The architect of head-hunting
Gina McLellan is managing director for recruitment and contracting in Asia at Talent2, where her responsibilities include people management, operations, sales, financial management, commercial strategy and business plan accountability.
But it was not always thus – McLellan began her professional life as an architect, and holds a bachelor of design studies and a bachelor of architecture from Australia’s University of Queensland.
For McClellan, however, the two professions are highly complementary, and being trained to think creatively has helped her become a non-traditional recruitment consultant.
“To tell the truth, I actually think that is one of the things that has allowed me to become successful,” she says. “In architecture, you spend a lot of time finding solutions. You can pretty much employ that anywhere. I’m not a standard recruiter, I didn’t come to the industry with a preconceived notion of what that meant. I came with a very open mind.”
McLellan graduated in 1992, and had her own design studio by the age of 26. But feeling the need to do something different, she took a job in pharmaceutical sales and marketing – which taught her a lot about business management and sales strategy.
From there, she was offered a job in Melbourne with recruitment consultants Morgan & Banks, becoming their general manager in Queensland at the age of 33. McLellan moved to Hong Kong in 2006 with a job at the firm that later became Hudson, with her one-year-old daughter in tow. “I didn’t know anybody, but it just seemed like a fantastic opportunity, not just for myself but for her. I was a single mum. It’s just been the best thing I ever did,” she says.
Finding that the Hong Kong recruitment market was so closely tied to the ups and downs of the financial markets was something of a surprise, McLellan says. “If it’s a boom, we’re booming. If it’s a downturn, we’re having challenges. So probably the most difficult thing is the external market,” she says.
McLellan has a particular interest in work-life integration and women in leadership, and just as she enjoyed watching architectural projects unfold, so does she derive similar satisfaction from seeing careers take flight.
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