Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
I studied HRM in uni and currently my girlfriend is in HR at a luxury goods MNC.
Like you, I was once impressed with what I studied and was actually thinking of joining HR, but I advise you to get more feedback from actual HR people before taking the plunge. You probably learn things like industrial relations, organization behavior, talent management, training development etc., but a real life HR department does not do any of these things.
Base on my girlfriend experience (she has been around 1 blue chip GLC and 2 MNC) and my own observation of HR in my company, I can safely say for the first 5 years you will be doing a combination of
1) Daily recruitment of low level staff
2) Administering payroll
3) Doing paperwork to sign up staff for courses
4) Organizing welfare events like D&D, family day, teambuilding gatherings, functional lunches etc.
The people around you are likely to be aunties or ladies with families who are there to pass time. If you want work life balance and don’t mind this kind of colleagues and lots of paperwork, then go for it. If you are young & ambitious and gunning for professional development and career advancement, joining HR from the bottom rungs is a bad idea.
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Concur 101%. I used to work as a management consultant specializing in organization restructuring before being headhunted by a high tech MNC client to join as Business Partner for Human Capital Development. That was the worst experience of my life,
For 5 months I was doing nothing but batch interviews for operators, executives and rushing around to file paperwork for all the statutory certs required and dealing with all sorts of characters who bitch about pay, benefits, leave, bosses, whatever you name it. My colleagues were nice people, but frankly I felt out of place as they were mainly interested in gossiping and sharing news about their children, school, CCA, mother in law…
Definitely not the kind of place you wana be to advance career. Anyway I notice most senior HR people are parachuted from other function, very seldom see one who progress from the ground up.