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Need Advice – At a Pivot Point
I am at a pivot point in my career where I want to assist people during the hiring, on-boarding, firing, and down-sizing time of their careers. I have experience managing people, teams and departments during the sourcing, hiring, developing, firing and even down-sizing stages, however, I have not held an “HR” position. How can I move into this area?
Hello Yvonne! Having management experience will be a great help for any HR role! There are a few things you can do to move into HR.
It sounds like you are interested in essentially all aspects of HR which would mean you would want to look for Generalist positions. This may mean taking a step down in rank and pay for a bit, though, so you will have to consider if you are willing/able to do so. Generalists do a little bit of all of it though and will be a great way to learn a lot very quickly without requiring a lot of HR experience. Joingin your local SHRM chapter and considering a certification may also be helpful. Even if you don't take the certification test yet, if you start studying you can put on your resume "seeking PHR or SHRM certification" it will at least show your initiative in that area and they may be able to cover costs. (these may be required by a specific employer but they are not legally required to work in HR)
If you cannot step down for a bit consider trying to get in in a more specific area that you have the most transferable skills in. If you've done a lot of training as a manager look for supervisory training/development roles. If you have been heavily involved in interviewing, look for talent acquisition roles. This will help you get "in" to HR and from there you may have more opportunities to explore, find a mentor and learn more. It is difficult to gain experience outside of HR because the department can only give so much access to other employees, even managers.
Having said that though, whichever path you choose, reach out to people! People you know, people you don't know but are in positions you *might* be interested in and ask them questions to learn more. I was working for the front office of a hotel and started setting up meetings with various HR leaders to pick their brains about what they do to figure out what I wanted. I initially thought I wanted to be the HR rep for a location (the person you go to with issues) but ended up falling in love with development. Then I started raising my hand for whatever work they could give me. Even just helping them with a monthly newsletter helped to put my name into their department consistently. Networking is soo worthwhile and you don't have to be sure of which direction you are going. I have heard people make an excuse not to reach out to a manager because "it wasn't a good time for them to change jobs". That's just crazy, a conversation is not a commitment to taking a new job.. but it could be an investment for when a future opportunity arises!
Best of luck, HR is a crazy world but I love it! You will have the opportunities to make great impacts on peoples lives.
Hello Kimmie,
Thanks for your response, I greatly appreciate your guidance and candor. I've reached out to a few friends and have informational interviews/meetings scheduled.
I have experience selecting, interviewing potential employees as well as vetting and managing supplier diversity vendors.
I'd love to chat with you if you have time to share your experience with me.
Thanks again.
Yvonne