Career Management Future Issues

                                                                June 13, 2015

Career Management Class                                Future Issues

        Having been in Human Resources for more than twenty years, it has been an interesting journey to see how the profession has evolved over the years; from being a very tactical, transactional-based function called “Personnel” to a more strategic, consultative one with various creative names besides Human Resources such as Talent Capital and People Strategies.    Just as the nature of the function has progressed so has the world of work, which has caused Human Resources professionals to rethink the critical competencies necessary to be successful.  Navigating the ever-changing business landscape and complex global economy requires a significantly different set of capabilities to be seen as a true business partner.  

Clearly, one of the main advantages to choosing a Human Resources career path is the ability to easily move to different industries.    This ability has served me well during my career.  Although I have been downsized twice, I have been fortunate to obtain other positions in other industries; telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and now real estate.  I have always used these opportunities to my advantage by being able to clearly demonstrate my ability to seamlessly transition. Today, it would be important for those entering Human Resources to focus on building, not only on the work-based skills such as recruiting, training, organizational development, but also to strengthen those transferable skills such as managing change, problem-solving, achieving results, and working on teams.    At some point in a person’s career, organizations expect the individual to have the work-based capabilities. However, it is how the individual articulates and demonstrates those soft skills, often associated with someone’s emotional intelligence, which could be the game changer.  It is these skills that are often times more important.  The combination of both the work-based and transferable skills could be a powerful combination for any individual looking to build a career in Human Resources.  It can offer flexibility in a career plan to be able to shift in a changing employment market.

        Back  in 2003, after I had been downsized from AT&T, I had been interviewing with a global diversified risk, insurance and professional services firm headquartered in New York City.  I had met with at least eight members of the senior leadership team and it was looking very positive as if an offer would be coming to me.  When I followed up with the Vice President responsible for Recruiting,  I was told that as much as he wanted to hire and he pushed the business to hire me, the business felt strongly that they wanted someone with their business knowledge.  This was obviously quite upsetting at the time, especially since my seven years with AT&T was spent with AT&T’s professional services division (technology outsourcing).  To this day, I clearly remember my response being, “It may take you quite a while to find someone with the depth and breadth of HR experience that I bring to the table.  I’ve already demonstrated my ability to seamlessly transition into different industries.  I can learn your business in six months.”   Although I still wasn’t offered the position, that conversation has stayed with me and has informed some of the career decisions that I’ve made throughout my career.  

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