How to switch career into HR? [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

A female companion of mine has spent the last 3 years as a software href="https://forum.tuteehub.com/tag/engineer">engineer (Java). Now she's thinking of switching href="https://forum.tuteehub.com/tag/career">careers into HR. Here is a list of activities she's hoping to get involved in once she makes the switch;

• Event planning/organization
• Talking to different people
• Booking conference rooms in hotels and making associated arrangements
• Helping finance with data-entry/book-keeping

Can all this be expected of a HR position? Assuming it is, how might someone with a technical background get into that field? Or to phrase the question in a different manner, will lack of an MBA be a deterrent to a successful HR href="https://forum.tuteehub.com/tag/career">career?

manpreet 2 years ago

At my company, all of those tasks are handled by what are now known as "office administrators", the current euphemism for secretaries. This job is pretty low on the totem pole at most companies, so as a Java programmer with work experience, your friend would likely be considered severely overqualified. If they did manage to wrangle their way into such a position, they'd be looking at a major paycut, and it would look equally awkward on her CV if she ever changed their mind and wanted to get back into IT.

HR's actual job is dealing with people, but as interchangeable human resources (hence the name) akin to lumps of coal, not as friends. So they handle hiring people, pretending to help them as long as this aligns with the company's interests, and firing them when it doesn't. (To be clear, HR doesn't call the shots on this, they only execute management's orders.) Instituting and enforcing company policies to ensure the companies comply with the law is also within their remit. Depending on company size and structure, they may also need to handle things like recruitment and payroll. It's not generally regarded as a "fun" job, but it does usually pay a little better than an office admin. But, again, there's no obvious career path from IT to HR.

I'd suggest your friend reconsider and find out exactly what she dislikes about her current job. If she doesn't like spending 99% of her time sitting alone in a cubicle staring at a screen, find a company that does pair programming and has teams that work together. If she wants to work more with people and still leverage her IT skills (and get an IT salary), a discipline like usability/UX might be a viable choice.

manpreet 2 years ago

At my company, all of those tasks are handled by what are now known as "office administrators", the current euphemism for secretaries. This job is pretty low on the totem pole at most companies, so as a Java programmer with work experience, your friend would likely be considered severely overqualified. If they did manage to wrangle their way into such a position, they'd be looking at a major paycut, and it would look equally awkward on her CV if she ever changed their mind and wanted to get back into IT.

HR's actual job is dealing with people, but as interchangeable human resources (hence the name) akin to lumps of coal, not as friends. So they handle hiring people, pretending to help them as long as this aligns with the company's interests, and firing them when it doesn't. (To be clear, HR doesn't call the shots on this, they only execute management's orders.) Instituting and enforcing company policies to ensure the companies comply with the law is also within their remit. Depending on company size and structure, they may also need to handle things like recruitment and payroll. It's not generally regarded as a "fun" job, but it does usually pay a little better than an office admin. But, again, there's no obvious career path from IT to HR.

I'd suggest your friend reconsider and find out exactly what she dislikes about her current job. If she doesn't like spending 99% of her time sitting alone in a cubicle staring at a screen, find a company that does pair programming and has teams that work together. If she wants to work more with people and still leverage her IT skills (and get an IT salary), a discipline like usability/UX might be a viable choice.