HR professionals--need opinion

[lschrader]

I wasn't sure where to post this so hopefully this board is okay.

I currently working as an advisor at a public university but I'm interested in Human Resources. I have a BS and MS but neither are related to business/HR. Can anyone that works in HR recommend what I should do if I'm interested in this field? Do I need to get another degree? If so, an undergraduate or graduate degree? If I take some business/HR classes, would that be acceptable and just try to sell myself? Do you like this field or things you wish you'd known? I live in Southern Indiana and could take classes for free at my current place of employment, but I don't want to complete a full degree if I don't need it.

Thank you!   

[Reynolds531]

HR seems to be a short term gig. Lot of job hopping voluntary and otherwise

[Gimesalot]

A few of the HR people I know are certified through http://www.chrp.ca/.  That might be a good place to start looking or information.

[qbird]

I would look at your skill set and see where your skills would best fit within the HR environment of the University.  You are an advisor, so maybe focus on employee relations or training and development.  Make connections within the HR department, watch the job postings and when a position arises apply for it.  You may have to go for a more entry level position but not necessarily.  Taking a few classes in HR would show your interest and give you some general knowledge of the field. 

[QueenV]

I started as an Admin assistant, then worked my way up to Office Manager and then HR, mostly working with on boarding and benefits. I have a bachelors degree but nothing related to HR or business.  It's possible to get into it without a special degree! A few related classes could certainly help, especially if you can take them for free.

I'd recommend looking for HR jobs at smaller companies. They often combine HR positions with either office manager duties or accounting. Could be a good way to get experience and then you could move on if you wanted. You might want to consider taking some bookkeeping classes, as that might get your foot in the door with a combined HR/bookkeeper role. Some companies will say they want an HR degree or certification, but I think you can find places who won't care.

[gooki]

What type of advisor are you now?

You should be able to walk into a HR admin or HR recruitment role easily and work your way up to an HR advisor role quickly giving you education/experience.

If you want to go straight to an advisor role I'd look into industry specific short course training.

[lschrader]

I started as an Admin assistant, then worked my way up to Office Manager and then HR, mostly working with on boarding and benefits. I have a bachelors degree but nothing related to HR or business.  It's possible to get into it without a special degree! A few related classes could certainly help, especially if you can take them for free.

I'd recommend looking for HR jobs at smaller companies. They often combine HR positions with either office manager duties or accounting. Could be a good way to get experience and then you could move on if you wanted. You might want to consider taking some bookkeeping classes, as that might get your foot in the door with a combined HR/bookkeeper role. Some companies will say they want an HR degree or certification, but I think you can find places who won't care.

Thanks for the advice QueenV. I think  I'm going to try to take some classes and see if I actually like HR or if I'm just idealizing it. I really like my current job but I just feel like the pay is low and it is unlikely that I will get any significant raises. Prior to working at a university I worked in an accounting department doing sale audit work.

What type of advisor are you now?

You should be able to walk into a HR admin or HR recruitment role easily and work your way up to an HR advisor role quickly giving you education/experience.

If you want to go straight to an advisor role I'd look into industry specific short course training.

Gooki--My job title is Academic Advisor. I work with students that are majoring in clinical majors. Other than doing mock interviews with students, I'm not sure how applicable my current job would be to anything HR related. While I don't have any recruitment experience formally, I do know about recruitment from an education standpoint so maybe that would be beneficial for recruiting employees?

Thanks everyone!

[Need2Save]

Hi. Another HR Professional here.  My undergrad degree was in business, but fell into HR sort of by accident based on the first job I got out of school.  Very few HR professional have an HR degree for undergrad. If they are very serious about working up to an executive level position, then maybe a Masters, but it's not necessary at all.   

None of the previous posters have mentioned the 2 credentials that are most common in the HR world.  SHRM has a professional designation program (go to SHRM.org) and then also an organization called HRCI.  (Go to HRCI.org for more information on this one).  These 2 entities used to work with one another, but SHRM recently split off and do their own designations now.  Both are structured so you can get one in lower level jobs for example like HRCI's PHR (Professional Human Resources Professional) or a SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resources).  You don't necessarily need one of these credentials to get your foot in the door in HR, but once you've been in the field for a few years - it's pretty much expected that you would get at least one of these to move up from entry level positions.  Both require you to study extensive material and sit for an exam.  There are costs involved but you can study on your own time if that suits you.

Our community college offers some very basic HR related courses from time-to-time that are cheap and taught in the evenings.  That's probably all you need to do to find out whether this field will really hold your interest or not. 

