HRGuru

I've notice quite a few of our members are listing themselves as considering HR.  Maybe we could get the ball rolling by asking them why they're considering HR.  What is it that appeals to you? 

Have you thought about what specialization you might be interested in?  I would see having a background in psychology as a positive.  Do you see yourself in the labour relations area?

Human Resources is such a wide field - so much depends on the flavour of the area you pursue.  I agree that some background in Psychology would be an asset but rounding in other areas help.  I entered this field and found my coursework in Sociology and Anthropology a bonus.  It is not enough to be able to just listen to needs.  You need to be able to communicate (observe what is being said, write, assess, and give options) in writing (a lot of emails) - we live in such an electronic age.  I have found prospective and new employees like to use electronic media to get advice.  This means no body language is available - just the computer.   Learning how to use an email with plain language helps to understand what is being asked and makes giving advice useful - goes a long way.  Coursework in sociology is a way you can learn proper framing of issues facing people.  It helped me a lot in counselling people.  For me, the key is learn to listen to the words, write, analyze, and keep listening an writing.    

The threads I have read thus far on many HR forums indicated that many who seek to enter HR were looking for roles within a functional area in a HR department/group.  Not all companies have HR departments and if they do, many HR departments are lean with limited, and perhaps non existent budgets to even pay minimum wage. And even if one is willing to work for free, there is no one available in the lean HR department to train/supervise.

My suggestion for entry-level job seekers is to look beyond landing a position in the HR department. 

• Volunteer with non-profit organizations or even with HR associations/chapters ( I volunteered with a non-profit and ended up developing training materials for other volunteers). 


• Approach staffing firms who are willing to hire and train entry-level recruiters. 


• Do not miss out on the consulting firms that offer various HR services, from software applications to training.  They would need people with HR education and knowledge. 


• Secretarial positions with smaller companies, will also expose one to all aspects of HR, e..g office administration,  people management, job postings, arranging interviews etc.  (I filled in for a maternity leave of absence as the assistant to the manager, and though it was neither a HR position nor in a HR department, the HR in me made me suggest to my boss of having a monthly employee newsletter as a communication tool. I designed and implemented the newsletter, and it became an employee communications project, keeping employees engaged which is a key area for any HR employee responsible for retention and communications.)

It is a cliche, but we have to think out of the box.

Good luck!

Hopefully, here are some interesting things for those considering HR.   When I began my business career some 30 years ago I had a theory from working during the summer with some of my dad's business associates that a well run company doesn't really need an HR department or, at least, not much of one.    In my opinion there are two reasons why HR departments exist:  A) Bad managers and B) Government regulations, which in my personal opinion is often over-regulation.     Bad management supports HR by creating risk and matters of employee relations and litigation creates the need for excessive employee motivation, increases the need for excessive monetary and near-monetary incentives, and creates wonderful agendas for developing, justifying, and delivering great training (of both the managers who need to be taught to be good managers and employees who need to be taught what the lousy managers can't or won't teach them.)   Governmental regulations create either enough compliance requirements to sustain a small army of employees, overburden both actual management and HR staff with complex, confusing, and often irrational requirements, most of which detract from running the business thereby making it less profitable and more likely that lay offs will occur in the competitive environments we now exist in, and also breed a need for managment and employee training (most training managers on how to let professional HR staff have the authority and responsibility for handling HR things in a manner that will help the business make a profit and sustain itself and mostly training employees about how rotten employers are and how to sue them, thereby making the company less profitable again and still further enhancing the likelihood of a business collapse.)

What's said above is not as tongue-in-cheek as you would imagine.  But it is what makes HR fun.  HR is a maze, a quagmire, a delicate ballet, boring paperwork, tedious counting, exciting people relationships, danger, intrigue, mystery, suspense, and forensics.  HR is both rewarding and punishing and a perfect place for those with a touch of S&M who have been trained in both business management and HR.  Most of all HR is people, about people, and for people, by people....like you and me.    It's getting people to work together, helping them stay working together and helping them all to work better with greater efficiency, less hassles and for more profitability and for creating greater business opportunities.  HR is not for the faint of heart, at least not at the upper levels.

Advice for getting in?.....  If all you want to do is get an HR job, go the secretary route, apply for HR adminstrator and learn how to do payroll, enroll benefits, set schedules and write employee newsletters.   You'll be great and completely inundated with tons of tedious paperwork and you'll probably have a job for as long as you can stand it.

