How do i get started? am graduating with good honours in social science and have a diploma in Business administration.

Is there a good career progression with Talent Management Executive??
If so, what and how it's like? Compensation and Benefits or?
isit a good starting ground for non-HR/Biz fresh grads with no experience in HR?

Thanks

Major reward / mgt consulting firms do not care much about your degree though they prefer a more quantitative degree. You need to ask yourself if you are numerically savvy enough for the role. You need to be able to do stuff like advanced statistical analysis, financial modeling and a lot of business research. Most soft subject grads find this too much to handle.

As for the headhunting route, the question is simpler – Are you up for a sales job? Nobody cares about your education as long as you can deliver the numbers.

If you want to go through traditional route then you need to be careful and query more about the job itself. There is abuse of titles like Business Partners, HR Associates, Talent Development, HR Specialists etc. which are nothing more than fancy names for administrators. It is very hard to tell from job adverts how accurately the title reflects the job. As a rule of thumb, avoid local / foreign SMEs and local blue-chips except the 3 banks.

When you ask the interviewer questions, probe them for actual day to day activities. Once you hear things like applying work permits, preparing letters, doing walk-in interviews, running payroll, signing up staff for training, organize D&D family day etc. that means it’s an admin role that you should avoid

See same reply as above.

I'm currently a diploma holder (biotechnology) and have about 3 years experience in training administration. I really hope to get out of this and get into talent management/recruitment/C&B.

Will be graduating with degree in Psy this Sept 2012.

Any advise? Should I take on post grad in HR for the role?

Hoping to go management consultancy.

Your best shot is to go for either headhunting industry or business partnering in a top MNC. Don't waste time on a HR degree.

As for management consulting, you can forget it. With a soft degree in psy & 3 years admin experience, the chances are close to zero.

This thread has been really helpful.

I would like to ask, I have just been shortlisted for an interview for Human Resource Officer.
The person told me I would have to undertake a test before the actual interview consist of calculus and excel test.

Anybody know what kind of calculus or excel test is more commonly used/tested in Human Resource so I can be better prepared mentally and technically. Thanks in advance.

Thanks. If I'm really keen in management consulting, any advise?

To correct, the test will be on MS word, excel and email customer service skills. Can anybody advise?

Sorry, no advice. Your qualifications and experience are just too weak to be competitive.

The top 3 consultancies Mckinsey, BCG & Bain select only a few fresh grads per intake in the entire Asia. Most of the time our local uni will be lucky to have 1 grad selected to join them, there are years where nobody gets selected in the entire cohort.

Then you have the tier 2 firms where most HR management consultants sit, companies like Mercer (they are the ones who were paid 830k to come up with minister’s salary cuts), Aon, Towers or Hay. These guys get to select the top students in our universities to join their program, I had a classmate who gave up 4th year honors straight away when they offered him.

Now contrast this with your background. A biotech diploma holder with 3 years exp as administrator and a degree from open uni in psychology…

I’m not trying to put you down or insult you, but you need to be realistic in your goals. You can go for smaller HR practices in PWC or E&Y, but they will not give a career boost so no point also. Your best bet if you are keen in HR is to stick with the BP route.

It’s probably just some simple tasks you need to perform on MS Office to demonstrate you know the program. I wouldn’t worry too much if you already use MSO before.

Headhunting agency and recruitment agency... are there difference?

Headhunting firms hire for executive positions - Hedrick & Struggles, Egon Zender, Korn Ferry, Neumann etc...

Recruitment agencies are the usual ones you see in the papers, Robert Walters, Kelly, Manpower, GMP, Michael Page, Recruit Express, Talent2, Ranstad, Adecco etc.

I assume it will be tougher to get into a headhunting firms as compared to the recruitment agencies? Top scholars?

What top scholars? You think this is civil service?

What's the definition of executive? Fresh grad or need experience?

There's no clear definition, it depends on the firm in question.

Generally most headhunting firms will avoid assignments where the salary of the position is below 30k.

Then really not much difference between headhunter & recruit agencies, my understanding is most deg grads are already starting at >30k.

