Women in HR please advise!!

[anne1985]

Women in HR please I need your advice!! I’m considering starting a Postgraduate course in HR management as I need a career change but I am not sure this is the right decision for me. I am 42 years old and would like a job that pays well and I could progress further. For women who are working or have worked in HR, do you enjoy it? Would you change it if you could? Thank you!!

I really enjoy it.

what attracts you to HR as a career? What sort of work do you enjoy?

I studied psychology in another country but I realised I don’t want to work on that. I was thinking that HR could be a good option as I live in central London and probably would be easier to find a job here. Would you say the salary is good in HR?

You will struggle to do a PG diploma if you don't already work in HR with some experience. It's all theory otherwise and the concepts can be a challenge to grasp if you are not already in that field. You might consider an apprenticeship levels 3/5/7 which wrap around work experience and lead to chartered membership of the CIPD.

I'd also consider what job you actually want to do? Do you want to focus on employment law/policy and procedure so you can advise best practice to managers conducting disciplinary and grievances, do you want close employee contact and engagement as maybe a recruitment role in organising and preparing candidates for interview might be a better link or do you want to help people develop their skills to do the job you might be better focused on a training role. HR is pretty varied.

Yes you can earn a decent salary in Hr, though it’s less than the equivalent seniority in finance or sales. If your primary motivation is money then HR isn’t the right career for you

You should also look carefully at how AI is impacting HR. A LOT of current roles will be taken over, so you will need to be a specialist or in a real niche within the field to maintain the edge over an AI who can do a huge chunk of day to day work.

Hi @singthing what do you think might be a good speciality within HR ?

@HermioneWeasley I am not looking to earn as much as a finance position, (mainly as I don’t have any qualifications on this field and I’ll need a different degree than the one I have) more like a decent salary that allows me a career change with the Masters I am planning on pursuing. I understand I’ll have to start working for a basic salary in the beginning while learning but I was looking for something that allows me to grow and eventually get a better salary.

I don't think a Masters is going to help if you don't already work in the field. It won't open doors to a new job if you don't have relevant work experience.

You'd be better getting an entry level post in a large organisation which will (i) have various areas of HR (eg Employee Relations, Policy, People Partnering) and not just operational, and (ii) is more likely to invest in professional development and encourage staff to progress within the department.

I think that rather depends on your skills and experience, but broadly anything above the day to day or more junior roles.

Off the top of my head, being an expert in, say, the more arcane elements of employment rights law would probably be quite valuable, given the huge surge in people using LLMs to lodge ET cases as litigants in person.

But tbh, you need to DYOR into why you initially liked and selected HR and then carefully evaluate how that area may diversify in an AI world and find the niche therein, rather than pick randomly just because it might outstay it.

What have you been doing work wise up to now? How transferable is it?

@PinkPhonyClub child psychology. I was considering doing the Master in HR as I did touch some organisational psychology subjects on my studies. (This was ages ago and in a different country, but I liked it) Also, I got an unconditional offer at a University for HR management PG so that could be an option for me. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my life at this point hence asking for advice here

To see if I could clear my head a bit :(

I’ve been in HR in different versions for over 20 years. My package is worth over £100k but I have put in considerable mileage at this point, having started at the bottom and worked my way up. I am Chartered CIPD which is about the minimum you need for a senior position. It’s incredibly demanding, frustrating but also rewarding if your temperament suits the nature of the work.

I expect without experience or quals you’d be looking at a ceiling of £40k in central London for an entry level role. And there is a lot of competition because everyone underestimates how challenging HR work actually is.

I don’t agree. I think it’s a flash in the pan. My organisation hasn’t actually implemented any AI in our HR processes yet and already everyone is sick of it. Even the implementation of a ticketing system for queries had people crying out that they “wanted to speak to a human”.

i wouldn’t bother with a masters. Get an entry level role and start your CIPD level 5 as soon as you have got to grips with the basics.

I work in HR and currently make decent money and have flexibility for family life. Not amazing but I make £550 a day contracting.

A masters degree in HR isn’t an entry point and you will need to start relatively low in an entry level position. Part of that is the experience you need in dealing with employee relations cases. Part of it is that you do need to build a certain resilience in dealing with quite difficult issues I.e firing people, managing sickness absence, taking people through disciplinary procedures. This isn’t something many (if any) people find pleasant.

There are loads of options though, you could look to work in organisational development or learning and development.

I've worked in HR for 20 years now. I'm chartered CIPD considering going for fellowship level membership
I fell into it through my psychology degree not knowing what I wanted to do as a career, it introduced me to the concept of organisational psychology which then led me to my postgraduate qualification in HR management.
My role was traditionally employee relations but now I'm in a projects focused role.

I always think of HR as being really poor in terms of accepting those with non HR experience. It's that old saying you can't get a job without experience, but you can't get experience without a job. You'll be looking at entry level roles regardless of what type of qualifications you've got if you don't have any experience.

I would love to move out of HR actually I'm finding employees expectations more and more difficult to manage. Maybe it's compassion fatigue

I work in HR and I love it (for a charity and part time so lower salary though) I also have an MSc in HR Management that’s also a CIPD level 7. If the course you’re considering isn’t also CIPD L7 accredited, don’t bother. They aren’t all.

I would agree with others that doing a masters, whilst interesting and worthwhile if you enjoy academics, won’t get you in at a higher rung as so much is learnt on the job. The study consolidates it but you need to actually deal with stuff to understand how to approach the work. More of what I draw on day to day comes from experience than study. You will probably need to go in at a fairly junior level unless you can evidence very relevant transferable skills, which plenty do of course

It’s also a tricky industry to get work in at the moment, lots of people going for the same roles, salaries squeezed, and our worth isn’t always understood so more senior expectations get squeezed into lower rung job descriptions. It can also be very stressful dealing with people all the time, I deal with a lot of wellbeing issues as well as employee relations issues and it can be draining. Not saying don’t do it, but good to have a realistic picture.

I would echo what others have said and not bother jumping into doing the MSc with no actual HR experience. An assistant/admin level role within an organisation where you can progress and perhaps have future qualifications funded would be a good option.

FWIW, I have worked in HR for 14 years now and it can be a very exhausting and mentally draining line of work. I was underpaid for many years but currently earn £60k in a mid-senior level role (I am in Scotland, so not a London salary) and manage a team of three (two coordinators and an admin). There are many days that I seriously doubt my choice of career! Obviously it depends on several factors, but it is not for the weak imo.

I was considering Fellowship, but nowadays it knocks 10% off your value.

60% of my HR function have moved into HR from other things. I spend half my life fixing stuff they have no clue about. (They clearly think HR is easy.)

I would love to move out of HR actually I'm finding employees expectations more and more difficult to manage. Maybe it's compassion fatigue

post-Covid selfishness and epic levels of entitlement

Can you elaborate a little, please, @NotTheHRPolice?

I’m a Chartered Fellow and have never heard of this.

OP, I’ve enjoyed my HR career for 20 years - HR admin (£12k in 2007) - HR advisor - (22k in 2010) - HR BP (£30k in 2012) - HR Manager (£43k in 2015) - Head of HR (£66k in 2017) - Director of HR (£75k in 2020 - Rising to £90k by 2024). I studied as I went and have held FCIPD for 3 years; it hasn’t devalued me.

I’m actually now a COO and oversee other operational areas as well as HR.

@anne1985 One thought that occurred to me - you might enjoy change management. I know someone who also studied Psyc and they work in CM and find it very fulfilling and interesting and there is a lot of peopley aspects to it as well.

Take a look at some specs for that type of role and see if it appeals?