I’m fascinated by why. Yes, was one of those kids that drove her mom crazy by asking why the sky is blue, why the grass is green, why I have to go to bed at 8pm.
One of my new favorite why questions is ‘Why HR?’ or rather ‘How did you get to where you are in HR?’
I asked my boss over dinner the other night and wasn’t surprised by her answer. She attended an EEO hearing via her former line of work and thought “I can do that”. She went back college, got her masters, and with an HR gig here and an HR gig there, welcome to present day.
I know others that knew from the start, HR was their thing; others sort of fell into it through other departments. I was one of those that fell into HR. As much as I love what I do now, when I started down what has become my career path, the last thing I wanted to do was HR. I was so against it that I almost missed out on the opportunity to take the road not taken.
It wasn’t that I was afraid of the work or the people, I just didn’t want what I perceived as the burden of knowing everything about the employees I worked with every day. As things like that go, you either hate or you love it and clearly I loved it, otherwise we’d be talking about loan policies or the Bank Secrecy Act. #CreditUnionsRule!
Present day, I love my job and my work. That’s why I’m in HR, because I enjoy it. There are so many facets of HR that to be a true Generalist, to know and have worked all the possible avenues (if that’s even possible), would take fifteen forevers. The amount of learning never stops growing. Yes you can fill up on FMLA, FLSA, OSHA, etc until your head a splodes. But as technology changes, so does the profession and that brings on new applications and new avenues to explore. It’s not boring.
So that’s the answer to ‘Why HR?’ and even to some extent, ‘How I got here.’
Why are you in HR?
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I worked my way into HR by getting a Master’s degree in HRD. But, I’m in HR because I understand the people aspect of running a business.
April- Great Food for thought…. I am one of those who Fell into HR. Even back in my retail management days at our meetings, none of my co workers wanted anything to do with HR, and I always Volunteered! I think after I retired from Retail, I still had the HR Bug, I am a people person, and always loved the Challenges of Hiring, firing, and everything else packaged in that Sandwich I call the HR. Special of the Day!
Currently seeking my next opportunity in HR,, Will keep u posted, on what develops!
Keep up the good work!
Shennee
@Bonita – What made you decide to get your Masters in HRD?
@Shennee – Shennee it sounds like you have a passion for HR. I hope you find that next opportunity soon so you can get back in the groove
Great piece! I also fell into HR after having worked in Corporate Communications. My wife is trying so hard to get into HR in her company – and to no avail. I’m actually on a panel next week to discuss this very topic with undergraduates at my alma mater, and I’m having trouble coming up with more than 2 or 3 suggestions on how to “get into HR”.
@HRobot – Has she expressed an interest with the HR department? I’m assuming she has and they’re just being mean
Getting involved with the local chapter or a student chapter is a great way to network, volunteer or internships would be another. What suggestions do you already have?
She certainly has – it’s tough b/c her company only has 1 HR rep for all of NJ – 3 offices! They don’t have a robust HR department, so unfortunately she’ll have to pursue external opportunities – most likely w/ a significant pay cut. Oh well, the price we pay for following dreams. Thanks for the suggestions and the twitter love! We’ll definitely keep searching for the right opportunity for her – pursuing a Master’s degree in HR seems to be the best option we have right now
Working in the smaller HR department makes breaking into it that much harder. The Masters is a great step. Has she considered taking an internship somewhere? The pay will be significantly lower but the experience will be worth it.
Why Not HR? (Happens to be my first blog post)
There is a growing realization that people are the most important asset that an organization possesses. Human talent has become the differentiating factor among competitors across all industries. The competitive advantage that arises from the talent has a greater impact than from the other resources which are getting largely commoditized, as in they are easily replicable.
Change has allowed HR’s value proposition to move from being an administrative function to being a business partner. The function is now moving focus from just do-ables to deliverables.
With due respect to the challenges faced by other functions, I would like to draw a comparison with a few of them, in order to negate the impression of HR as a cost function.
Like in marketing they sell products to the external customers of the brand, in HR today we sell the company to both the external (the talent/employee pool) and internal customers i.e the employees through employer branding phenomenon.
In the world of finance, we have equity leading to asset productivity which in turn leads to profit, similarly in HR, we have investments in Talent management leading to talent development which in turn leads to an organization’s strategic success.
As in Supply Chain Management, in HR too you make and buy to manage risk, adapt to uncertainty in demand, aim at an improved ROI in developing employees, preserve the investment by balancing
employee-employer relationships as talent development is a perishable commodity.
Selection today is the most important purchase decision that a company makes. Investment in talent development is the most strategic investment of any organization.
Hence, this strategic function, namely HR, now provides us with the opportunity to face one of the toughest challenges in the economy, increasingly being recognized as The Talentship Challenge. This is not about developing people and creating succession plans. It is about meeting the objectives of the company which in business terms amounts to making money for the company, a common goal we all strive towards.