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

I always wanted to work in HR and feel very lucky that I managed to get a 'Personnel Trainee' role in retail not long after I left High School without having to go to university first. My managers at that role were fantastic and really made me enjoy working in HR.

Looking back, I wish I hadn't been so demanding - I wanted to do everything right away, I needed experience first!

Having only worked in HR for a few years, I am really grateful that I can always look through these discussions and read some really good advice and read different opinions from people much more experienced than I am (especially now that I am standalone!).

Yes, Nicola... I know many many people here use the forums to validate or get a different perspective on their own views - especially those of you in standalone roles.

I'll actually be showcasing our community to a few dozen CIPD colleagues later today. I'll tell them how the discussions often call out the worst in employers... but bring out the best of HR!

I think Elizabeth pointed out the key factor about HR (when practised or allowed to function properly) earlier, when she referred to our ability (and need) to be present in every sector and every decision of our employing businesses. We can (and should) have enormous influence; not just in "people processes" and administration, but in the whole structure and mechanism of how people are both utilised and treated within commerce and industry.

It is a tightrope, an ever-changing balancing of unpredictable factors and events, and one often walked alone. (As both reflected in and demonstrated by this Community).

If I can pinch David's mantle as "Community Poet" for a moment.

Kipling summed it up in a line from the poem,"If":

"....If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same...."

...You'll be HR, my Son....

(or of course Daughter.... But Kipling was pre-SDA).

If you want a quieter life: Choose accountancy ...Or bomb disposal! :-)

I think the "when practised or allowed to function properly" is a key qualifier. Clearly this is not always the case and has led to me considering downshifting to secretarial work in the past as the pay differential at past employers was nowhere near sufficient to outweigh the additional responsibility.

I think the "when practised or allowed to function properly" is a key qualifier. Clearly this is not always the case and has led to me considering downshifting to secretarial work in the past as the pay differential at past employers was nowhere near sufficient to outweigh the additional responsibility.