Many HR professionals are stuck in the old-school mindset that HR career success comes from following some kind of rigid, carefully laid-out career plan. Some companies have even taken years to develop carefully constructed "HR career paths" or "HR career ladders" for their HR folks.
This is all a bunch of bunk. And this is the biggest career mistake just about every HR professional makes.
That approach may have worked in the past, but it won't in today's workplace.
Talk to any successful Human Resources leader with 10-15 years of experience who is happy and satisfied with their HR career so far - including yourself. Ask them where they saw themselves at the beginning of their careers and a large number of them will tell you it was not necessarily what they are doing today. And it didn't happen from following some career plan they put in concrete.
The truth is there is no ONE established career pathway to the top of the HR summit. You can get started anywhere in Human Resources. You can have a master's degree in IR from Illinois. Or an MBA from Harvard. Or an associate's degree from a local community college. Or, like a boss of mine, start your career as a marketing analyst and find your way into HR. It doesn't matter how or where you put your foot on the HR career path. But it does matter how you take the next steps, and then the next.
So planning some structured career path isn't the way HR careers work anymore. Linearity is out. The human resources career is now a checkerboard. Or even a maze. Or a spider-web. It's full of moves that go sideways, forward, slide on the diagonal, even go backward.
The sheer churn and pace of change within businesses resulting from economic downturns, globalization, and increased competition creates so much ambiguity these days that you cannot manage your career with a set-out plan. No one can predict what type of businesses and career opportunities will be available in 5 years' time and so trying to plan your career like you did in the old days is futile.
Here's one thing you should do to avoid this mistake:
Be open and flexible. Instead of being guided by some rigid career plan, develop an internal 'compass' to guide your career decisions and then build in some flexibility so that you can take advantage of HR opportunities that pop up. Rather than say "My next move will be to a plant HR generalist role in Chicago" then I'll move into a "staffing manager role", when there's no guarantee that these roles will be open or if it will even exist when you're ready to take it.
Instead, make career decisions based on how it will increase your personal portfolio of HR skills and strengths...and the extent that it will give you a unique story or experience that differentiates you from the rest of the HR pack. The point here is to make decisions driven by what you can do to make yourself more marketable, instead of trying to follow some overly structured career ladder that makes no sense in the ambiguous, ever-changing world around us.
This is one of many career strategies you should take to recession-proof your HR career during tough times.
From India, Hyderabad
7This is all a bunch of bunk. And this is the biggest career mistake just about every HR professional makes.
That approach may have worked in the past, but it won't in today's workplace.
Talk to any successful Human Resources leader with 10-15 years of experience who is happy and satisfied with their HR career so far - including yourself. Ask them where they saw themselves at the beginning of their careers and a large number of them will tell you it was not necessarily what they are doing today. And it didn't happen from following some career plan they put in concrete.
The truth is there is no ONE established career pathway to the top of the HR summit. You can get started anywhere in Human Resources. You can have a master's degree in IR from Illinois. Or an MBA from Harvard. Or an associate's degree from a local community college. Or, like a boss of mine, start your career as a marketing analyst and find your way into HR. It doesn't matter how or where you put your foot on the HR career path. But it does matter how you take the next steps, and then the next.
So planning some structured career path isn't the way HR careers work anymore. Linearity is out. The human resources career is now a checkerboard. Or even a maze. Or a spider-web. It's full of moves that go sideways, forward, slide on the diagonal, even go backward.
The sheer churn and pace of change within businesses resulting from economic downturns, globalization, and increased competition creates so much ambiguity these days that you cannot manage your career with a set-out plan. No one can predict what type of businesses and career opportunities will be available in 5 years' time and so trying to plan your career like you did in the old days is futile.
Here's one thing you should do to avoid this mistake:
Be open and flexible. Instead of being guided by some rigid career plan, develop an internal 'compass' to guide your career decisions and then build in some flexibility so that you can take advantage of HR opportunities that pop up. Rather than say "My next move will be to a plant HR generalist role in Chicago" then I'll move into a "staffing manager role", when there's no guarantee that these roles will be open or if it will even exist when you're ready to take it.
Instead, make career decisions based on how it will increase your personal portfolio of HR skills and strengths...and the extent that it will give you a unique story or experience that differentiates you from the rest of the HR pack. The point here is to make decisions driven by what you can do to make yourself more marketable, instead of trying to follow some overly structured career ladder that makes no sense in the ambiguous, ever-changing world around us.
