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Making the move from teaching to HR- seemingly impossible

Alana

Hi everyone. 

I have been in secondary education/teaching internationally for over 6 years and have some retail/customer service experience prior to that. Having decided to leave teaching, I am really keen to start a career in HR but I am finding it impossible. I have applied for 20+ HR admin positions with no response. I know I need experience, but how do I go about this without being given a chance? 

Through teaching I was able to get some experience with recruitment/interviewing and I have taken some (free) online courses in HR which I have put on my CV. I have been teaching myself about UK employment law and I am very heavily considering embarking on a MSc in International Human Resource Management. I have looked for volunteering opportunities but there aren't many. 

My questions are: 

1. What's the best way to get experience? Keep applying for HR admin roles or is that a waste of time? Contact the HR departments of large companies directly? 

2. Will employers take more notice of me if I embark on the Masters? Although I am 95% sure that this is what I want to do, I really would like some experience before I jump into this

3. I am in talks with a few recruitment agencies for work. Is this a common route into HR for career changers? I really am not keen on the sales aspect of recruitment, but I will do it for a year if it helps me land a HR admin role. 

4. L & D is also highly appealing to me. Should I be focussing more on that as a route into HR? Is it easier to get an entry L & D role as a former teacher? 

Thank you! 

Parents
  • Hi Alana
    There is lots of competition for those entry level HR jobs but no reason you shouldn't be able to get one. To answer your questions one by one:
    1) Yes, contact employers and apply for HR admin roles directly. I see lots of vacancies so you need to look at your CV to find out why you aren't getting the interviews. Are you making it clear you are a career changer so happy to drop down a few levels to establish yourself? Are you making the most of actual admin skills (capabilities in Word, Excel etc, ability to learn new systems, prioritisation, communication, attention to detail and 'customer' skills are all basic requirements). I would mention in your personal statement that to prepare for your new career you have been researching employment law and taking short HR courses, but not actually list the courses under training and qualifications UNLESS they are the free ACAS e-learning courses (most cheap/free HR courses aren't worth the paper they are written on). IF you haven't done the ACAS courses - do them. Also general locally-focused recruitment agencies often get HR admin jobs where they will place general admin people - it's a common route in, so maybe consider getting general admin temping experience first.
    2). no, don't do a Masters. I meet a lot of degree holders wanting to enter HR who think obviously they should do a post-grad as a way in. It won't help you at this stage and may even put employers off. HR is a very practical field, lots of knowledge and skills to acquire that you won't get on a Masters, which focus usually on the high level strategic stuff. Consider doing the CIPD Level 3 - working towards this will make you so much more appealing to employers. There is an L&D version.
    3) working in a recruitment agency very occasionally leads to in-house recruitment roles, but without general HR experience you'd be stuck with that.
    4) CIPD Level 3 L&D course
Reply
  • Hi Alana
    There is lots of competition for those entry level HR jobs but no reason you shouldn't be able to get one. To answer your questions one by one:
    1) Yes, contact employers and apply for HR admin roles directly. I see lots of vacancies so you need to look at your CV to find out why you aren't getting the interviews. Are you making it clear you are a career changer so happy to drop down a few levels to establish yourself? Are you making the most of actual admin skills (capabilities in Word, Excel etc, ability to learn new systems, prioritisation, communication, attention to detail and 'customer' skills are all basic requirements). I would mention in your personal statement that to prepare for your new career you have been researching employment law and taking short HR courses, but not actually list the courses under training and qualifications UNLESS they are the free ACAS e-learning courses (most cheap/free HR courses aren't worth the paper they are written on). IF you haven't done the ACAS courses - do them. Also general locally-focused recruitment agencies often get HR admin jobs where they will place general admin people - it's a common route in, so maybe consider getting general admin temping experience first.
    2). no, don't do a Masters. I meet a lot of degree holders wanting to enter HR who think obviously they should do a post-grad as a way in. It won't help you at this stage and may even put employers off. HR is a very practical field, lots of knowledge and skills to acquire that you won't get on a Masters, which focus usually on the high level strategic stuff. Consider doing the CIPD Level 3 - working towards this will make you so much more appealing to employers. There is an L&D version.
    3) working in a recruitment agency very occasionally leads to in-house recruitment roles, but without general HR experience you'd be stuck with that.
    4) CIPD Level 3 L&D course
Children
  • in reply to Fiona
    Thank you for the detailed reply. Just registered an ACAS course. Had never heard of this before so thank you for the recommendation!

    I am advertising all of those skills in my cover letters. I was advised recently by a recruiter that HR hiring managers are not giving my CV the time of day because it is full of teaching experience. So I guess I need to keep trying for an entry level role in the hopes that I come across an employer who will take a chance.