Hi Tina

With 15 years experience in HR admin you have a lot to offer a company! Have you tried applying for any HR Officer roles? Have you gotten any interview feedback?

It may also be worth linking up with a recruitment agency as they can help you tweak your CV to show off the best parts about your experience and put you forward for roles

Melanie

With 15 years' experience, you may find that the difference between you and less-experienced people who have moved further up the ladder (like me, with only ten years' experience!) is purely a more immanent desire to move up that ladder.

As I've said elsewhere, when looking to advance professionally and find a new role a crucial step is to define as clearly as possible what it is that you *want*: more money? More status? Opportunities for learning and development? To participate in a transformation programme?

Clearly defining your desired outcomes will help you to focus your efforts and give you interesting and useful things to say in any interview. It will lead you to read the right articles in PM with more attention or to pick up the books at Waterstones that jibe with your ambitions.

15 years in HR admin is a long time to spend at single operational level, and potential recruiters are going to reasonably wonder where your ambition has been for the last 15 years and what has sparked its resurgence now. So you need to answer those questions for yourself in order to provide a compelling narrative on why, after 15 relatively stagnant years, you are now the right person to back for a more senior appointment.

I would say: don't worry about qualifications at this point. 15 years is a lot of QBE that will be of far more interest to recruiters and should give you a wealth of anecdotes on which to draw to illustrate your competencies in key HR areas. Once you secure your next role, though, you may begin a dialogue with your new LM about what skills and knowledge he or she would value and what would be the most efficient way to gain that skill and knowledge in a way that meets your LM's needs *and* provides you with a credible qualification.

In reply to Robey:

I tend to agree with Robey It is now less to do with qualifications and experience for you and more to do with answering the question "Why now?" With 15 years HR admin experience your narrative will have to be strong to break out of the stereotyping than inevitably we all face.

I certainly don't think embarking on a HR degree is going to open any particular doors for you. You need a compelling story as to why you want to move upwards now and why you are ready for this move.

In reply to Keith:

Thank for that insight, very much appreciated. Why now??? i guess because after having two kids , building a house and getting married, and it been only my second job out of college, i got comfortable!! also it been a family run local business didn't help because there was no career ladder, i grew very well up the ladder starting out as just general admin - ETP manager-officer manager - HS officer- HR admin (which i believe i was more of a generalist) and also GDPR, but there was a glass ceiling there for me in terms of it been family run and no more promotion available. I have only recently moved to a new job and loving it at the moment, my title is HR admin and data protection administrator, but i do feel there is room to grow once i get the GDPR sorted and in line. so i guess that the real bit of advice i am looking... what now ??? i don't want to stay as HR Admin, my goal is to be a HR manager etc within the next 5-7 years. How do i go about this?

In reply to Tina:

Make yourself invaluable. Take on more high profile “strategic” people related tasks.

As a new comer look for gaps in what they do or things they could do better for and with their people and go them.

In other words grow by adding value and then get your title changed. Even if they can’t then it’s all great stuff on your cv.

At this level it’s less aboutvtitle anyway when recruiting and much more about the value you add, what you did, the projects etc you have worked upon.

So look every day for ways you can grow and the rest will follow.