This is one of many career strategies you should take to recession-proof your HR career during tough times.
From India, Hyderabad
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Hey Padmaja, Which US website have you taken the article from? Looks like a good reading source for HR articles... Rgds, Ranjit
From India, Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Padmaja,
Your thoughts are interesting. I agree with you in toto. If I look at myself 5 years down the line, it's totally true, at least in my case. I have also seen many people reaching the top without sufficient stuff stuffed in them but have/had the capacity to market themselves, probably in the art of 'resume writing' and 'facing interview skills'.
There are no fixed formulas for success; it comes on its own. I personally believe that it all depends on your fate, karma, opportunity, and time. It's also true that in today's ever-changing HR roles, we should develop our own compass and guide ourselves for whatever job offers we have. We have to be more flexible in recessionary times.
It was a nice reading for me. Keep posting. Take care.
Exserg
From India, New Delhi
Your thoughts are interesting. I agree with you in toto. If I look at myself 5 years down the line, it's totally true, at least in my case. I have also seen many people reaching the top without sufficient stuff stuffed in them but have/had the capacity to market themselves, probably in the art of 'resume writing' and 'facing interview skills'.
There are no fixed formulas for success; it comes on its own. I personally believe that it all depends on your fate, karma, opportunity, and time. It's also true that in today's ever-changing HR roles, we should develop our own compass and guide ourselves for whatever job offers we have. We have to be more flexible in recessionary times.
It was a nice reading for me. Keep posting. Take care.
Exserg
From India, New Delhi
Dear Padmaja,
I have been running an HR consultancy service for five years, catering to very specific and niche markets after gaining experience in marketing, advertising, labor management, and the service sector. Everything I learned during my employment journey is being put into practice today.
It was not a so-called "structured, well-defined career path" that some may claim. I embraced every responsibility that came my way and made the best of it. Effective management and marketing skills are crucial for success in business.
In my considered opinion, one must be absolutely flexible and willing to explore opportunities wherever they may arise. Often, opportunities are disguised as problems in our career journeys.
All the best.
Rangarajan
From India, Pune
I have been running an HR consultancy service for five years, catering to very specific and niche markets after gaining experience in marketing, advertising, labor management, and the service sector. Everything I learned during my employment journey is being put into practice today.
It was not a so-called "structured, well-defined career path" that some may claim. I embraced every responsibility that came my way and made the best of it. Effective management and marketing skills are crucial for success in business.
In my considered opinion, one must be absolutely flexible and willing to explore opportunities wherever they may arise. Often, opportunities are disguised as problems in our career journeys.
All the best.
Rangarajan
From India, Pune
Padmaja, when the HR person themselves don't have a career plan, why do they ask questions such as:
- Why do you want to change your job?
- Why did you select this field?
- What are your future plans? Where do you see yourself after 5 years?
- What made you choose this course?
Such questions that HR asks the candidates can make the candidate feel as if they are good for nothing. Isn't this an act of foolishness on the part of HR? I hope you will agree with me.
HR, on one hand, enter the field because they cannot prove their worth in other fields and then start asking questions to candidates about their career decisions. What an HR mindset you people have, great!
From India, Pune
- Why do you want to change your job?
- Why did you select this field?
- What are your future plans? Where do you see yourself after 5 years?
- What made you choose this course?
Such questions that HR asks the candidates can make the candidate feel as if they are good for nothing. Isn't this an act of foolishness on the part of HR? I hope you will agree with me.
HR, on one hand, enter the field because they cannot prove their worth in other fields and then start asking questions to candidates about their career decisions. What an HR mindset you people have, great!
From India, Pune
Dear Padmaja,
I strongly believe that it is important to credit the source/author for any work that we share on this website. For the reference of the readers, the article posted here has been written by Mr. Alan Collins and is available at: [http://www.hrresource.com/articles/view.php?article_id=1370](http://www.hrresource.com/articles/view.php?article_id=1370)
From India, Ahmadabad
I strongly believe that it is important to credit the source/author for any work that we share on this website. For the reference of the readers, the article posted here has been written by Mr. Alan Collins and is available at: [http://www.hrresource.com/articles/view.php?article_id=1370](http://www.hrresource.com/articles/view.php?article_id=1370)
From India, Ahmadabad
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