Career change- HR or research?

[Twoshoesnewshoes]

I am looking to change career, I have a degree in psychology and will soon have a masters in this, but my main career and masters (and all training and development) has been in mental health services. I am a practitioner and line manager.
I’m looking to move out of this career, and ideally I don’t want to directly support or manage anyone ever again.
I am too old to completely retrain and also can’t afford to be right at the bottom of a ladder.
I enjoy researching, planning projects, don’t mind spreadsheets etc!
would research or HR be a good move? Can anyone in those jobs advise me?
I ultimately need to earn around £30 to £35k
thanks!

Anyone?
please help 😊

I've just left my career to start off in research and love it but it's a long old slog to make it anywhere. I have a masters degree and have managed to get a research assistant post in Psychology which is quite competitive and most people already have a PhD. I'm really enjoying it but if I want to get anywhere long term I'll have to get one as well. I would suggest trying a research assistant post to see if you like it as they're usually short term contracts. If you don't then try something else.

I have also worked in HR briefly and it didn't suit me, it felt too much like bureaucratic paper pushing (but that might just be me!). You'd probably also need to get a cipd qualification to get anywhere in that.

Are you open to getting more qualifications to be able to change careers?

Thank you that’s really helpful.
yes definitely open and expecting to study or train for the next step, happy to do another master’s.

Can't speak for research other than to say my husband is a researcher in a different (but not a million miles away) field and its tough, it takes years and years and a lot of unpaid extra work to progress. It works for him but it's his life work and he's very passionate about it. I wouldn't do it.

I'm HR qualified but work in a broader role now. Wellbeing is a big area of interest these days for employers, could you offer anything in this area either as an employee or independent consultant? I assume you're nhs? Could you consider more strategic roles, I can think of a few things you could look into, commissioning, strategy, population health, loads of programme management roles, some CSUs have consulting and research arms too, much of this can be done remotely.

Generalist HR roles will often require a CIPD qualification and are often not what people imagine, you'd almost certainly end up managing staff too. Though health / wellbeing roles might suit.

Thanks Cakeandslippers I’ll look into those areas

If you don't like managing people and dealing with people, don't go into hr. I think you can be more of a hermit in research!

I work in HR and the advice/ employee relations side is generally all about advising internal customers, who are managers, on how to deal with employee issues such as grievance, sickness absence disciplinary hearings etc. It can be quite customer focused and coachy if that's your bag.

At the higher end (business partner) you'll be advising more senior management on things like restructure, tupe transfer and people strategy.

Not easy to break into or, in my experience, progress to senior level as there's a lot of competition for the senior roles and if you're not progressed internally you can get stuck/ typecast at advisor level that was my experience anyway although I did eventually break through.

Very competitive and you'll need a CIPD qualification to progress but in the main I'm glad I chose it as a career.

There are other areas like recruitment, learning and development etc if you prefer those to employee relations/advice.

Decent money at mid-senior levels and up.

Thank you, learning and development definitely appeals