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

I had HR forced upon me - having done 2 years of secretarial training and then working my way up to a PA to the MD role, whilst studying for an archaeology degree. My boss told me at the time to ditch archaeology for accountancy which I was quite offended by. Once I finished my degree, he gave me a choice between HR and redundancy. My quite reasonable objection that I knew absolutely nothing about HR did not appear to deter him ("there's nothing to it, you'll be fine"). About 3 hours hours into my new career, the MD of another group company walked into my office and asked me what to do with a sales manager who drank on the job. I said "let me get back to you on that" and managed not to visibly panic until he had left the office - whereupon I called a friend who was a lawyer to ask him to ask one of his employment colleagues what the ... I was supposed to say/do.

So it did not take me long to realise that I was ever so slightly out of my depth and needed to get up to speed, pronto. So another period of part-time study ensued. I learned on the job, without ever having another HR bod to report into, learn from, or share with, which I still massively regret. I got pigeon-holed into a standalone role, but would have loved to work as part of a team.

So this is now my third career/ training and I do enjoy it but would not have chosen it. Truth be told I'd be happier in a muddy field with a trowel. I will probably do that when I win the lottery.

It can get a little 'muddy' on here sometimes, too! ;)

We all get scuffed knees from time to time, which is why (I hope) this Community is so valuable - especially for those of you in a standalone role. You've been a credit to the community since you joined us, Anka.

I have never regretted my choice and have had a couple of chances along the way to change careers but have always come back to the work I find most interesting and rewarding: HR. In the late 80s/early 90s I worked for a multinational oil company and got the opportunity to spend a few years in sales and then sales management. I did fairly well and got into the top performers club, which gave me a personal perspective on incentive schemes, but I derived much more satisfaction from my involvement in our graduate trainee scheme and from team development activities than from hitting sales targets.

It’s all about feeling that my work matters. When I was in sales, I had to find motivation by telling myself that all my old colleagues back in head office were relying on me and my sales colleagues to keep the organisation going. I don’t have to hunt for motivation in HR. The links between what I do and the success of the organisation and quality of life of the people of the organisation are obvious.

I have always found that working in HR has brought me close to the inner circle of any organisation. Even in relatively junior roles, you can be on the inside of planning and strategising. In nationals and multinationals this will mean being close to the local management team. In SMEs it means working at the right hand of the MD or Chief Exec. I have also found there is a special relationship between HRD and MD. You can be the safe person for them to kick ideas around, share concerns, request feedback and generally speak freely in a way that doesn’t seem to happen with the rest of the SMT.

If you want to be any good as an HR person, you need to know your business inside out, which is your licence to go anywhere and talk to anyone.

I have never found anything else to match the endless fascination of tending a people machine.

Hi Anka
Knowing what you don’t know is an excellent way of learning. It’s the people who don’t recognise what they don’t know that are dangerous, like your MD who said there’s nothing to HR!

"It’s all about feeling that my work matters.

"I have never found anything else to match the endless fascination of tending a people machine."

Wonderfully put, Elizabeth.

My "first" career was in electronics in the RAF, after which I took some "time out" as a semi-professional musician and using those electronics skills to fix guitar-amps, electronic (musical) organs and disco-rigs. That led to a Christmas-day meeting with a trainee physiotherapist in a Folk-club (the Black Horse at Telham in Sussex) which led to a 2nd (real) career in the Ambulance-service, a wedding, three children and three grandchildren! A sojourn into private-sector international medical transportation was great fun and that was where the HR-stuff started, working around "moonlighting" NHS Dr's and Nurses shift-patterns, qualifications, organising people, interviewing etc. etc. Then it was back to the NHS for a while as a unit administrative manager at a physically disabled children's school/hospital, then running a multi-agency project placing people with disabilities into (real) work; just prior to the DDA becoming law. (Much more HR!) Funding changes caused chaos a month before the project's renewal, leaving sixty-some people with no support and me working 18-plus hour days trying to patch up the holes.... until stopped by a heart attack at 49.

A year of not being allowed to work, acquiring clinical depression, and studying (stress, depression and HR) led to career 3; HR "full time".

So I sort of staggered into HR thirty-some years ago, by default, wandered around doing it by accident for ten years, and then realised it was my job some time later.

Would I do it again?

Apart from the Heart Attack and the Depression (which lurks around permanently), I guess I would; but I feel I am better at it (if any good at all) for having been through the disciplined tensions of the cold-war RAF, the mayhem of my time as a musician (and yes, I still play too), the years learning about people in the worst hours of their lives during my time as an Ambulanceman; the humbling but rewarding years working with children and adults with disabilities and MH problems and, yes, I guess even learning about being one of those "patients" myself.

So would I do it? Yes.

Could I do it? I'd have to be bl**dy balmy!

But it's still fun :-)

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 ;)

"A year of not being allowed to work, acquiring clinical depression, and studying (stress, depression and HR) led to career 3; HR "full time"."

I would never wish that on anybody (except the HR bit)... but by 'eck we've been truly blessed as you've shared your knowledge and experience in this area (not to mention employment law in general). Thank you, Peter.