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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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  • Hi Alasdair,

    Weirdly (to me) nobody is mentioning networking and being mentored.
    The way you describe your prior roles/experience, in an industry I know well, leads me to expect you will have had plenty of up close and personal interactions with people already in HR both in your prior organisation and in others such as recruitment consultancies.

    I would recommend you working this network for :
    1) feedback on how they see you - which may help how you present yourself to others
    2) areas they think they could see you working
    3) contacts from their networks that they might introduce you to
    4) spotting the "unadvertised" vacancies that frequently crop up (both short and longer term)
    5) someone you trust to mentor you or provide some coaching

    If in so doing you are lucky enough to find a champion who can also open some doors (introduction/recommendation), perhaps on the basis of some shared experience, you may be surprised at how rapidly things can change.

    Everyone I have come across (including me) that has successfully changed path has done so whilst doing all the above either by their own volition or because someone in their network has caused them to do so.

    Good luck
  • in reply to Martin
    Hello Martin, apologies for the late reply. I have been getting in touch with my networks though they are primarily more on the recruitment side and I am hoping to be more general as this seems too narrow for my experience. However, it is leading to some interesting conversations. Thank you very much for your input, the list of recommendations for how to use the network is particularly interesting.
    Alasdair
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  • in reply to Martin
    Hello Martin, apologies for the late reply. I have been getting in touch with my networks though they are primarily more on the recruitment side and I am hoping to be more general as this seems too narrow for my experience. However, it is leading to some interesting conversations. Thank you very much for your input, the list of recommendations for how to use the network is particularly interesting.
    Alasdair
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