Navigating career levels - Working in HR - Careers Clinic

3 Navigating career levels

21 Aug, 2019 13:04

Hello all,

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out where I am in the HR career hierarchy.

I'm an HR Officer in a multi-site organisation with c.370 employees and have been in this Company for around four years but have no previous HR experience. As the only full-time HR person and deputy to the part-time Senior HR Officer, I am often leading projects, advising managers and execs, supervising the two more junior members of the team and engaging in generalist and administrative HR duties. Because I was essentially thrown into the deep end I decided to undertake my CIPD7 qualification and am halfway through my modules.

I have been told by various people that for HR Advisor positions I am overqualified, and by others that I am underqualified (even though the listed duties appear the same).

While the easy option would then be to say I should add 'Senior' to my title, I'd like to advance to another Company one day and I think understanding how my role relates to the HR career ladder is important to developing my understanding of what is expected of me.

Where would you place me?

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Paul | 0 Posts

21 Aug, 2019 17:56

HR Officer, what is putting people off isn't your job title, it is more likely that you are doing a Level 7 qualification which is putting prospective employers off. Why didn't you do Level 5?
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Bryony | 0 Posts

21 Aug, 2019 18:49

In reply to Paul:
Hmm maybe. I did a university degree which covered the majority of topics in level 5 and my position requires working with the directors quite a bit so I was advised that a level 7 would be more suitable by the course provider and my manager at the time. I don't doubt that I made the right choice though as there are so many fresh graduates in the course.

The feedback I've been getting from interviewers is more focused on my actual experiences rather than my qualification, they all see this on a CV and I still get interviews but after the conversation about my day to day role - thats when it all goes wrong (most of the time). But as you say, perhaps it is the qualfcation (or just me) and they don't want to say it!
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Paul | 0 Posts

21 Aug, 2019 19:30

In reply to Bryony:
That puts a different spin on things, sounds like you may have identified what the problem is. Have you thought about mentoring, the best place to ask is your local CIPD branch.
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