivations.”

In September 2008, Hilda moved to KPMG as a senior manager.

“I was headhunted for a consulting role with KPMG,” she says. “Knowing that my ultimate career aim is to become an IT Director or CIO, I needed the change.”

Hilda says she has been fortunate to have had, and have, great mentors: Julia Finan who placed her in all her roles in Australia; Steve Avery who has advised her on how to balance work and life; and Judy Hall. Based in the USA, Judy “has provided me with sound advice on my internal moves in BP and ultimately about joining KPMG”.

But her key mentor is her husband: “His ability to view situations from a different dimension, to push me to obtain clarity of messages and to always remind me to listen to my inner voice and follow my intuition has helped me enormously.”