I currently have not long finished my course before the lockdown started, I passed with flying colours. The college were supposed to place us in a placement, but that bit never happened because of the lockdown. I have offered loads of unpaid work but no paid work. How did you all start off? My problem is this, unpaid work does not pay the bills, in addition to having a disability I am unable to go to work that is beyond my local city! How did everyone else start off their career? What made you chose HR for a career?
I started off in a general admin role 2 years ago at a fairly small company who did not have an HR function at the time. We've really rapidly expanded (in both headcount and region) since I've been here & I secured a position as HRBP one year ago as we hired a VPHR and officially formed our (small!) HR team.
Starting out by having a really thorough understanding of the business model & departments, taking on additional responsibilities 'above my pay grade' at the time and becoming the go-to person for any people related queries set me up for my role, and the company also funded me through my L3 and L5 which I'm extremely grateful for.
I do, however, believe that I was extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time and this massively helped me. But if you can get into a company in a different role that maybe relates to HR (ie Payroll Admin, working in comp & bens etc) and prove that you are capable and committed, I think it will massively set you above external applicants and give you more opportunities internally than you will get job hunting for specific HR roles
I started off in a general admin role 2 years ago at a fairly small company who did not have an HR function at the time. We've really rapidly expanded (in both headcount and region) since I've been here & I secured a position as HRBP one year ago as we hired a VPHR and officially formed our (small!) HR team.
Starting out by having a really thorough understanding of the business model & departments, taking on additional responsibilities 'above my pay grade' at the time and becoming the go-to person for any people related queries set me up for my role, and the company also funded me through my L3 and L5 which I'm extremely grateful for.
I do, however, believe that I was extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time and this massively helped me. But if you can get into a company in a different role that maybe relates to HR (ie Payroll Admin, working in comp & bens etc) and prove that you are capable and committed, I think it will massively set you above external applicants and give you more opportunities internally than you will get job hunting for specific HR roles
