Working in HR? If you could start again, would you?

This is a really great thread, I am not alone in the 'HR chose me' side of things, but looking back I wish I had chosen HR at the point when I had money and time to burn!
I did a journalism degree straight from school, quickly realised I didn't want to lie, cheat and steal for a living (being 18 and naive I didn't think I would actually get taught to do that.....!) but was too far in to change or quit - especially with no real idea of what I did want to do.
Then saddled with my debt and degree with no experience, I got an office job with an Employee Assistance Provider - basically typing up case notes! Here comes the familiar thread - they had no HR and I got 'volunteered' to do the admin. I twisted their arm into paying for me to do an ILM course and it really sparked my passion for people.
I very quickly found myself another job doing HR admin for a local branch of a national charity, working with a great team. Here is where I wish I would have taken the chance, backed myself financially and professionally and done my CIPD (A mixture of self-doubt and imposter syndrome if I'm honest....)
Personal matters then took over, as I married and had two children in fairly quick succession - something that I wouldn't change a thing about, but that left me working part time (my choice) and then redundant after a restructure whilst I was on mat leave. The less said about that the better as I am still ever so slightly bitter about it and wish I had more in me to fight it, but my son was only 3 months and I was all over the place.
My next move was a bit of payroll temping (a good string to my bow, but not where my interest lies) and then to my role here - at another local charity - much smaller than my previous. You may wonder about my affinity to the 3rd sector - being brutally honest its mainly to do with the availability of part time flexible HR work!
I middled along for a year, bored out of my brain as the HRM would not let me get involved, but then I had the wonderful fortune of having Robey Jenkins (RobeyJ) turn up and he changed my (professional) world! He encouraged (ok, practically forced) me to do my level 5 and offered me so much professional knowledge and ideas that I started to gain confidence and a real passion for good HR.
I am now a standalone in the same organisation, as he has upped and left me - but he did recommend me for his job, so I am gaining some valuable HRM experience, albeit in a SME charity, before I consider my next move.
If I could turn back the clock, I would still come into HR but I wish I knew at school that HR was even a thing - it wasn't even mentioned in my careers advice.
I may have entered the profession much earlier, and not wasted half my career putting myself down as I 'only fell into it'.

"I would still come into HR but I wish I knew at school that HR was even a thing - it wasn't even mentioned in my careers advice."

We're trying to change that, Angela Jellyman. 

Everything else we can blame on Robey ;)

I decline any responsibility for Angela Jellyman . I made use of all the skills available to me, including hers, and gave her all the boring jobs I didn't want to do. Then I left her without a subordinate to do the same thing to! Credit (and blame) are hers alone.

In a way, I did "start again". After a six-year career break (the preceding seven years of which were in uniform) the only job I could get was an entry-level FTC HR job on an entry-level salary.

So yes, when I started again, I chose HR.

#noregrets

I decline any responsibility for Angela Jellyman . I made use of all the skills available to me, including hers, and gave her all the boring jobs I didn't want to do. Then I left her without a subordinate to do the same thing to! Credit (and blame) are hers alone.

In a way, I did "start again". After a six-year career break (the preceding seven years of which were in uniform) the only job I could get was an entry-level FTC HR job on an entry-level salary.

So yes, when I started again, I chose HR.

#noregrets

Excuses, excuses; just not sure who's making excuses for whom :-)

'Sounds like a pretty good professional partnership to me.

Guilty as charged......

P :-)