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Late career change to HR

Alasdair

Hello all,

This is my first post on a CIPD forum, so hello world of HR!

I will keep it brief(ish). I am 49 years old, in transition from a completely different area to HR, and in the middle of CIPD level 5. I have many years of team-side implementation of HR policies, a lot of recruitment/interviewing behind me, project management, team leadership etc. I believe skills mean more than job titles, and all the skills required to be an HR professional are in place, but I lack the job titles on the CV.

I am well and truly stuck in the "you'll be bored"/"need more experience" trap with respect to getting started.

So in your experience, how do people in my position kick things off? I feels like aiming for a vanishingly small sweet-spot at the moment, which is frustrating, knowing how much I have to offer. I'm an unconventional candidate, and it looks like people don't know how to handle me!

Thanks very much all, I really look forward to hearing your thoughts, and I know it takes time to post, so thank you so much in advance for your time.

Alasdair

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  • I am not certain it's that interviewers don't know how to handle you - it's not that uncommon to receive CVs from people who are changing careers, and it's usually fairly straightforward to interpret those CVs. It may be more that interviewers think you could "possibly" do the job but don't have conventional evidence, and they are comparing you against a shortlist of people who've already got that history to prove they could also do the job.

    The usual ways to get some HR roles onto your CV are temping, volunteering or internships. Do you have the time or capacity to volunteer in an HR role with a charity? Temping can be good to get a foot in the door, and to try out how different HR can be in different organisational cultures. It could help you to get a reference willing to comment on your HR capability.
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  • I am not certain it's that interviewers don't know how to handle you - it's not that uncommon to receive CVs from people who are changing careers, and it's usually fairly straightforward to interpret those CVs. It may be more that interviewers think you could "possibly" do the job but don't have conventional evidence, and they are comparing you against a shortlist of people who've already got that history to prove they could also do the job.

    The usual ways to get some HR roles onto your CV are temping, volunteering or internships. Do you have the time or capacity to volunteer in an HR role with a charity? Temping can be good to get a foot in the door, and to try out how different HR can be in different organisational cultures. It could help you to get a reference willing to comment on your HR capability.
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  • in reply to Sarah
    Hello Sarah, yes I was being a bit flippant, but I am looking for someone who can see additional value from experience rather than seeing it as unconventional and therefore a risk. That's the vanishingly small sweet-spot...

    Unfortunately it's the temping jobs that are ruling me likely to be bored/not enough experience. So I am still pursuing them, but increasingly having to take non-HR temp roles just to keep earning, so I'm very concerned my transition to HR is stalling. I also cannot afford to volunteer.

    So internships are interesting - I haven't seen these openly advertised on job boards, LinkedIn, through agencies. I associate these with students, so I guess this is more direct contact with companies or otherwise companies would more commonly be in touch with academic institutions? I think that would be ideal actually, it's a great idea. Any thoughts about the best route to finding these would be a great help, I may be missing the pipeline for that completely at the moment.

    Thanks very much :)