You can aurge until the cow come home. But like one above like to talk about reality, let us face it. Even if you are correct, so what? See link on below salary. So you assume those are civil service job?

Salary.sg - Your Salary in Singapore

Ppls like you and with you whom made such comment must be one of those that doesn't serve NS before......LoL

What I meant from that link is, we can see there are 2 salary quote for each post. The one with the bracket are meant for ppls whom served NS before.

Did NS fry your brains? The income figures in brackets clearly refer to 75th-percentile salaries.

"By Average Gross Monthly Salaries (in brackets are the 75th-percentile salaries)"

I am not arguing with you because you clearly had your brains fried by NS, and is some lowly civil servant who have not worked in the real world. I am correcting you for the benefit of others who might be reading this thread.

So people who have served NS, they cannot comment on how stupid the logic regarding NS pay is? Must follow like a drone? No wonder FTs are replacing NSlaves.

I have worked in marcoms for 2 years and want to try out other fields, so was applying for jobs in other areas.

Now I have 2 offers which I need to get back soon.

a) Service Analyst in a European logistic company offer 2.9k, very close to my house 10min bus ride

b) HR Industrial Relations Associate in a US high tech firm offer 3.5k, located at Tuas need about 1 hour travel from my house

I am now on 2.9k, so in terms of pay the HR job is much higher, but I'm concerned with the traveling and also early working hours (730am-430pm).

Also I really don't know anything about HR as I studied marketing in uni. At first just went down to interview to try luck & see what is it about only, surprisingly they seem to like my experience in marcoms a lot and offered me.

Any advise on which offer to take up?

I need help too
 

What is the "Service analyst" role about? If it's very different from HR, then u need to think which one u would probably prefer more in the long term.

What do u hope to do in the long run?

I suspect in this case your interest, values and job fit are more impt than the pay, because u are not very experienced yet in terms of yrs of working exp (judging by your salary). This is the period whereby u still can test and see what industry/job u genuinely like and want to stay in the long run. No point going for the few hundred dollars more if it's not what u want to do eventually.

Feel really stuck in job search. About to graduate in May with good honours degree from social sciences with a diploma in business admin and want a job in specialized HR field like Compensation & benefits, Business partnering, training and Development etc etc. But going through jobstreet and other job portals, it seems like even the most junior positions of these fields require at least 5 years of experience. What should i do? What should i look out to land myself a place? where should i look?

Service Analyst job seems to be mainly getting feedback on the service delivery process like designing survey, conduct focus interview, feedback sessions on how to improve the process and then doing some basic analysis and present findings on areas for improvement.

To be honest, I don't have interest in both jobs because I don't even know what to expect. From what I hear seems pay prospects in HR is much better, but need to avoid administrative jobs. The pay jump is high as I will need 4-5 yrs to reach 3.5k if I stay in my co.

I need help too
 

The Service Analyst role seems to be more of a research based job..more analytical and slightly quantitative? Quite different from your marcom and HR scope..gotta question your own aptitude and strengths.

I think in general, don't jump into a new job with no pay increment. Unless it's like your dream job. In this case, u're not sure if u'd like it even. So no point jumping for no increment. If u take the HR role and u don't like it, at least when u hop 1 year later, it will likely be an increment from the 3.5k. So u won't feel so bad.

Speaking from exp as i took a slight pay cut before for a "prestigious" role. But when the daily tasks and stress come to u, u would question if your pay is worth it.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice, I am incline to take up & tryout the HR role also.

Any HR pros can advise me what is the career and pay progression like for industrial relations? Is it better $ wise than the HR administration roles?

You need to be specific, Compensation & benefits, Business partnering, training and Development are completely different jobs.

It’s like saying you want to be an engineer doesn’t matter if civil, electronics, bioscience or marine….

Different jobs have different career strategies.

First off, industrial relations is considered a specialized niche in HR and definitely not under admin. The fact they offer you 3.5k with only 2 yrs work experience is proof, admin HR Executives will take at least 5 years to reach that kind of pay.

As a specialization you don’t need to worry about pay prospects, it will definitely be higher than normal admin or marcom. With 5 yrs exp should reach 6-7k on average.

