Impossible with a capital 'i' to advance in the HR profession?

You have the CIPD 7, Associate Membership of the body, an MSc in International HRM, are considering a PhD in HR / Occupational Psychology and have four years experience working as an HR Administrator.

However, despite of all of that, you basically still can’t get above HR Administrator level to the next level or get an HR Advisor’s level role.

Part of the issue is that they don’t take on Trainee / Junior HR Advisor’s (or indeed Trainee / Junior HRBP’s) and you can’t get the necessary experience in an HR Administrator’s role to get the HR Advisor’s job.

You volunteer outside hours as an HR Advisor and as a CIPD Mentor, and attend all the events in your branch, but it still does not count or is officially recognised as a formal paid 9-5 role to make the cut.

It’s also one of those scenarios that it just does not ever happen for / to you how many applications you ever make, so are any of the following viable options to take instead:

(1) Come to terms with it and make a life long career as an HR Administrator instead, or as a Senior HR Administrator, aiming to be the very best that you can be at that;

(2) Pull completely out of the HR profession as a whole and change career sectors, professions and pathways, starting out again  from zero;

(3) Emigrate and see if you can get the role instead in another country in or outside the EU;

(4) Look at going self employed as an HR Consultant on the Peninsula model?

How would you personally deal with it if you faced a total brick wall blockage that despite your very best efforts, you just could not vertically progress, get on or up in the HR profession as a whole past HR Administrator?

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  • Hi Andrea

    I see what you mean and agree with you on many points. However, I would suggest changing your employers...go for an HR Admin post in a smaller organisation that rewards hardwork with some form of career development. Set yourself a goal...in a year, HR Assistant, in two years HR Coordinator then HR Advisor.
    It might take some humbling but hopefully the finding the right organisation will set you on course.
  • Dear Cynthia et al,

    I have made a final decision here. I am going to pull out of and completely leave the profession. I broke into HR later than the average in my early 40s, are 45 on Sunday and also now find the added situation that I ‘simply can’t get’ other work or other jobs in it at all etc. It’s like a complete meltdown.The reason of course is that I can’t get the experience, but despite having the Level 7, Associate Membership and an advanced degree, I can only get HR Administrator jobs in the NHS, can’t get above that level and also can’t get into the private sector. I have also made over the past theee years 63,000 job applications in total worldwide on LinkedIn with the click of the profile button, but the ones who do respond say that other candidate’s experience is both more relevant to our business needs and better matches the requirements of the position.

    Why indefinitely flog a dead horse or bang your head against a brick wall. It is actually ‘impossible’ in my case to both move or get anywhere in or with this profession. Perhaps I entered it too late at 40.

    So, the question I now need to ask is that how easy or difficult will it be to embark on a career sector change in my mid 40s and break into marketing from HR with no previous marketing experience, even if I take the CIM exams along the way?

    Kind regards

    André

  • Good luck.


    Linked in applications are a notoriously poor way to apply. I do think as I said before one of the keys is your application style and technique and you should look st this as you embark on a marketing career.

    I fear that if you find HR a career that doesn’t give opportunities to late transferrees then you will find marketing far worst.

    But I genuinely wish you luck. I hope you find the job satisfaction and opportunities you seek.
  • In short, the issue here was that I could not bridge the experience divide and experience disconnect from HR Administrator to HR Advisor level.
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