As far as skill sets go, I think your experience with recruiting students and counseling students is very transferable.  You may easily transfer some of these talents to recruiting.  Also Benefits, another specialty, has many counseling components to it when dealing directly with employees on understanding how the benefits work at your company.  I would recommend looking for a large employer that has the greater chance of having a large HR team.  One that you can connect with a good mentor and have opportunities to move up to another position once you conquer the boring administrative stuff they give to newbies. 

Also your time in accounting can be transferable as well. In HR we deal with a lot of spreadsheets for compensation and benefits.  There are budgets to monitor and invoices to be paid, etc. etc.   

As far as being a more lucrative field to be in, I'm not sure about that.  The only folks that really kill it in HR are the ones that work in the field a long time and work themselves up to senior manager/executive level positions or they serve a specific nitch in a high volume area (thinking about head-hunters or recruiters that work for themselves in good job markets).  But you can make a very decent salary.  If your salary is very low at the university, it may be a step up though in the right direction. 

Good luck to you!

[Fishindude]

The Indiana state chamber of commerce has lots of very affordable training sessions and training material related to HR.
Might be a good way to rub elbows with people in this line of work.

[Winter's Tale]

Since you're in higher education, check out CUPA-HR.  It's a professional association for HR professionals working for colleges and universities.

I work in higher ed HR and we typically look for previous experience in HR for mid-level and senior positions but will consider those without HR experience for entry level positions.  Perhaps you can join a hiring committee or supervise a student intern/worker in your department.  Maybe you can help put together a training program for a new coworker.  These things would be helpful experience.  Are there any HR staff members you know?  Invite them to lunch and ask them about their jobs.  Depending on how large your institution is, there can be a high degree of specialization in HR.  With your experience in auditing, you may have skills that would be transferable to HRIS/payroll/benefits.

Check out any local HR professional associations.  Often they hold events or seminars that are fairly affordable and would give you the opportunity to talk to people in HR to learn about their career path and what they like/dislike.

[cube.37]

Recruiter here doing specifically financial services executive search. My suggestion is to look at the heads of HR at the largest corporations (JPMorgan, Walmart, etc) and just look at their bios. You'll see what the typical paths are to get to that top level. Check out their linkedins for progression too.

Like some of the posters above have mentioned, some typical paths in HR are comp & benefits and internal recruiting.

There are also a ton of HR consulting firms that you might want to check out (ex. willis towers watson, mercer, pwc, EY and Pearl Meyer are some compensation consulting firms). We just spoke to an MD at one of these and he was making $1million/yr.

If you want to go into recruiting, you can go inhouse and do internal recruiting or do it at a recruiting firm - either lower level staffing agencies, or executive recruiting (korn ferry, russell reynolds, heidrick, etc). The average entry level recruiting analyst (straight out of college) at a korn ferry is usually around 50-70k all in, in NYC. The partners here are probably making $1.5million/yr.

It's crazy how much some of the top HR people make...for entry level roles, you should check out glassdoor to get a sense of comp.

[lschrader]

Thank you everyone! I currently make $37,000...which isn't terrible. However, I don't anticipate being able to move into a higher paying role unless a director were to retire/quit...I would also need several more years of experience. I would not want to leave my current job for at least one year, but I would like to think about the future. I've tried to get an idea of what salaries are like in my area but have been struggling to find that information. Many jobs in our area don't post salary ranges online. Thank you everyone for your suggestions and thoughts!


Second question...is it worth my time (if I decide this is truly something I want) to pursue my MBA? We have an MBA program with a concentration in Human Resources that I could complete for free. That being said, would it be worth it? Too much education without enough experience? Or should I stick to some undergraduate classes and look into credentials like PHR?

[Firehazard]

I handle all the HR responsibilities at my company, as well as a few other accounting functions.  I hate my job overall, but I must say that the HR portion is what's really driving my determination to FIRE.

[azure975]

I handle all the HR responsibilities at my company, as well as a few other accounting functions.  I hate my job overall, but I must say that the HR portion is what's really driving my determination to FIRE.

Interesting--can you elaborate? I'm an accountant as well but have recently taken over some HR responsibilities due to the departure of our HR director. So far I enjoy it but I mainly am just doing administrative things. I have a feeling that I don't have the personality to really advance in HR even though I enjoy it. Higher level HR seems to require a lot of soft skills and strategy, while I am more of an introvert and sort of awkward. Accounting is a good fit for my personality but I like having a bit of variety.