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Making the correct first steps into HR

Elliot

Hi everyone.

I've been reading my way through the community posts here about peoples first steps into HR and it's given me some good ideas/expectations about what to expect. It's also quite nice (although daunting) to see so many people have struggled with similar aspects to myself.

I was hoping to get some tailored advice from you successful HR specialists, and I think the best way to do this is to outline a little bit about me and you could give me some advice for my first steps, because I am worried about making wrong moves.

I graduated in 2018 with a non-HR degree, and since then I worked for a time as an English teacher abroad, and since returning to the UK have worked in a customer services call centre. That job was really demoralising and quite horrible, I ended up leaving and have been unemployed since then (living on my savings from teaching abroad).

Before University I also worked full time in customer services and I feel like there are so many transferable skills from communications and people management etc.

Right now I have been applying for all entry level HR roles to try and get my foot in the door, and the majority I don't hear back from. I believe this to be because I have no direct HR experience, even though I have tried to tailor my CV with all the transferable skills I do have that are similar. 

I am currently not in a position where I can self fund the level 3 CIPD qualification, so I was wondering what my options were? Do I keep going for the entry level HR jobs and hope someone will give me a chance? Or would I be better off going for admin/office based roles to get some income before looking at CIPD qualifications and then moving into HR? 

I am living in London which I thought would be the land of opportunity with how many businesses are here, but I guess I also have far more competition. I'm not in a financial position where I can carry out unpaid voluntary work either. But I would definitely be open to something temporary or part time to just get some income coming back in if it would help boost my CV.

My long term goals are to get CIPD qualified and hopefully develop into diversity and inclusion further into my career, but getting stuck at the first hurdle is a bit demoralising! 

Any tips or advice you might have for me would be amazing, thank you for reading!

Elliot 

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  • Hi Elliot

    Welcome to the HR Community!

    My first step in to the world of HR was via working in the prison service! Having left University with work experience based purely in retail, it became very clear that to get into HR I needed office based experience. I worked at the local prison basic admin involving prisonner records and files and continued to apply for roles. My view was than any admin office experience would support my ultimate goal to work in HR.
    With this is mind, I obviously disagree slightly with Robey as I think there are transferrable skills into HR from customer service. Certainly my experience in the prison based me in good stead to deal with employee files and confidentiality and I believe in my HR team that we need to talk to our customers and offer them the service thatthey are looking for in terms of timeliness and approach and understanding our customers so there are elements which you can use in a HR career.
    Additionally perhaps look at other routes into HR, you mention you were a teacher, have you considered looking at L&D roles; or with your customer service background you could look at recruitment/resourcing based roles within agencies. Most HR people will have agencies they work closely and building up good relationships with inhouse HR may enable job opportunities to come your way and offer you an entry in to the world of HR.

    Good Luck!
    Cheryl
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  • Hi Elliot

    Welcome to the HR Community!

    My first step in to the world of HR was via working in the prison service! Having left University with work experience based purely in retail, it became very clear that to get into HR I needed office based experience. I worked at the local prison basic admin involving prisonner records and files and continued to apply for roles. My view was than any admin office experience would support my ultimate goal to work in HR.
    With this is mind, I obviously disagree slightly with Robey as I think there are transferrable skills into HR from customer service. Certainly my experience in the prison based me in good stead to deal with employee files and confidentiality and I believe in my HR team that we need to talk to our customers and offer them the service thatthey are looking for in terms of timeliness and approach and understanding our customers so there are elements which you can use in a HR career.
    Additionally perhaps look at other routes into HR, you mention you were a teacher, have you considered looking at L&D roles; or with your customer service background you could look at recruitment/resourcing based roles within agencies. Most HR people will have agencies they work closely and building up good relationships with inhouse HR may enable job opportunities to come your way and offer you an entry in to the world of HR.

    Good Luck!
    Cheryl
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