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

In reply to David:

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.

In reply to Keith:

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.

In reply to Giovanna:

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.

In reply to Keith:

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

In reply to David:

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

In reply to Keith:

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.

In reply to Keith:

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 !

In reply to Giovanna:

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!

In reply to Giovanna:

Hi Giovanna - congrats from me, too. There will be people who applied for this role and who were not shortlisted for interview, so there must be something beyond your application that impressed.

What broad industry are you applying to get into? I will try to find a few previous discussion threads that may be useful and relevant to the role you are applying for.

In reply to Giovanna:

Good luck in the interview - its a great achievement getting this far and shows you are doing something they like. Keep that in mind...

In addition to the advice from colleagues

The interview will probably be competence based so some /most of the questions are likely to be along the lines of...

*Tell me about a time when you had to coach a manager/someone to improve
* Can you think of an example when you had to deal with an under performing employee
*Describe a way in which you improved the way something was done at work

The best way to spend some of your time between now and the interview is to write down and then analyse some examples from your life, hobbies and studies that show the same sort of competencies that are being looked for and think through how you would neatly turn your non work examples into relevant examples for the recruiter...

Go through the JD/Person Spec and try and identify the 5/6 key competencies you think they will look for and have different examples prepared for each.

Have a look at the STAR technique for answering interview questions and try and map out some thoughts about each section.

Best of luck

In reply to Keith:

Dear All,

I am so grateful for all your support! The job position is in hospitality sector ,in which i currently work now . The only bit of the job description that concerns me is the fact that the candidate must demonstrate knowledge of hr databases and hr daily tasks.... but for the rest I believe I can match the role. I am not sure if demonstrating knowledge does actually mean that I have to be aware of what an hr does (in this case I learnt a lot at Uni) or if I have to show experience. But as I said the recruiter is aware that I don't have experience and despite all I have passed the telephone screening. Now for the interview, I will try to show my motivation (perhaps i can show him that I know how to write a job description or a list of question to ask during an interview ) ...this is the only way I can show my motivation. I am praying a lot because for me this is not just a door, it might be the door and I would just let the recruiter know that his decision might change my life, which I believe it is one of an hr professional's prerogative.

In reply to Steve Bridger:

Hi Steve,
many thanks I am really proud of myself because I have passed the telephone screening. The industry is hospitality ,  and from the job description it seems that they are not necessary looking for people with experience, that's why I am praying so much and I really want to impress the recruiter.

In reply to Giovanna:

Hi Giovanna,
You say you are in a kind of admin post as a reservations coordinator so, as you dont have any directly relevant skills in a HR post, I would think about what transferable skills you can pick from your current role and focus on where you can draw broad comparison. So, for example, Writing skills, High level of accuracy, Communication skills, these are all things that you will do in your current role. The more HR specialist things that you may not have encountered, if you research and show that you at least have a theoretical understanding of what is expected, this should stand you in good stead. Also, I would be trying to understand the culture of the organisation by looking at their values/mission statement. In my experience a large part of why one candidate is chosen over another is whether they will 'fit' with the team/department.
Good luck