Your HR progression

[AftersomeAdvice234]

I have a job opportunity in HR, it’s fairly senior and has the chance to take me to Director level should I want to go there (through hard work of course)

I have dabbled in HR previously but don’t have a ton of experience, this role would build on that. It’s in my current organisation, so I know the people well.

here are my questions to you lovely HR lot.

1. what was your HR progression like and where are you now / what is your role?

2. what is your day to day like (positives and negatives) and how is the work life balance / what are your hours like?

especially interested in

• if you managed to get to a senior position within HR
• if you didn’t necessarily start in HR and came in a little later (at a slightly senior level like I would be)
• what type of organisation/ company you currently work at
• if comfortable, your salary.

thank you in advance!

Gentle bump..

HR Director. £100k+. Mid 40s

Worked in HR when I left school, then went into finance and then another profession. Was then asked to head the HR function for the organisation. I was about 28 at the time. Been in HR ever since. Did my Chartered CIPD whilst on mat leave and then kept climbing. Been a director since I was 39 and achieved CIPD fellowship. Now in a national organisation with upwards of 30k people.

There is next to no work life balance, to be completely honest. I moved here last year and there is sooooooo much needs doing. I have a team of about 40, including 10 direct reports. I spend around 75% of office hours in meetings. And the same amount of time actually getting stuff done. I travel 3 days a week on average all over the country so it’s very disruptive to family life. There are generally more ups than down though. I couldn’t do it without a good team.

Message me if you like.

I’m senior in HR at a large employer. Work life balance is very limited, but I love to be busy and I have a short commute so I don’t mind.

work is incredibly varied - can be anything from settling in graduates to working with the board on people strategy.

Thank you both! I will take you up on the offer and drop you a message as I do have some questions

I've spent a lot of time in HR and I'm closer to retirement now than starting.

It is stressful and there is no work life balance if you want to operate at a properly senior level in a business. You're always on call.

You'll need to show your value quickly especially in a senior position to avoid people writing you off as 'just HR'.

Some people say CIPD doesn't matter but many companies still look for it. Your career might be limited if you don't have it. It is a way of making sure you actually understand the detail behind complex HR stuff that people sometimes think is simple.

If you're coming in with not much experience then make sure you have a good team around you and learn from them about stuff that trips people up like employment law.

If your boss isn't in HR, get yourself a mentor from the industry. It's hard being at the top sometimes because you can't talk to people about the challenges who understand. Some days you have to do really hard things and having an outlet can really help.

Good luck.