Human Resources as a career someone please advice me!

i worked for 4 months in an HR department. I never want to go back. ever.
why dont you try something like hr consultancy? that will involve travel and ostensibly good pay, as well as keeping the human side you seem interested in. Youll have to make presentations to clients and you'll get a lot of variety as well as being challenged.

Cheers Anonymous and Nina for the input!! And good to hear that you got into something that you enjoy doing Anonymous!! Would you mind elaborating on your Recruitment role..? Within the HR "tree", there seems to be numerous amounts of branches within which people can specialise, and I am hoping to be able to get an idea of which of the branches appeals to me the most or whether I am a general HR person.

I am currently on a placement year out working for an IT company, as certain aspects of project management and finance appealed to me, but since I started 2 months ago, I think the appeal has decreased, so I am looking back towards HR. The company I am working for doesn't have many HR opportunities where I am based, and because I am on an 11 month contract, it isnt worth moving into their office quite far away.

But I will be looking into HR experience opportunities over next summer and opportunities after I graduate.

I was wondering, with regards to doing a further course in addition to my degree (ie: masters, etc), would it be recommended to dive straight into it after my undergraduate degree or would it be better to secure a job, and then carry out a course whilst employed (as I have heard that some companies sponsor you to take courses, etc).

Glad you're liking your job anonymous!

Geerthan, If you are wanting to get into HR, have you considered a grad role with a big firm? KPMG for example does a business services grad programme is HR, which might interest you.

Hi Geer thank thanks for the green

What I do is, I do a bit of everything employing of grad roles, preparing inductions, getting candidates cv's looking at them etc its more of a resourcing role. Which basically is all about interviewing candidates and getting them in the right job. Looking for candidates online via monster etc.

Then I work in the other side as well like the on boarding side of recruitment which means when we employ people we have to ensure that they meet within the UK employment laws if that makes sense, so there is a screening process where we check for references, educational certs etc.

You are right there is so so so so much to HR not just recruitment and selection but training and development, payroll, etc.

If you tell me what type of person you are or what you enjoy doing and what you would expect in your day to day life I can possibly advice you or guide you in terms of what branch would be relevant to you, but within any part of HR you chose to go into you will have to start at a low level like an administrator which is very boring and gradually you will build your way up.

I am not that experienced compared to the people I work with but to get to a fun level you really need to start of small and I learnt that whilst working in that environment.

There are several recruitment agencies out there that can put you at a beginner HR role, most likely HR Administrator or Co-ordinator but it all depends on what types of experience you have.

I really recommend the CIPD which is the chartered,institute of personnel development. I went to uni for a year and CIPD is more important to get into the HR sector if you want to work for a co-operate bank or a co-operate environment.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/default.cipd

You can also do prince 2 which is a project management course and as PM is a transferable skill to use in any business you can use it within HR it costs as much as a degree, I plan to do the CIPD next year and get my company to sponser me for my PM course but I would really like to do both.

I understand that finance and PM appeal to you then I feel Pay and Reward would be something that might be of help to you within the HR sector.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/pay/?dropdown=subjects

theres a panel on the side that will give you more detail.

Have you tried speaking to your HR team, speak to the Recruitment Manager in your branch or on a different branch, phone them up and if possible arrange to meet up with them, I am sure they would be happy to help and advice and direct you.

I suggest get into a company that sponsor you to do a masters in HR such as Masters in HR cipd qualified that will most definitely widen your opportunities and people at that level earn around 60,000 where I work.
With the masters of course.

Good luck let me know if you need any furthur help x

I really wouldnt know how to describe me really, its always hard and quite varied, but from what I can say, I am a people person, and I like helping people! I enjoyed my customer service job I have had for a few years and I am expecting to be doing a diverse range of things during a day, and not doing the same thing on a daily basis. So one day I would like to be browsing through applications and matching job requirements and personal characteristics, the next day carrying out interviews, and the day after at a recruitment event - you get the idea.

Though I have no experience, but only theoritical knowledge, I would love to see what I can apply and where, and then really take it from there.

Cheers again for the wealth of info you have provided me with!! Deeply appreciated!!