Post Masters...feeling unmotivated, perhaps I chose the wrong subject?

[Wadingthroughshit]

Hi, I have an Hons undergraduate in Social Science and an MSc in HRM accredited by the CIPD.
I started working in an assistant role, for which I was told at interview a Master's wasn't needed, but that the market is flooded so only Masters were being interviewed (however the post was originally for an advisor role, but no suitable candidates found).
I am a single mother to two boys, 4&8. I work PT, and like to work FT when the youngest starts school in August. My role is a FTC, expiring in May. There are four of us on FTC and we have just been told there are three jobs now to be made permanent, one of which is my PT role, and only one more assistant.
I feel anxious, unmotivated, unconfident and it shows. I feel.as though I picked the wrong subject and was disallousioned with HR, it's administration. I also feel as though, although I worked by butt off doing there degrees with two children alone, I can't have it all, I can't work the hours I want, and that the organisation may want. I feel stuck.

Give yourself a break. It takes time to get things right and progress in a careeer, and you've done really well to get yourself this job.

I'm not an HR expert, but I know enough to be clear that it is a very wide field indeed, and that you may well have opportunities to specialise into areas that you find more interesting within that field. So you really do just need to see your MSc as a starting point, a launch pad for things that will develop later. Over time, you can keep your eyes open and you will see roles that suit you, and you can apply for them. But Rome will not be built in a day.

I don't mean any of this harshly btw. Like you, I have young kids and have recently done a Masters, and I won't go into my list of other qualifications and experience, but I get the slogging bit and I get the feeling of 'where is the payoff after all the work?' and the feeling that maybe out there is a qualification that makes you uber desirable in the job market that I have somehow missed. I'm not sure that's true though - at least not unless you are already well progressed down some kind of technical/engineering route to an area with a massive skills shortage.

And looking at my legions of friends who have Oxbridge degrees, Distinctions at masters coming out of their ears, there are few silver bullets from education - you just get a starting point that is still worth having, because at least you can generally get a job!