I've never really understood why sociology gets the bad rep that it does - and I say this as someone with a Polsci masters.
It should be a super important and really respected subject like economics; after all it is the study of human group behaviour. I can only think that it's because of the general politics of the people that research, teach and study it - essentially they come across as do-gooder girls and soyboys. And to an extent, there is something to this - anything in social policy has the tendency to be theory on inequality, which is by its very nature a value prejudgement in of itself. Same with criminology - the general direction of most theory and research tends to be trying to explain why groups commit crime - and this then has the tendency to also become a treatise on inequality. By its very nature, the kind of people that are going to be interested in this kind of theory are going to be lefties, your danger hair girls and your soyboys.
Does that mean you can't do good work and you can't do serious research? Of course not. In academia, find your niche and you can totally rule. If you are looking to do private sector - if you went to a good sounding university, I don't see why it should make any difference, but don't expect to jump the queue in front of the maths and econ people.
I'm not convinced that HR is really that connected to sociology. That's a different type of organisational behaviour - more of a business / management type thing (which is another subject that has the same problems). As for teaching - sure you'll be able to get a job because they'll take pretty much anyone, but you might be restricted to social sciences and maybe even VI form or GCSE. If that's what you want, then fill your boots.