Can you/should you get hired in HR as a man? Is HR for females only?

HR is highly female at all levels. The irony is that men tend to be over represented at more senior levels than they are at junior levels though.

Why is it? Well it's probably the same reasons as teaching and nursing - it just appeals to women more.

HR is a pretty broad church within itself - there's lots of specialisms within it. But generally most HR people need to be pretty good at emphasising with others without being walked all over. They often have to be pretty patient too. Although a lot of people won't necessarily see it there is this "caring" side to HR that you have to switch on a lot but at the same time you have to be absolutely ruthless on the other. In generalist HR, which is usually when you are the go to person for employees, you just have to deal with everyone's s**t, or at least have to listen to at a lot of it if you don't even have to deal with it. And they often have to be the messenger that everyone wants to shoot, when they should be really wanting to shoot the senior management.

So HR becomes a mixture of being a counsellor, negotiator, parent, confidant, teacher, middle man, messenger, note taker, friend, foe, and advisor. I think these responsibilities generally appeal to women much more than men.

HR has a weird dynamic and it's one I never really liked nor had much time for. It also the reason why HR gets a reputation for being quite cliquey/b****y (nice one minute, coming down hard the next).

But there are aspects/specialisms within HR that are really not like this at all. I was lucky to find mine early on in my career and avoided generalist HR thankfully.

It's also not very well paid compared to other professions. You can earn decent money from it (I did anyway) but when compared to what the equivalent manager levels earn in IT/Accounts and some other business service functions, HR tends to pay significantly less. Women are less motivated by money than men, and so again it will probably attract more women to the profession.




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I personally wouldn't go into the HR profession, because it's not the career I want

Put simply I imagine it is because it is a job role that requires large amounts of empathy. Women on average are more empathetic than men and so it appeals to them and they're better at it. This is then compensating for when we reach the higher levels of such careers because of the lack of drive to pursue high careers in women relative to men.

I'm sure if you're good at it then you'll do fine regardless of your sex

Do you really think so, would you pursue a career in HR? How is it regarded among men in other departments within a given organisation, and by society in general? (compared with, for example, marketing or consulting)

Op, it sounds like you're more bothered about what people would think about you rather than the role itself. If it's something you want to do, do it, **** what other people think of you, it's your career in the end.

My opinions here are not very strong as I haven't done the statistical analysis. I haven't checked the extent to which males dominate in HR jobs at the high end and compared it to other jobs to see if there was a disparity. But what I said seems to make sense according to the theory.

HR would definitely interest me, although personally I want to go into police work. I hope you can see the resemblance in the careers. Perhaps eventually I will work for the HR team for the police, lol.

I should point out I am female. I still work in HR, I am just self employed. I've had male managers and male staff reporting into me though, and I don't think any of them have a masculinity crisis, just like women in male dominated industries don't struggle with their gender.

I can't compare it to teaching or nursing have never done those careers. I've tried to show why I think women are attracted to HR more than men, I am not really sure what you want me to say.

It is a lower paid profession compared to other professions. You will earn more in IT, accounts, or any other industry. The exception might be marketing, but even some parts of marketing will pay more than HR. The good thing about HR is you find out what everyone else is earning within the same organisation, so most HR employees know they are earning comparatively less to people on the same grade/job title as them in other departments.

Recruitment consultancy is different as it is commissioned based, so should be seen as more of a sales based role than HR.

Most HR roles I know in top organisations that are only looking for 2-3 years experience are not paying £50k - possibly £35-40 at best and if you are CIPD qualified, and that tends to be only in London in Banking/Law. Salaries are going up of late, but you'd earn more in other areas of the business.





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Yes this is indeed true. I am not going to try and pretend this is not the case. I am genuinely bothered about how others perceive me. I am worried that in the long term I will indeed suffer from a masculinity crisis, so I prefer to discuss it now. Would you do HR, why and why not?

You dont have to be a pretty blonde with a big rack to work in HR anymore no, its evolved slightly from being a receptionist )

I've worked in payroll in the past which is similar to HR, but I wouldn't consider a career in HR, I'm quite happy as a nurse. I'm secure in my masculinity, I don't care about other's opinions of whether my job is manly or not, I love my job and find it immensely rewarding.

Most people in HR do a degree (pretty much in any subject) and then do a specialised masters in HR, gaining their CIPD accreditation in the process. But it really doesn't matter where you do the Masters though (well for the UK anyway).

Hey you're not kidding right? How on earth did it happen that you've worked in HR and now you're nurse, being a man? This cannot be true?

x

I ended up in payroll work through a temp agency, the work was easy and it paid the bills. I did consider HR work and getting my qualifications but I'm not a fan of the 9-5

I got into nursing as I had an interest in healthcare, looked at ODP but there's a lot more variety in nursing.

And I drink beer, fart and enjoy watching the six nations.

Do you really think so, would you pursue a career in HR? How is it regarded among men in other departments within a given organisation, and by society in general? (compared with, for example, marketing or consulting)

Could you please elaborate on why you definitely would not want a career in HR? What is your desirable career path