If you have HR education but no experience, how to get in? ...... Get a job, but not in HR.  Find a business where you can invest a few years into managing, handling marketing, handling public relations, building a product by having a manufacturing team, selling a product profitably by managing a sales force.  Make a profit, hire your own employees and fire the ones you made mistakes in hiring.  Keep yourself out of a lawsuit.     WHY ???? 

Because HR suffers frequently from a lack of respect from senior managers and executives.  They see HR as the compliance, government mandated functions; they see HR as the people who "hold the employees" hands and make them feel good.  They DON'T see HR as a business partner.  Education in HR is not enough.  Time spent in HR positions is not enough.  People who advance into senior level HR professionals learn how to be good managers of business and also learn how to be good managers themselves.  They learn how to teach others these same principles and they have also learned a lot about the signficantly vast and complex field of HR knowledge and that too they have mastered and can share effectively with others.

When the business people of the company you work for see you as and respect for a business partner, who happens to be in the HR department, then you know you have arrived.

I have my 4-year degree in art history with a business management minor (arts management specialization; back when I thought I was going to get my PhD in art history and become a curator; times have changed since then) and have since worked in workers' compensation claims adjusting /administration for the last 9 years. I'm still considering w/c claims (or just claims adjusting in general; I've been applying for auto claims adjusting positions as well) as an option but have also thought of branching out into HR, most likely either health/safety, recruiting, or benefits administration. In general, I'm looking for more of a partnership between myself and employees; the mercenary aspect of the claims adjusting function is starting to get to me a bit. However, I did get a chance to further develop my organizational and problem-solving skills, which sounds like it should be useful for the types of positions I'm considering.

I have applied for a few entry-level staffer positions at employment agencies (I just started my job search a few weeks ago after taking approx. a month off to relocate out of state for my SO's career and get the house in order), but haven't heard anything back yet. It seems like there's almost nothing in the way of entry-level HR currently available in my area, and relocation isn't an option.

Do you have any recommendations as to how to leverage any other useful skills I do have that I may be overlooking, or how to develop other skills that would be useful in an HR career?

Thanks much!

Hi Tracyj11 !  Welcome to HR Guru!

As a hiring professional I'd like to give you my personal opinion on your question.  Since you don't know me well, you'll find that I tend to be very frank, up front, and sometimes uncompromisingly honest in my opinions and advice.  I'd rather be guilty of giving you what I truly believe to be the "straight scoop" as I see it than giving you plattitudes as you have too much at stake.

Your exeperience in Work Comp claims adjustment will be a perfect background for areas of risk management in larger companies.  Many large companies hire ex-WCadjusters to work in their risk management department to be the intermediary with the leave specialists and the insurance companies handling the claim.   To me, this would be the perfect entry into the HR department and would likely not result in a salary reduction and in fact may warrant a good increase or at least some performance bonuses based on your ROI for the work you perform.

You don't say a lot about how much management experience you have, so it's hard to say more on that issue.    WC adjustment, while an excellent connection to the risk management area is not directly related to most of the other aspects of HR such as recruiting, employee relations, benefit administration, performance management, OD, training, etc.   You could link your experience to leave of absence administration and possibly, once learning some of those regs, shoot for leave administration type positions.  Health and Safety is a good link although, unless you participated in more than just adjusting duties, such as risk reviews, safety training, ergonomics, hazardous materials, you may have some catching up to do in those areas.

If you have good organization, attention to detail, which I would say are probably "given" talents of your current job, and you seem to have a knack for reading people you might try recruitment, although it may be hard to find a position without prior recruitment experience.    One nice thing about recruitment though, is you may be able to find a position that will let you grow as you succeed.  The growth curve is steep and most recruiting companies don't hang on to people who can't produce, so be forewarned.

I would suggest narrowing your interest and looking for some good materials to do some self-study.  SHRM (The Society for Human Resource Management) has a great bookstore with lots of titles in all the specialties in the HR arena, which is very broad.   Also, some net surfing for articles and papers will help you get your feet wet in the new areas.   This commitment can then be translated to knowledge that can be used in the interviews and in applying for positions.  It will also help you take the more intimate business details of your experience and work them into this new knowledge.

I don't know about your area, but there are a lot of people looking for HR jobs right now.  It seems like that may be true all over.  So it's a volume game, you have to be applying constantly.

