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Thinking of giving up on my HR career :(

James Webber

Hello,

I’ve really demotivated about the trajectory, or complete lack of, in my HR career. I attained a HR degree in 2008 and I’m an associate member of this fine establishment.

Quick career overview; I held a permanent position within HR for 8 years in the same organisation progressing from coordinator to advisor (of the Teacher’s Pension scheme). However, I was then unfortunately given mandatory redundancy.
I took this opportunity to travel the world and experience new cultures for 6 month and since I returned, 2.5 years ago, I’ve been trying to reignite my HR career with no meaningful success.

I managed to get a temporary HR coordinator role for 3 months, a year and a half ago, covering a long term sickness but I've not be able to get another HR role since.
I’m applying for both entry level and HR Advisor roles but it seems to be a glass ceiling and floor scenario due to me either having too much or too little experience. I’ve had 3 interviews for a HR advisor role in the last 12 months, without success, but nothing at the coordinator level.
As such I’ve been forced to accept a few sporadic temporary finance based roles out of necessity. But it’s not what I enjoy and it bores me due to the lack of human interaction among other things.  

I recently pad a few hundred pounds to get a newly designed CV in the forlorn hope this was my issue. It was not and the status quo continues.

I’m signed up to dozens of job websites, apply for most jobs at coordinator and advisor live, and have about a 2% success rate.

I’m really wondering whether as much as I want to work in HR does HR want me as much in return?
I don’t even know what else I want to do with my working life.

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  • Hey James

    Sorry to read your post and I understand how frustrating it can be. It sounds like you want to continue so if you do then I’d say don’t give up! There will be a job just waiting for you somewhere.

    You mention a 2% success rate - assume that is applications to interview? If you are not getting interviews then I’d suggest your CV needs a little tweak. Despite the fact you have paid for one doesn’t guarantee success as every opportunity will be different. Are you tailoring for each role? If not I would recommend that you do. It’s better to spend time on your applications and make it easy for employers to see your experience than send out lots of generic applications. Have you had any objective feedback from either your applications or the interviews you went for?

    Also can you get involved with any voluntary help anywhere to get you some recent HR experience back - doesn’t need to be a lot, but may help you also.

    You may also want to think of a more functional CV layout to showcase your skills if you haven’t already done so.

    If I can help further do come back to me. In my experience in this it’s usually the application letting you down so try not to take it personally.

    Don’t give up - the best things worth having are sometimes not the easiest to get. You worked hard for that degree, and obviously still want to do the role so don’t let it go to waste!

    Best of luck!

    Sue
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  • Hey James

    Sorry to read your post and I understand how frustrating it can be. It sounds like you want to continue so if you do then I’d say don’t give up! There will be a job just waiting for you somewhere.

    You mention a 2% success rate - assume that is applications to interview? If you are not getting interviews then I’d suggest your CV needs a little tweak. Despite the fact you have paid for one doesn’t guarantee success as every opportunity will be different. Are you tailoring for each role? If not I would recommend that you do. It’s better to spend time on your applications and make it easy for employers to see your experience than send out lots of generic applications. Have you had any objective feedback from either your applications or the interviews you went for?

    Also can you get involved with any voluntary help anywhere to get you some recent HR experience back - doesn’t need to be a lot, but may help you also.

    You may also want to think of a more functional CV layout to showcase your skills if you haven’t already done so.

    If I can help further do come back to me. In my experience in this it’s usually the application letting you down so try not to take it personally.

    Don’t give up - the best things worth having are sometimes not the easiest to get. You worked hard for that degree, and obviously still want to do the role so don’t let it go to waste!

    Best of luck!

    Sue
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