I am sorry to hear you lost your job but I suspect you know significantly more about HR than you think you do. Working in a small business is not easy and certainly not for everyone but you did it for years, that is a lot of value you can offer your next employer.

In reply to Steven :

Thank you Steven, that is reassuring to hear. Sometimes it just needs looking at from a different perspective!

Hi Rachel, very sorry to learn about the redundancies and wishing you well with finding your next role. I do get how hard it is to see how much experience you have gained and what it actually looks like. It strikes me you have quite a strong starting point given 5.5 years' experience plus your qualification. There have been many threads on this forum from job hunters without any HR or relevant experience so your situation looks more positive to me. A couple of suggestions: it's worth taking a look at the CIPD career guidance pages, link as follows: www.cipd.org/.../
Also, contact your local CIPD branch to see if they offer any support with job hunting or perhaps consider a mentor to support you with your next career move, your local branch could also help, link as follows: www.cipd.org/.../
Good luck and please let us know how you get on. :-)

I'm sorry to hear this, I've personally & professionally been involved in redundancies, it's a tough process all round. Please remember that you are not being made redundant, your role is. You still have your skills and experience.

Working in an SME with 13 employees, I imagine having never worked in that small an environment, you were doing a lot of plate spinning and when an ER issue came up, you may have more of an insight into the personalities than I do working with 150 employees.

Very sorry to hear of your situation! It's always horrible to think about the human cost of businesses failing.

You have probably already done this, but I'd suggest making a list of everything HR-related that you have done, sounds like you have a great generalist level of base knowledge and the policies *& procedures element looks really valuable along with holding the L3.

I even wonder if you might be right for Experience Assessment for Assoc CIPD. Well worth a look.

Strangely enough I am just in the process of recruiting for another HR Administrator for my team after the resignation of a long-served member of staff. If someone's CV arrived on my desk with your profile I'd certainly want to have a chat...

Thankyou all for your lovely messages of support, it is very much appreciated and has definitely helped made me think I could maybe apply for jobs I thought I couldn't. Fingers crossed for the future!

In reply to Rachel:

Wishing you loads of good luck Rachel, if you feel able it would be great to have an update when you've got some time ....

Firsty Rachel, I will echo all the thoughts below and the best wishes too. Redundancy is a bruising experience and has a big impact financially, practically and emotionally and it can be a hhuge shock and leave people reeling. It's completely understandable for this to deal a blow to confidence and wonder what can I do next whilst you are in the middle of navigating that.

I find it often leaves a legacy when it come to looking at the experience you/ we have and what we can do for other companies in the future. We can downplay our experience as a result.

Firstly I'd say, be kind to yourself, this is a tough experience.

Take your time to process it and acknowledge how you feel.

Get a friend to help you to review your skills and experience and CV or ask for a CIPD mentor to help - it's free and there will be people open to mentoring you on career next steps.

Look at your CV and your LinkedIn profile to see how it can be positioned to put you in the best possible position to find new work. Think about what you want and what roles could match your skills, in and outside of HR. Then start looking. Once you have a good CV and profile, you can then move on to practising how to interview again which can be the next stage in recovery.

Wishing you good luck and all the best for your next role. Don't blame yourself for the company's failure to thrive and survive.

Hello Rachel, I'm sorry this has happened to you; it sounds horrible.
I had a couple of thoughts... maybe use this time as an opportunity for reflection, and think about what you really want from a new job. Different size organisation? More HR? Different work pattern?

Are there any local charities that could utilise your skills? They could lead to other opportunities (it did for me). You could also consider signing up to an HR temping agency, where there is often a mix of HR and admin roles going, and offers the opportunity to try different work places. It also puts you in a good position for any permanent jobs that come up.

The other thing I found helpful was that I paid for someone to review and refresh my CV and LinkedIn profile, so my message was stronger and consistent, and following that, I had lots more interest from recruiters. (I used Ella Hutchings Coaching, ex HR professional, who I met at a CIPD branch event!). Whatever the next chapter looks like Rachel, I wish you well.

In reply to Rachel:

Very best, Rachel 

Do come back to us if you need further advice and support. We're here for you.

Hello all, me again! I have a job interview tomorrow with the NHS doing data auditing. It's not directly linked with any of my HR experience but I have a history working in NHS admin and it's good hours to work around childcare (the frustration at the lack of part time opportunities for working parents when you have to fix your nursery days for government funding is another matter!) so fingers crossed. If nothing else it's all good experience!

In reply to Rachel:

Got everything crossed for you Rachel!

In reply to Clare:

Thank you, Clare :)

In reply to Rachel:

Truly hope you get this or another opportunity that works for you Rachel. All the best for the what next/ next step in your career.