Studying a postgraduate course... but no HR experience

Welcome here, Giovanna!

It is unfortunate that your present employers are not willing to let you gain some HR experience, as this may have been otherwise a good solution.

Have you thought about blitzing employers to go for an entry-level HR post - putting your Level 7 course on hold until you gain some experience? Your present employers' worries about confidentiality don't sound very well-founded to me, so there might even be some possibility with a more flexible employer in the hospitality industry you already have some experience in.

HR apprenticeships might be well worth considering - in another forum a colleague was bemoaning the fact that they could not find any suitable apprenticeship applicants whatever they tried - this seemed rather surprising, but possibly indications that there might be some shortages developing?

Or, are there any postgrad HR courses anywhere that incorporate spells of work experience where the university or similar arranges or facilitates these?

Voluntary and intern work might be another possibility, but at present you might not have sufficient skills in HR to offer; however, it may be 'a foot in the door' even if you volunteer at first in other than HR

I mentioned blitzing before, and will repeat it - I'm a strong believer in the principle that if you buy enough tickets in the raffle, sooner or later you'll win one of the prizes - and the other way round. So a blitz or scattergun approach may be essential to adopt. In this context I am reminded of a very talented and quite famous now 20th century author who when he was first trying to get published papered the walls of one room of his house with all the rejection letters he received from publishers he sent his manuscripts to - eventually he did get himself on the first rung of the ladder to success but he found it almost impossible to get started. But he didn't give up, and neither should you, if you really want to succeed and have the necessary ability, which I'm sure you do

Best of luck - luck can help, but is not necessary!

Giovanna

Welcome to the communities.

Sorry and this will sound harsh (especially for your first post) but I think you are ill advised to be doing a level 7 course with no experience in HR. This will lead to both you potentially struggling on the course (as no real world experiences) and also maybe struggling when you pass as you will be potentially over qualified for your experience.

There are level 3 and Level 5 courses and one of these might have been a better route and if its not too late I might look to transfer. These would give you a better grounding, are potentially easier to do without too much HR experience and less risk of being seen to be over qualified

As David says there is no magic bullet and it might be a case of buying enough tickets in the raffle...

I would also be tempted to target Italian companies in the UK -as your language skills might come in useful

Best of luck

Hi David,
thank you very much for the advice. I have already had some volunteering experience but when recruiters ask for more details and they find out it was unpaid job they just say sorr you are not a good fit for the role, probably they also can see that I am an italian lawyer (I am specialized in public employment law in Italy) and this can be a turn off .Unfortunately I had to go for a postgraduate course as due to my age I cannot afford to attend an undergraduate course (which includes the internship) . I was thinking to take a course in sage payroll and find a job as payroll administrator. Altrough I am spending so much money my motivation is really strong, only I want is get an international experience and then find a job in my country . But thank you for your advise, I will try to attend some Cipd events and see if maybe I can build a good network of contacts who would give me an opportunity . Have a nice week . G.

Hi Keith,
thank you very much for your advice, I will try to get the most out of my academic course, because I have already attended a workshop in disciplinary procedures which I felt very familiar with , as I worked as volunteer legal case worker for a trade union. Finger crossed :) Best, G.

Best wishes.

You may well find that people are reluctant to take on a qualified and experienced lawyer to a junior he position. And reluctant to take on someone without HR experience to a senior HR position. It's a bit of a Catch 22.

I think youvwillbyavevto tailor your cv very carefully to not appear over qualified on several accounts which will scare if potential employers.

But keep plugging away.

www.danieli.com/.../seat-offices.htm

might be one of the major Italian companies with a UK / global presence you might aim your scattergun at - obviously there will be hundreds more - just an example

Thank you very much David for your help . Much much appreciated .

dear Keith,
thank you very much for encouraging me . I will try to take off of my cv my qualification as lawyer and I will just leave my degree in law. I will let you know how it goes. If the situation gets worst , I will just ask to suspend my course until good times will come . Thank you.

Hi Keith and David,

finally I have got my first interview as Hr. Now I really need your help please :D . The position requires a little bit of experience but the employer decided to shortlist me anyway even if he knows I don't have experience and this is great that he is giving me the opportunity . The job description, hovewer, also leave the door open also to people who don't have experience like me. Now I can I impress the recruiter ? How can I be prepared to show that I really deserve the job ? I am doing my own research about hr tasks and procedure apart from what I am learning at Uni. Also, which kind of questions do you think I will be asked? I am excited and scared at the same time but I will have a long weekend ahead to do my homeworks :) Thank you for your reply guys !

Good Morning Giovanna

Many congratulations for landing the interview! - it's an achievement in itself, but as you rightly surmise and fear, you are here competing with other candidates with the advantage of better experience, so if this was for example a horse-race with five starting, yours would just stand a 20% probability of ever winning if all else were equal, which obviously it isn't either.

So the probabilities are not starting in your favour and I think the main thing you can do is try to imagine yourself in the role of the recruiter and not as a candidate and all the concerns and questions the recruiter might have in mind and then prepare yourself to answer all these with information that the recruiter wants to hear - ensure you can counter all possible drawbacks they might see in your candidacy and ensure that you highlight all the massive benefits you could bring to them. I am deliberately not being specific with particular things here - obviously it depends on the exact circumstances and I am sure you can work them out for yourself.

Secondly, I'd recommend trying your utmost to make a favourable and memorable impression on the recruiter or recruiters - focus on something that's likely to do that, and overall try to build up a cordial rapport with them and leave them with the view that your innate abilities and charming yet industrious and tenacious personality matters far more in terms of long term value to them than any minor lack of past experience.

Very best of luck with it all - do hope it goes well and that you're successful but don't treat it like a failure if you are not - rather as a learning experience and that you will do even better next time!