A career in HR- some advice

[MichelleK]

Hi all buzz members!
I wondered if I would be able to get some advice? I have recently completed my degree in business with a major in HR/Marketing. However, I am very passionate about HR in particular ie recruitment, OH&S, L&D primarily. Although I was offered to complete my honours, I rejected the offer hoping I would be able to find my dream job. Big mistake! I am now finding it quite difficult to find an organisation that is offering entry level jobs for graduates with little experience. This has now left me wondering...... should I have completed my honours to really stand out above the rest?
What I would like to know is, which is more important? Academic achievements or experience? If experience is the case, where do I start, what do I look for?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,
Michelle

[Just a Dude]

Thats a classic catch 22 situation!
From an employer's perspective, experience will always outweigh acedemic excellence. However thats not to say that what you have done is totally useless. Qualifications do come into play, but in the real world, they are not as important as you would think. They do assist with promotions, and pay raises, but on the whole, they won't open any closed doors for you, unless your an exceptional student.
Growing up, I was led to believe that a university degree would be what seperated myself from the general population, and I did obtain one in the HR field. Sadly though when I finished I was stuck in a similar situation as yourself, and was job hunting for a number of years (although I did have a full time role in another field), and found it difficult to break into a suitable role.
Stick with it, and you will make it. I have now been working in Recruitment for several years so there is no reason to give up.
Also don't forget to network! Its the most valuable tool/resource to draw upon when getting a start/transitioning into other fields.

[NicoleL]

Hi Michelle,

I have been in HR now for 11 years and commenced in the field without a degree. However, 3 years in I decided to go back to university and obtain my Bachelor of Business in HRM/IR and after 6 years part-time, finally completed it 2 years ago. The qualification now does stand me out from the rest of the crowd in terms of promotions/transfters/secondments, however initially it did not make much difference.

I would recommend, as I did, commencing in state government in an organisation such as Dept of Justice, Victoria Police, Dept of Premier and Cabinet initially in a HR Officer role and then obtaining as much experience as you can in a HR generalist role and then moving either around the organisation or across into other state government depts to allow you to broaden your wings. Once you have obtained the generalist experience, then I would specialise in a number of areas before finally settling on whether you want to be a generalist or a specialist in a particular field.

Jump onto jobs.vic.gov.au or email me and we can talk further.

Good luck with your search. You will have success in the near future.

Nicole

[MichelleK]

Thankyou both for the helpful advice. What I have found at university is that students who graduate with a degree in finance or accounting are able to choose whatever job they want given the amount of jobs out there for their profession. HR.. not so easy which is why I was considering honours. However, I’ve decided not to aim for a specific company specialising in HR just yet. So I am going to start looking at more generalist roles in government departments as Nicole suggested.
Also, Just A Dude I know networking would definitely help but to my knowledge, I dont know anyone in HR. Apart from everyone on here of course :). But I will definitely keep my eyes open.
Thankyou both again!

Michelle