Having said that, not everyone can do IR. As your stakeholders are blue collar workers, union laborers or junior white collar, you must be comfortable interacting at their level. This means dealing with a lot of minor issues like complaints on uniform, cafeteria menu, shift scheduling, personal family matters, discipline issues…

This is an area a lot of BPs find it beneath their stature to deal with, so you must be accustom to handling such things. Balancing between management & union interest is challenging & sometimes politically dangerous.

Hi everyone, I have Diploma in IT from a local poly, working for almost 2 years as a pre-school teacher. I'm 23 this yr. So now, I'm deciding to take up a part-time degree, and was looking at HR. I am very good with people, etc. I'm looking at C&B, T&D or business partnering.

I'm tired of making very little money and am ready to work hard and start a new career path.

So I know many of you are experienced in this line, what necessary qualifications should I take up in order to kickstart my career? I don't want to spend 20-30k on a degree that'll be worth nothing to the industry.

I'm looking at
1) Bachelor of Science (Business Studies, Business Studies with HRM / Banking & Finance) - Part-Time (Loughborough University, UK from PSB academy

2)Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management and Management (Double Major) - Murdoch Uni

3)Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management and Marketing (Double Major) - Murdoch uni

4)Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Human Resource Management - University College Dublin


Or are there any better choices for a degree? Business?

And like one of the posters said...How do we start a career in this if even the junior execs jobs needs min 5yrs relevant experience?


Thank you for any help or input!

Hi! Like you. I'm working as a preschool teacher too and is also interested in this field. Would like to ask. A degree from SHRI Academy, is it recognized?
Please help! Thanks!

Maybe you can share more about what talent development and HR management consulting is about?

Talent development sounds to me like a segment of L&D?
HR Management consulting sounds like HR business partnering?


But yes i agree, do stay away from HR ops, cause in a big firm all you do is all the manual work... small firm (ie small HR team) worst, you do everything...

the socount
 

Exactly, I don't know either...Maybe some of the people here can help us?

Most part-time degrees are not worth the money and effort, but among the 4 you listed, no. 3 sounds better than the rest.

Why not study full-time in one of the 3 local universities? If not, you should consider the "4th" U, which is SIM. Their UOL programme is quite ok, from what I hear.

Seems that many people are confused and interpreting the different streams of HR in a wrong way. There is also a lot of unrealistic expectations from some of you.

To start off before we go into streams, HR exist as 3 "formats" in the business world.

1) Consulting
2) In-house
3) Process Outsourcing

Consulting - Further split into HR Management Consulting, HR Remuneration Consulting, Headhunting, Corporate Training.

I know a lot of you want to enter Management & Remuneration consulting because of the pay & glamour which is comparable to front office banking. Bad news for most of you - forget about it. Even a lot of FC Honors Finance majors from SMU/NUS can't get inside, most of you with other degrees in other areas, other universities have no chance. Be realistic and stop dreaming.

Headhunting is an avenue that may appeal to certain quarters with good social networking skills. Very sales oriented where pay & commissions depend solely on your ability to close, it is not an area I'm familiar with, but if you are good at B2B enterprise level sales (i.e. interacting with senior leaders), this is the place to go to.

Corporate training is the least glamorous among consulting. Unless you are a very well-known trainer or have the necessary academic credentials to charge premiums, pay is average at best and you need to handle the logistics, sales, administration aspects of the training itself.

To be continued on in-house and process outsourcing when I have time...

Same problem again. Nobody wants to do the admin HR jobs, everyone wants to be in HR management consulting, C&B, Biz partnering, where the pay is sky high.

But then their academic & work achievement CMI, so keep asking online if anyone got advice that can "strategize" and defeat the cream of the crop talent out there. Pros say not possible, all dun want to listen and insist on "advice" that can instantly get them into the job where all the top people are hanging out.

Understandable but laughably naïve. Exactly the same problem with banking industry also.

it is good to dream. if they fail, at least they know they have tried.

You must be also one of those naive CMI people trying to trump the entire banking industry right? So free to come over and make friends with the CMI HR people? Or are you doing networking hoping to be headhunted into banking FO huh? Understandable and laughably naïve indeed...