A final thought is to think of small employers who may not be able to afford highly experienced HR professionals.  They may want to bring in someone to build a department over time and you have a very key skill in WC claims to help a growing company avoid some costly pitfalls.

Good luck and keep us posted on your search or on other questions or advice you need.

Hang in there!  There are cycles in HR jobs and we're in a down cycle right now.  It will pick up.  Remember "action X frequency = success!"

donnawong says ...

I just rec'd my BS in Technical Mgmt and am now pursuing my Masters in HR.  I picked HR b/c I thought I felt that if I could just help my fellow employees w/payroll or their benefits, it would relieve them of questions.  I wanted to make sure they were heard and taken care of.  I did payroll and the benefits for a couple of years till the position was no longer needed.  But since I have been w/the company, I can not get any further than where I am.  I am looking to transition from my retail experience but I find it very hard for employers to look past that.  W/out any expericence, I am finding it very difficult to get my foot in the door to anything.  I am on a very tight budget and on limited time (I am still in school and working f/t and am a single parent). 

I guess what I am asking is what do you think should be my next step?

Thank you.

It really is difficult to change careers, even with a degree.  You can get stuck in a place called "over-qualified and under-experienced".  What I would suggest is for you to shop around for a good head-hunting agency so that you can get a representative to go to bat for you with companies.  Even if you have to pay a fee, it would be worth it to get your foot in the door.  Sometimes the prospective employer will pay the fee.  If you're within six months of finishing your masters, you could begin that process now.  Companies do look at prospective hires who have great manuscripts, so the better your marks, the greater your chances.  With the proper guidance from your representative at the agency, you can get around all of the interview questions about your past field and your transition into the new one.  This is pretty crucial, so don't skip that step!  Make sure you have an agency that is there to work for you.

Paula, I am finishing up my BS/BM from UOP in February. I love the online environment as well, but have decided to pursue my MBA at a brick and mortar campus. Ok enough about me, Toyia, it sounds like you have some HR background. I am curious if you would consider yourself to have a core competency in any specific area in HR or do you like a particular area of HR. If so, that may be where you want to focus your efforts.

Originally I didn't know what area of HR I wanted to pursue, but worked in the benefits arena and gained a core competency in benefits. From there having the opportunity to be a generalist allowed me to learned my strengths and areas for development. My passion is employee relations, but have the ability to fall right back into benefits, training, recruitment, worker's comp. admin. training development, etc...based on my prior experience. Many members have recommended that when someone is looking to enter the field to start out in an administrative role, which I totally agree with, however based on the details that you have given, you may be able to develop a resume that demonstrates competency in the HR field. So I would suggest evaluating your prior experience and develop a plan from there.

You've come to the right place.  This really is a great group of professionals who are completely willing to share their knowledge and experience.  I think the fact that it's online gives them the opportunity to do it at a time when they are able to devote full concentration to what is needed, so you'll get a very high quality of mentoring from that, as well.  Just let us all know what questions or concerns you have, and we'll do our best to help.

I am 1st Yr. MBA student(Bangalore,India) and will take HR as specialisation in 2nd yr.

Background:: Bachelor in Computer Application(3yrs course::2004-07), Microsoft Certified System Engineer 2003, Microsoft Certified Professional.

I got work ex of 10 monthes in my brother's BPO(US Mortguage), which was closed early this year because of Sub-Prime crisis.

I was working as System Administrator as well as Business Development Officer, Dealing with clients over payouts.

Will this experience be counted??  what should be the path to be followed, for a fresher llike me, in order to prepare myself for the industry?   Also i have an option of studying for a term in University of Central Florida. Will it be a good option? especially in terms of the loans i wil be taking to fund it(Value for money).

I joined this site today and its great to be here.

Regards;

Nishant

thanks.

My course didn't have major/minors. it was only about computer languages and similar stuff. although i studied MIS & OB in 2nd yr....

I have done calling in BPO at times, i can listen a lot without loosing my temper... .My college has a tie up with UCF for student transfer for 1 term..Here in India, we have few institutions which are really famous for HR, Some for Fin. and like that..Is there a similar case in US? where a university is more renowned for its "specific" course....yes.i am ready to take any entry level jobs also...at an avg., we are getting around $12'000+(CTC)  at placements in our last term(by Indian companies)...But the major concern is the quantam of knowledge i will need to excel and for that i am ready to learn anything, anywhere..