2

Is embarking on a complete sector & career change not necessary the right answer but any job the best solution?

Or can the exact difficulties that one faces in first breaking into HR and then subsequently advancing in HR be just experienced and replicated in any other profession nowadays?
Be it Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, Events, Communications, Media, Journalism, Law, Accountancy, Investment Banking, Learning and Development et al, they are all fiercely competitive areas where candidate demand outstrips vacancy supply. It is mainly the stem professions and medicine which have global skill shortages. 
In my personal and professional experiences, having ‘a job’ nowadays, indeed any type of job on any level including working in Starbucks, is no longer an automatic given, just translates into practice or comes at all easily. It is actually a privilege to have ‘any’ full time 9-5 that you get up in the morning to go out to and get paid on the 28th of each month for. You have to compete against many other candidates for any and all types of work, especially if it is permanent and not a fixed term contract. 
Is therefore the answer and solution to stick at something and see it through as the longer you are in a profession things can change overtime, particularly if you look at the various barriers to entry in other professions and whether they would actually take you with no prior experience? 
Feel free to agree or disagree on this point, but I feel that pursuing a long term career in HR on just the junior levels is far preferable to the alternative, which is attending JobCentre Plus once a fortnight. Been there, seen it, done it and did it, and once you are in that situation, it can be very difficult to break out of.
Thus, if the clear choice is between ‘a job’ or ‘the dole,’ is the former always preferable as regardless of the level and nature of the role, even the lowest level jobs pay more than Jobseekers Allowance? 
In addition, do most people in reality and practice really get what they want? 
In summary, what I am really saying here is that as jobs never come easily and getting any type of work nowadays is so difficult, it is still an achievement in my view to spend an entire career in a profession even on the lower levels, if otherwise one would have been near continuously and long term unemployed. You also have some money in your pocket as well to do a few things, which is still considerably more than the DWP pays.  
* Make and carve out a long term career on the lower levels if you cannot get the more advanced in short. * 
You ultimately take what you can get and you either can or cannot get certain types of and / or levels of jobs. If you can, you can and if you can’t, you can’t.
It is a ‘labour market’ and an 'employers market' after all. Buying and selling and like a car or a house, every role has a certain value attached to it. There are jobs and jobs. 
Any thoughts to add?
223 views
  • Andre
    This is yet another one of your questions which only you can answer for yourself. I can give you MY opinion but it won't change anything at all for you. Or would you take my advice based on my background, experience and an unknown (to you) employment background and nil career aspirations - I'm most retired!. :-)
  • You present a dichotomy which is I think a false one. The choice between a long term career at the junior levels or long term unemployment. I think from that false dichotomy colours the rest of your arguments.

    I think there is nothing wrong with someone believing that for them work is simply a means to pay the bills and its what is outside of work that is important. Many people hold this view. I also think we have record employment meaning the labour market for many isn't as bleak as you portray.

    I think there is nothing wrong with someone deciding that the junior levels of a profession are the right place for them and the height of their aspirations. Not everyone has the talent or ability to progress to the very top and we all have to recognise where our talent, effort and perseverance will take us. Accepting that many of us have a plateau beyond which we will struggle to go. Recognising our own limitations is a vital route to our own mental well being.

    But that doesn't mean that my counsel to most people wouldn't be (a) find a job or profession you love/like and (b) try and progress in that as far as your talent and ambition goes. For me thats the route to a satisfied and healthy working life.

    Generally if an individuals talent, effort and ability isn't prospering in one field the reason maybe that that individual is simply in the wrong profession. You can continue in that profession and as you say potentially stay at the more junior levels and as long as the individual is getting satisfaction and not frustrated by their inability to progress then great. However if progression is important to that individual then finding a path and a profession where their particular mix of talents and skills is recognised would (for me at least) be a better long term option and certainly more attractive than staying in the other role or the dole.