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

Interesting question Steve and funnily enough one that cropped up in conversation the other day between me and my HR colleague.

I guess for me I followed the family line as my Dad had been HR Director for a number of years. I distinctly remember some informal 'take your daughter to work' occasions and being fascinated at the conversations I would hear (well one side of it at least).

In an ultimate commitment to the profession for my Year 7 project I said that I wanted to be a Personnel Manager when I grew up. This even included me sticking my dad's old IPD card in as an example of professional development. So could I say that I wanted to join HR even as a youngster? Quite possibly so.

Eventually after an English degree I headed to my dad's office as an unpaid intern, with the intention of working across all departments. However, having started with HR I ended up really relishing it, applied for a 6 month role at another company and the rest as they say is history.

Who knows whether I would have always chosen HR (despite Emma in 1997 thinking this would be the case)? However, the knowledge you can gain, the advice that you can offer and genuinely seeing lives change for the positive makes it all worthwhile for me. Undoubtedly there are tough days and tough years (especially with redundancy), but I still remain proud of my profession and excited for what changes are yet to come.

Fantastic post, Emma... and good to have you back contributing to the forums.

Your story is perhaps the first I've heard of someone truly saying 'they want to work in HR' when they grow up.

Fantastic post, Emma... and good to have you back contributing to the forums.

Your story is perhaps the first I've heard of someone truly saying 'they want to work in HR' when they grow up.