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Career change

Hi Everyone,

I have over 10 years experience in Hospitality management, currently studying CIPD level 3 and looking for advice on how I can secure a job without experience. I have transferable skills but no direct work experience in Human resources Disappointed, currently applying actively but no positive responses.

Any recommendations?

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  • Hi Fatima - I hope you are enjoying your CIPD course. 10 years hospitality management is great so you need to make your CV really shows the people experience you can bring to an organisation. Your study centre should be able to provide career development support as part of your programme and the CIPD and the branches have lots too so get involved with your local CIPD branch to find support and build your network. Make sure you enrol for the student conference coming up soon too! I am happy to look at your CV and see if I can suggest anything there if you would like me to. Just DM me
  • Any recommendations?

    Lower your expectations. With no HR experience, despite your hospitality experience, you are unlikely to obtain a role with management or supervisory responsibility. This means that you are likely to need to take a pay cut to get your foot on the ladder. The entry point is either HR Assistant (mostly assisting HR Advisors, preparing case files, note taking in meetings, providing direct advice to employees on policy, holiday, sickness absence etc) or HR Administrator (maintaining personnel files, processing onboarding and inductions, updating training records, managing HRIS).

    Be prepared to be mobile. The wider you are prepared to cast your net, in terms of commuting time, the more likely you are to secure a role by simple mathematics.

    Go agency. Sign up to as many temp agencies as you can, including de facto agencies like your local authority's temporary staff register and the NHS Bank. Be clear that you are looking for work in HR. The advantage with temp work is that no one expects you to be there for very long, but it all adds to your CV so, once you can secure one job in HR, even on a 3-6-month contract, it gets your foot in the door and unlocks access to permanent roles. You can also build up a record of wide experience quite quickly and then leverage your management background to potentially offer access to an HR Advisor role on a permanent basis.

    Be patient. The market for jobs, right now, isn't great. And the competition for entry-level HR roles is high. That can mean that you have to wait for the right combination of circumstances that put you at the front of the queue as far as candidates go.
  • HI Fatima
    I could have written this many years ago. I had about 10 years hospitality management experience, then got fed up with the hours and thought I would move to HR as I really enjoyed that aspect of management. I had done a few courses but no sole HR experience. It was tough, and it took almost a year to secure a job, I had to take quite a large pay cut as it was a junior roll, HR administrator but after about 2 years there i had moved to HR Officer. I was lucky was able to do this, and appreciate not everyone can. For personal reasons I then spent 4 years doing temp roles, all in different industries which was a fantastic learning curve and think I covered all things HR. Currently working as an HR Manager which is more strategic than ER based and I love it.
    If you really want to get into HR, you will need to look at admin based roles first so make sure your CV is tailored to showing off all your admin and HR skills. I think working in hospitality brings you into contact with a lot of HR issues, recruitment, costs, planning, ER issues, training so make sure its all highlighted in your CV. Good luck
    Tracey
  • In reply to Jackie Allen:

    Thank you Jackie, i will send this over to you.
  • In reply to Tracey:

    Thank you Tracey.
  • In reply to Robey:

    Thank you Robey.