So you want to be a Human Resources professional ...

So you want to be a Human Resources professional?

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Human Resources Management (HRM) is one of the hardest business arenas into which to get established, especially at a management level. So many (predominantly female) have to work their way up through the ranks, including paying dues as a ?grunge level staff member? (e.g., HR clerical assistant). I had to start as a entry-level generalist, even though I had a Master?s Degree in Adult Education with a focus on Training and Development in Human Resources.

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If you are in a military retirement town (like I am, near Norfolk), you are also in competition with many military retirees with degrees in HR (but unfortunately are not really versed or practiced in the commercial world of HR). In the military, those in HR functions perform mostly administrative work. In the corporate-world, HRMs have oversight of benefits, compensation plans, legal compliance, training and development, annual evaluations, communications, and payroll. In the military, the federal government deals with many of these oversight functions versus the military veteran HRM. (This is not to downgrade HRM service members, especially those who have degrees; there is a huge amount of compliance in the private, commercial industry to which they haven?t been exposed as a government employee.)

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Yes ? there are limited opportunities, as I noted above for the competition. You could have an ?in? for getting an HR position a little higher than a clerical job. If you have background and skills in accounting, payroll, recruiting, or training, those should open many doors in companies which need an HR person who also monitors, regulates, and has financial decision-making responsibility in those functions. Another niche would be Social Media, with the capability of unique sourcing skills, which would qualify you for HR-related public relations (company branding as employer of choice) or recruiting and headhunting. Work yourself into a job with those niche qualities and experience, then aim towards parallel or higher positions as a HRM with more mainline tasks in the HR realm.

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Ideas to provide ? foot-in-the-door? experience to add another resume bullet:

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Visit your local Retail Alliance, Chamber of Commerce, and Better Business Bureaus. Create your own ?internship? by offering your services as a Payroll/HR/Recruiter/Social Media Manager. If you can afford to do it for free, do so; otherwise, ask for minimum wage. (DOL law states internships must be paid if intern is predominantly learning about job functions, while unpaid internships must be ?in training? for a larger percentage of time on the job.)

If you can?t find enough interest from those business venues, go to www.MeetUp.com, and look for entrepreneurial business groups. Many of these groups have free membership. Announce your desires to obtain an internship (paid/unpaid) to add HR experience to your resume or to get a job. If members don?t necessarily have a need, they might know someone else. There are some Job Club groups on this site, also.

Look in non-profit organizations, private schools, local government offices who might need an intern for niche skills; work for a few months (length of time related to salary required).

Find a mentor. Obtaining an HR mentor who can meet with you for lunch or let you job-shadow for about a week might be helpful to learning and experience for a resume bullet as well as a recommendation.

Don?t look only in Monster.com or CareerBuilder for jobs. Find other job posting boards. Search LinkedIn groups (job boards, career, and trades) to join discussions in group?s or to review job postings. Answer questions related to HR in the LinkedIn Q&A forum ? see who comments ? then reach out to touch base.

Query in WordPress for job notices or job boards and search out headhunters and recruiters who place folks in jobs of all levels.

Don?t overlook Temp Work Agencies for jobs with HR or that niche experience.

Look for HR or Personnel Management events, Recruiting and Career Search Job Fairs, or even Job Clubs in Facebook and LinkedIn. Attend conferences, conventions, state chapters of SHRM, ASTD, and CEBS to network. Use business card info to continue discussions ?off-line.?

Don?t ask for a job directly from these new contacts, but ask if they know of anyone with a need for an entry-level management HRM or niche specialists that may lead to a HR mid-management level job.

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A 1970 research study by Mark Granovetter demonstrated it?s not your close personal contacts who can network you a job (16.7%), it?s primarily through ?barely know them acquaintances.? The economy still is ?down? for many job searches and the human resources fields are often affected a little harder because some companies feel an HR person is one of the non-revenue positions they can spare. Use these ideas to open doors (and windows) to that Human Resources (or other!) position you are working to break into the field.

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Dawn Boyer can be reached at Dawn.Boyer@me.com and is the owner of D. Boyer Consulting. We ?Optimize Human Assets, SEO Resumes, and Link-You to LinkedIn,? (http://dboyerconsulting.com); providing human resources and business development consulting for small businesses, resume coaching, and train users on LinkedIn social media. Copyright 2012 by Dawn D. Boyer.

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