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How do HR professionals get a job these days?

Paul Carter

I am an HR blogger writing about what the jobs market is looking like for HR professionals.

If you are looking for a new job, does being a generalist in HR count against you? Being a specialist may be more appealing to employers, but it can leave you typecast. But it’s better to be an experienced HR professional than a fledgling HR starter, unless you are of a certain age, right? That certain age depends on perspective and how many applications you have submitted.

Are we worrying about nothing or is it becoming difficult to find an HR job? The wider UK labour market has cooled considerably. Employer hiring intentions are at some of their lowest levels outside the pandemic, and vacancies have fallen significantly from their peak levels. The CIPD reports that only 62% of employers plan to recruit in the next three months, with many focusing on maintaining rather than expanding headcount. Are you job hugging, waiting for your employers hands to meet in the middle?

Mid to senior HR roles in 2026 are converging around five big capability areas: strategic partnering, complex ER, organisational change, data literacy, and leadership influence. Is it becoming harder to switch from private to public sector HR roles?

How confident are you feeling about your employability? Is your job upskilling or deskilling you?

Ask yourself if you are:

Transactional: Am I administering a process?

Tactical: Am I implementing a plan?

Strategic: Am I shaping future direction?

It would be great to hear your views for my article and podcast

Thanks

Paul

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  • Paul Carter said:
    is it becoming difficult to find an HR job?

    Well, yes. But I think it's a combination of factors. For a start, there are simply fewer vacancies being advertised because the job market is just generally quite slow, right now. But as salaries are also fairly stagnant and lagging behind the cost of living increase, the only way for people to increase their income is to look for a new job. This means that the vacancies that are advertised do tend to get a lot of applications.

    But, at the same time, I have observed that hiring managers are less willing - given the market - to take risks or make imaginative hiring decisions. They want to recruit someone who has already done everything they want them to do in the same industry or field. But as most people applying are looking for a step up, not a step sideways, a majority of candidates are being discounted regardless of their suitability because they aren't a sufficiently exact match for the needs.

    Thus we simultaneously have candidates complaining that they are having to apply for hundreds of jobs to secure any interviews, while hiring managers complain that there is a dearth of qualified candidates.

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  • Paul Carter said:
    is it becoming difficult to find an HR job?

    Well, yes. But I think it's a combination of factors. For a start, there are simply fewer vacancies being advertised because the job market is just generally quite slow, right now. But as salaries are also fairly stagnant and lagging behind the cost of living increase, the only way for people to increase their income is to look for a new job. This means that the vacancies that are advertised do tend to get a lot of applications.

    But, at the same time, I have observed that hiring managers are less willing - given the market - to take risks or make imaginative hiring decisions. They want to recruit someone who has already done everything they want them to do in the same industry or field. But as most people applying are looking for a step up, not a step sideways, a majority of candidates are being discounted regardless of their suitability because they aren't a sufficiently exact match for the needs.

    Thus we simultaneously have candidates complaining that they are having to apply for hundreds of jobs to secure any interviews, while hiring managers complain that there is a dearth of qualified candidates.

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