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NZR
Newbie
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 2
Career Advice: +0/-0
Location: Singapore
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 Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:29 am Post subject: Stuck in a low level job |
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Hi All
I am a little stuck with my career.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in management back in 2005. From there I went to work at hotel managing a restaurant (I worked in restaurants while studying) for a year.
At the beginning of 2007 I moved to Singapore as a trailing spouse, and now working as a personal assistant. This position is extremely boring for me, as there are long periods of it being quiet and there is nothing to challenge me. I am lucky that I do have a good boss and great people to work with, which is why I stay.
I see no hope of improving my career prospects within the company as I originally hoped. I have been in the position for nearly 2 years because it is extremely hard to find a position in Singapore.
I want to get into Recruitment consultancy, but I keep getting knocked back by having no experience. In order to break into this field do I go back to university and completely retrain or just keep on trying to break into the consultancy?
My confidence as taken a serious knock and I feel like I have wasted 4years of hard work to get my degree.
Any advice is much appreciated |
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Pauloz
Expert
Joined: 02 Oct 2007
Posts: 1160
Career Advice: +3/-0
Location: Sydney
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| Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:58 am Post subject: |
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NZR
Yeah, PA work can be like watching the paint dry, and you are overqualified. Singapore isn't really a closed shop, but it's tough, and really you need to play safe while you're scouting opportunities. Suggest sticking with the job while going through the process of getting your consultancy idea going, because you'll need a budget for some of this process.
Sorry to say they're right about the HR consultancy thing. It is up the scale a bit, to get into the consultancy area, and you do need experience, you will need qualifications and a good entry level position with some clear upward movement potential.
However- There's some good news, too. You also have some assets when you get in to the consultancy field. That B. Comm. is likely to be very useful, in many areas of consultancy, because you also speak the business language, which is a very valuable commodity in consultancies. HR can be insular, and they don't always have the coverage of issues in business they need. They'll get the HR side of things, but not the business angles. That's where you can do yourself some good, give a higher quality of consultancy, and get good clients.
You've actually got an advantage, in that you've done actual management, which includes a lot of practical HR issues. You know quite a bit of this stuff, from the coal face perspective. That experience could be parlayed up into an HR Management type of course, where you can dovetail the two streams, and maybe get exemptions and a clearer shot at your qualifications without getting stuck with baby talk level studies.
If you can do that, or something like it which gets called "HR Management", you're in. You could perhaps even tailor your qualification to suit your preferences for the type of consultancy you want to do. |
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NZR
Newbie
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 2
Career Advice: +0/-0
Location: Singapore
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| Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:40 am Post subject: |
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Hi Pauloz
Thank you for the sound advice. I should have been more specific when I mentioned my qualifications. I have a human resource focus under the major classification of management, but it seems that this is not good enough to begin my career.
I am thinking that in the next year I will move back to Australia to try again. Any suggestions of entry level positions I should be looking at?
Many thanks, |
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Pauloz
Expert
Joined: 02 Oct 2007
Posts: 1160
Career Advice: +3/-0
Location: Sydney
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| Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:51 am Post subject: |
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| NZR wrote: | Hi Pauloz
Thank you for the sound advice. I should have been more specific when I mentioned my qualifications. I have a human resource focus under the major classification of management, but it seems that this is not good enough to begin my career.
I am thinking that in the next year I will move back to Australia to try again. Any suggestions of entry level positions I should be looking at?
Many thanks, |
NZR
I think the best shot, for credentials and some thorough grounding in the industry, in no particular order of preference:
Government
Big recruiters
Major corporations, (Coles, Woolworths, etc)
These are all employers with a real career path, pretty decent conditions, and name brand types of job. They register, when someone sees them on your CV. You'll need a bit of patience, but it's like a jungle gym. You can find your way up, one way or another.
Some reservations on types of entry level job:
If nothing else, I've found the stuff you need to avoid. I had a bit of a look at HR consultancy jobs for you, and some of these jobs are well worth avoiding. I think it'll be simpler to get a recruiter working on what you need, rather than go through the rather tacky stuff I was looking at. Apparently there are jobs between the typos, but really, best not to guess about this.
This is one of the less offensive ads I found, and I have my doubts about it. As you can see, it's like an ad for a call centre. http://jobs.efinancialcareers.com.au/job-4000000000339128.htm
Too adjectival, not enough job description, complete with something called a commission structure, but at least they spelled everything properly.
Seriously do not recommend the bottom of the scale type HR work as a starting point. Entry level for what you want to do has to have a direct line to the sort of work you want to do, and the downscale work is the exact opposite of that. It's HR admin, goes nowhere, and it'd drive anyone mad. It's too far downscale, even at agency level, in some cases. Those ads were even worse than I was expecting.
I still think the management thing is a major asset, if you can find the right niche. If you can find an HR consultancy which is looking for someone with management experience, who speaks the language, you may be able to do pretty well, a lot quicker than the entry level approach. They could take you in on the ground floor, and train you up systematically.
Suggest doing a bit of window shopping with the recruiters in Sydney. It's quite possible they can find a niche for you. You might be able to get a direct path through them, because they handle a larger range of placements. They're big enough and broad enough to be able to find jobs in the right class of jobs, and they've also got access to more employers. Might cost a bit, but could turn out to be a surer way of getting something good, much more quickly.
Actually, it may be possible to get some pointers from HR training pros, the actual industry experts, someone who can put together something from your existing qualifications. This is picky stuff, and you may already have something you can use to get ahead faster. The HR career path is a maze, and to get to consultancy level, you'll need some signposts.
The positive side to this is that the words "management qualifications with an HR focus" will ring the right bells. From there on, it should be a matter of what training you need to do to get the rest of the qualifications, and what experience is required by the right consultancies. Kept simple, should be OK. |
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vaibhavban
New User
Joined: 20 Oct 2009
Posts: 13
Career Advice: +0/-0
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| Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:55 am Post subject: |
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Hello friends,
Jobs in Human Resources industry are rising but they are not visible at every job portal. For looking good Human resources jobs I believe on http://www.HRCrossing.com because it shows you unadvertised jobs from employer websites and jobs from every job board out there. http://www.HRCrossing.com is fully dedicated to Human Resources jobs only and this is the reason why the website has more Human Resources department jobs than any other job portal available across the web. |
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