"If I was to opt for a full-time HR Assistant role this would mean a drop in pay, which sadly is not affordable at this time" Is this with your exsisting employer or just generally? Not sure what part of the country you are in but in the East Midlands as an example there is no rhyme or reason as to what employers are prepared to pay!

Realistically your not going to find out of hours voluntary experince in HR, with possibly one exception, the thing is how long do you think you will have to do a 10 hour a week volunteer job to get noticed? Would you be happy doing volunteering for two years? Actually if you are just using volunteering as a vehicle to finding a permanent paid job then you may well get found out at interview and scupper your chances. By the way St John Ambulance is recruiting a District HR Officer in the Northern Home Counties.

However I do know someone who made the move from an agency into HR as a HR Assistant, two or three years later they are now a HR Advisor. You are going to have to be realistic, you won't be walking into a HR Advisor position.

In reply to Paul:

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your reply.

I realise there is no blanket pay for the role of HR Assistant however, I have been scouting the HR roles advertised within my area for some time now and the bracket generally tends to fall below the salary I am currently earning.

HR Advisor is obviously more pay but I am fully aware that I do not hold the experience to be considered at this level, which is why I feel a HR Admin-based role (or at least the one’s I have seen advertised in my area) is more realistic when taking into account my current level of experience including my past roles. The problem I am faced with at the moment is when looking at my work history and considering the HR roles I see advertised, I feel I have somewhere skipped a level (!) and therefore feel there are gaps in my knowledge which I would benefit from filling!

The volunteering aspect was something I was considering as a potential way of gaining experience in the areas I feel I am lacking when reviewing the skills needed for the roles I have seen. As I have volunteered for many different organisations in the past, the duration or commitment period would not be an issue – I am in the process of seeing if there are any opportunities where I currently volunteer but again, I feel anything they could offer would be within office hours, so I thought I would post here just in case anyone can suggest any possible ways of how I can gain more experience.

Thank you very much for sharing the District HR Officer role – unfortunately this opportunity is not within my area but hopefully something similar will come up!

In reply to Michelle:

In my occasional sideline as a career consultant, a principle part of the conversation I have with clients is "what do you *want*?"

Presumably, you pursued your Level 3 because you *wanted* to make the transition from recruitment to generalist HR. If that's what you want, then you may have to accept that you will have to take a pay cut as part of that transition. Longer-term, this will pay off. You will get the experience you need to move up to a more financially rewarding role and have a solid grounding to build your experience towards management and beyond.

Or you can mark time in a role that doesn't give you what you want because you "can't afford it".

Either you want the HR career - and everything that brings - and need to make sacrifices to pursue that, or you want to have a certain minimum income. When these two things are in conflict, your only option is to decide which one is more important and accept the consequences.

Personally I went from £32000 to £24000 a year because I needed time to complete my CIPD level 7. I think it's all about what you really want and you should be thinking 5 years down the line.

In reply to Robey:

I'd like you to advise me, should I start with level 3 or 5? generally, my whole experience was in Admin role for 9 years. & currently, I'm working as HR & Administrative Assistant for 3 years. my role in Admin more than Hr, in Hr I'm supporting in recruitment.