Hi Titilope thanks for your post and hopefully other Community members will be along soon to share their thoughts and advice. I'm pleased to hear you have secured a role within the NHS. If possible, when the time is right, do let your manager know that longer term you'd love to be able to incporporate some HR tasks into your role. Be on the lookout for any shadowing you can do with the HR team and anything where you can gain additional experience. You have the qualification and the experience abroad to back this up but as you say, employers are also looking for relevant UK experience. One thing you can do as a CIPD member to network and grow your knowledge is play an active part in your local CIPD branch. You could even take on a voluntary role there. It's a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and attend events aimed at people professionals etc. www.cipd.org/.../. There is some more info about transitioning into the people profession here: www.cipd.org/.../

Keep up your CPD so that you could answer any question that an Advisor could

Hi Titilope,

Hang in there…. You’ve got the qualifications so now start networking either with your local CIPD or on LinkedIn… if the Administrator role with NHS is within the HR, that’s a good start… love and light!

I'd echo what everyone else has said but also caution patience. We often tell people to make their career aspirations known and to try and find shadowing or opportunities within their current role to broaden their experience into their desired sector. This is absolutely right to do, but timing matters! If you've been hired to do a role, you first need to show your dedication and apply yourself fully to that role and show an organisation how valuable you are to them.

Nothing more off-putting than someone taking a job, then within the first 3 months saying "I actually want a different job and I'm hoping that you'll help me get it instead of this one" - even though it's not the intention, it can suggest you're already bored and checked out! So make sure you ace the current role, then choose an opportune time to talk to your manager about career goals. Any job will be giving you transferable skills in the meantime.