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?

  • It doesn’t actually work, deliver, match for me or tick any of the boxes in my specific case, per the recent feedback below I obtained from an interview:

    ‘With regards to your question about the HR Adviser role, the panel would suggest you obtain formal practical experience in a setting where you have accountability to others and are guided by set policies and legislation.’

    I am grateful for all your advice here, but I have actually tried it all and it does not work for me. Maybe it works for other people because they like them, do not find them different (I have neurodiversity) or a possible personality clash, but in my case it does not work.

    A lot of it also comes down to whether or not your face fits, are you perceived as one of them or more as an outsider, and do you fit the typical employee stereotype and profile.

    But ultimately, you can’t force a job even if you are the best candidate. It’s a collective management decision and they decide who they employ and reject. 

  • Do they want you on the team is the acid test that determines hiring decisions.
  • Hi Andre

    What are you looking for from this thread? You must have spent hours assuring us again and again at length and in detail that your position is hopeless and rejecting suggestions. What is it you are still looking for that makes you keep coming back?

  • I am looking for someone to offer me a role. I have carried out all the suggestions offered here in full, but in my case they don’t actually work by delivering an HR Advisor role.

    I don’t feel that this is an unreasonable request to make as HR is my profession and I am a member of the HR community and part of the HR family.

    When you join a professional body, the fellow members immediately by extension and default become your very own professional people and counterparts who usually help each other out, just as in my church community with the fellow congregation members there.

  • That's not the purpose of this forum. As it says at the top of the page, "Join in the discussion with a Community of thousands of HR and L&D Professionals". The forum is not for job hunting but a place where you can discuss job hunting.

  • The problem is that joining in discussions alone (although I already have a job) doesn’t deliver a 9-5 to pay the mortgage. Professional networking always has an end objective.
  • Hi Andre... you're confusing us with LinkedIn. Are you active on LinkedIn?
  • Andre, I am not sure if you are aware, but from someone's profile on LinkedIn you can see all of their activity. Forgive me for stalking, but I have had a look at how you have been using LinkedIn. Great work on being active daily, but liking photos of landscapes for the past week isn't going to help you.

    Start conversations. Comment on posts in the HR sector. Share your own interesting career stories. Share other people's stories that you think are interesting. You wrote articles in the past, could you update and re-share those?

    The activity you have is like going to a conference but spending the whole time at looking at the fish pond, not talking to anyone. But everyone else around you is having career based conversations.
  • Andre - I think you should consider Catherine's wise advice re your LI activity.