Hot Seat: Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan Taylor

What was your first job and how did you get into IT?
I left university in 1994 with a BSc in astronomy and astrophysics. I was recruited to a graduate scheme at Interconnection Systems as a product engineer and a few weeks later I found myself administering a large network of HP-UX workstations. I have been fascinated by infrastructure ever since.

Which mobile device do you currently use?
I use an HTC Touch Pro. However, reading email on an iPhone is much more pleasing and I hope it will continue to develop as a corporate platform.

How often do you check it?
Since owning my first BlackBerry many years ago, I have learned to be selective with email on the move. I only see “sent to me” messages on my mobile, not messages where I am cc’d. I also limit real-time delivery outside working hours.

If you were not in IT, what job would you be doing?
My second choice of career was medicine. However, I would love to be fit and skilled enough be a fell top assessor for a winter season; ascending Helvellyn daily to report on conditions for climbers.

Which technology would you most like to have invented?
Pioneering the use of NMR for medical imaging – fascinating science at the forefront of IT capability, but with a fundamentally human application.

Is now a good time for people to enter the UK IT profession?
Yes, although I can see this landscape changing over the course of the next generation. As more services are provided from the cloud, IT will become less about the underlying technologies and more about finding the right solution for the business. The IT professional of tomorrow will require less infrastructure expertise but sharper business analysis skills.