Renee has more than 30 years of experience in technology, starting her career in the US Army Signal Corp, then moving into the private sector after getting her MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Compare the Market, the UK's leading Price Comparison company.
In this podcast episode, Renee Hunt discusses the importance of tech in business leadership and the need for more opportunities for tech professionals to move into leadership roles. She also emphasizes the value of a broad skill set and the need for patience and grace in learning. Hunt also shares her plans to start a podcast and write a book. The podcast also includes community comments on previous episodes, including discussions on unconscious bias and the power of introverted communication. Throughout the conversation, Hunt talks about the importance of a diverse workforce and how having people with different backgrounds and skills brings a unique perspective to problem-solving in the tech industry. She also shares her experience of being a woman of color in the tech industry and how she faced challenges due to unconscious bias. Hunt advises early career devs to be the best engineers they can be and acquire a wide range of skills, making them more employable and valuable in the industry. She encourages tech professionals to consider leadership roles and move beyond their technical expertise to develop other skills necessary for leadership. Towards the end of the podcast, Hunt discusses her plans to start a podcast and write a book, and how she wants to use these platforms to share her experiences and insights with others in the tech industry. The podcast episode also includes community comments on previous episodes, including discussions on unconscious bias and the power of introverted communication.
[00:00:00] Welcome back to part two of the Leadership episodes of Glowing In Tech with Renee Hunt. Last week we spoke to Renee about her journey into leadership and how she became the Chief Technology officer of Compare the Market. We also spoke to her about the challenges she faced in her early career.
Something that you've spoken about a few times is mentorship and kind of, that seems to have played a big part in how you've. Your career and like your trajectory, would you be able to tell us a little bit about that? Cause I know that something that can be tricky is like both finding a good mentor, but also like maintaining relationships and, and knowing where to look for mentors.
So definitely, I mean, I. I don't know that I, uh, well, um, I had a, um, I've been married once before. My ex-husband's dad was a very, very successful man, and he was successful in business as well. So he was my first sort of role model, and I was the only one of his. You know, extended children base that even cared about [00:01:00] that.
So he was happy to, to mentor me. Now he's my father-in-law. I don't, we didn't call it that, but I, when I look back on the kinds of conversations that I had with him that weren't about family, I. It was mentoring. You know, read these books, do these things, learn to play golf, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's how a board works.
I mean, I grew up working class in America. I didn't know what boards were. Mm-hmm. Right? And I didn't know black people could be on them. And he was on like massive boards. And I'm like, you get paid to take a meeting five days a year. Like yeah, he got paid more than me. And you take meetings five days a year, you tell a girl how this works.
Um, and so that was my first mentor and I think. That allowed. And he talked about his mentors and the people he mentored. So that was like the first in like introduction I had to mentoring and that that was a thing. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, we'll be forever grateful for that. And then over time I've collected people I.
That I've either worked [00:02:00] for or worked with and a and when that relationship was broken, I asked them to mentor me so that I could keep him in my lives. I think it's really difficult to ask your boss to mentor you cuz it just is a weird dynamic, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sponsor you. Yes. Mentor you? No. And I need mentors who have nothing to gain from what they're gonna tell me.
Or from the relationship perf like other than the, the feeling it gives them inside to mm-hmm. To share and help somebody else. Um, which is fabulous by the way. So I always mentor other people cuz that just makes me feel really good to watch them succeed. Mm-hmm. And to know you're like, I raised that one.
That one's all right. That one's cool. That one will be okay. Um, so my mentors have been, I have usually have a couple at a time. Um, I'll be really honest, almost. I've had like two black mentors in my whole career and I'm on 37 years now. Mm-hmm. Um, [00:03:00] but, uh, you know, white men are in the rooms that are making decisions and mentors should also be looking out for opportunities for you.
Mm-hmm. You know, so make peace with that until we overcome, um, make peace with that because, There won't be enough black or female mentors to go around and if you have a good chemistry with somebody or you work for somebody who actually cares about you and wants to see you succeed, shouldn't care what from short form, sometimes you have to educate them.
Mm-hmm. They say stupid things like they don't care what color you are. I'm like, we can agree to disagree. Yeah. I'm sure. That wasn't the reason I'm like, mm-hmm. No, and that, you know, having somebody who. Can talk about intersectionality as helpful, but it's more helpful to have somebody who truly cares about you.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. And I mean, I had a meltdown with my mentor not long, like a while back, not since I joined c t m have [00:04:00] talked about me, but I mean, I called him in a panic when I was promoted saying I can't do this. And he's like, it's not like you to have imposter syndrome. I'm like, it's not imposter syndrome.
It's like, I can't do it. Don't know anything about this and this and this and this. He's like, well, you can learn, duh. Um, but he's known me long enough that I could call somebody and have a meltdown. Yeah, yeah. And know that's not going anywhere except I just told him. Everybody mountain? No shaking. Uh, no.
Yeah, that's important because you can't always be confident and bold when you are making these big decisions and you're trying to figure out where you fit and, and you're having to learn. Um, so yeah. And you have to be able to tell somebody like, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like if you do that in your organization, I would hope that most.