I would imagine that someone with hospitality experience would be highly valued. However, the HR market is saturated and getting a job with or without experience is really hard.

I would be tempted to challenge the recruiters to justify their logic of requiring experience in HR.

Just in case you have not done it, join and actively participate in your local CIPD branch, this is a good opportunity to demonstrate your skills to your peers and potentially your next employer.

unpaid internships

These aren't really legal in most cases, so don't ask about them.

The best pathway in, that I've found, is through temp admin work. A few weeks here and a few weeks there, doing data entry, filing, processing and suchlike. Be timely, professional and efficient and make it known that you are interested in a career in HR. Then, if opportunities arise, you'll be given them and you'll start to acquire some of that basic experience that they're looking for. The pay is going to be minimum wage or barely above it, but it's not about the money.

The kinds of thing you want to be doing is note-taking in investigation meetings or hearings, preparing the document packs, sending out invitation letters and scheduling meetings, on-boarding new staff and administering HRIS.

In reply to Robey:

Thank you for your recommendations)

Dear Svitlana,

I agree with both Steven’s and Robey’s comments. I wonder whether, given the rather challenging job market we are experiencing, it might be wiser to play to your strengths by remaining in your current field for now, while continuing to keep an eye on your goal of transitioning into a career in HR.

Since you have already explored the usual avenues to gain initial HR administrative experience of volunteering work, as well as attending conferences and workshops, undertaking a temporary position in an HR administrative role could be very beneficial. However, the difficulty with this approach is that without prior experience, such roles can be hard to secure.

Having said that if you are able to demonstrate in your CV, and during interviews, that in addition to your transferable skills from hospitality, you are a proficient user of Office 365 (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint), Adobe PDF, and similar tools, and have confidence in your ability to produce documents and make amendments to existing letters, reports, spreadsheets, and presentations, that should improve your chances.

HR administrative and HR coordinator roles are no longer found only through HR specialist recruitment agencies, secretarial and PA agencies now advertise them as well. Therefore it may be worth exploring those too.

I truly wish I had more encouraging news, but the reality is that the recruitment landscape is extremely difficult at the moment, with far more applicants than opportunities. That said, I genuinely wish you all the very best in your job search.

I understand that the following can be extremely difficult to keep in mind, especially when you have been searching for work for a long time without any clear breakthrough. However, circumstances never remain the same indefinitely; things do change. It is important to stay prepared, because when that change does arrive, you will want to be ready to make the most of it.

Kind regards,

Paula

In reply to Paula:

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and honest response. I found it truly encouraging — especially your words that "circumstances never remain the same indefinitely; things do change." They gave me a renewed sense of hope and motivation to keep moving forward.

In reply to Svitlana:

You are very welcome, Svitlana. It is important to remember that circumstances never stay the same forever; they do eventually change. The most important thing is to stay ready, so that when the right opportunity comes along, you are in the best position to make the most of it.

It is difficult to get an HR job even when you are in an HR role. You could try getting a decent job in a large organisation that pays the bills and once you're in you can then move towards HR. It is tough oout there for everyone.

In reply to Paul Carter:

thank you)

Morning, I have transitioned from HR in hospitality to educational sector HR. It was incredible hard work. Took me 8months-10months of interviews, recruiter calls and more to do it, when I was even having HR experience. Hospitality is (not lying here) looked down as industry just because of the stereotypes that comes from back old days. I would suggest keep pushing, make connections with recruiters and you might find a silver lining at all of this in the end.

In reply to Brigita:

Thank you)