Hear from actual HR professionals about their work and see if you'd like HR as a career!
To help you see if HR might be the career for you, we spoke with two HR professionals to get their take on the field.
1. What do HR professionals do?
γπ What do HR professionals do?
γπ€ What do junior HR professionals do?
γπ What are the different roles within HR?
2. Would I like HR as a career?
γπ What type of people thrive?
γπ Pros
γπ Cons
γπ Impact
γβοΈ Work-life balance
γπ Job outlook & stability
γπ΅ Pay
γπ± Learning & development
3. Where can I find internships?
When a company has lots of employees, it's a lot of work to take care of their needs. That's where HR, or Human Resources, comes in.
HR helps hire the right people, makes sure everyone gets paid correctly, sets up training programs, manages benefits like vacation time, helps solve problems that might come up at work, and handles paperwork for all of the above and more.
In a gist, HR supports employees during their entire time at the company β from "hiring to retiring (or firing) β so the company can run smoothly.
The people make the company. HR serves the people so they can do what they need to do to make the company successful.
For example, let's say a team leader isn't happy about what's going on in their team. I'd try to help them solve the problems quickly and persuade them to consider new ideas to make sure they're happy and better at running their teams.
So ultimately HR is about supporting the company, but you have to serve the people to do that.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
As a junior HR person, you might be called an "HR assistant" or "HR coordinator" and you'll mostly carry out administrative tasks to support your managers and the employees you're responsible for.
Generalist roles are most common at the entry level. You would be responsible for supporting a wide variety of activities that cover the whole HR life cycle, including compensation, total rewards, performance management, employee relations, immigration, recruiting, onboarding, etc.
This involves performing the majority of administrative tasks to support these HR activities. For example:
- You may be responsible for maintaining compensation data and working with and manipulating this data when the compensation is reviewed by leadership and HR.
- For performance management, you may be responsible for collecting all the information from the performance management system and compiling the data for performance management meetings and to help their HR leaders and business leaders make informed decisions about rewarding performance. You would serve as a key point of contact to the clients who would have questions about their performance management requirements and system questions.
- You will probably also answer general questions or point clients to the right person, for example if their clients want to know where to go for professional development or learning courses, or if they have an immigration question.
In my experience at the Big 4 firms, while entry-level professionals in an HR business partner/advisor role are the main administrative support to their HR manager, they will also get exposed to working with the business leaders, manage multiple stakeholders and would have many opportunities to partner with their HR leader to drive HR strategy.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
At smaller companies, junior HR staff often focus on hiring and recruiting work.
When I was an HR coordinator, I was mainly responsible for taking care of new-hire paperwork and managing the hiring process for company.
#1 New-hire paperwork
Basically, I would send a bunch of documents to the employee, like their contract, background check, the employee handbook, tax documents (W4s), employment eligibility forms (I-9s), benefits documents and more.
The important thing here is to ensure that the company is in compliance with local and federal regulations. Since personnel files are confidential, I also made sure to securely store them in locked filing cabinets or an encrypted digital system.
#2 Managing the hiring process
This involved:
Writing clear and detailed job descriptions and posting them on job sites
Using an applicant tracking system (ATS) to manage the resumes and track the hiring process
Shortlisting qualified candidates
Conducting phone screening and video interviews so I could evaluate candidates against the job requirements to determine who would be a fit for the company
Extending offers to qualified candidates
Initiating hiring and onboarding processes
In addition, I was also responsible for finance-related HR tasks like checking invoices, timekeeping, and processing payroll.
β HR Manager @ an IT consulting company
The main difference between junior and senior staff is that as you move up, you work more on big-picture HR planning and strategy.
When I became an HR manager, I helped out with more strategic things. For example, to help my company improve employee retention, I got feedback from employees from talking with them or sending out anonymous surveys. I went over the answers with the executives and we created a plan to tackle some of the goals.
Based on that, I rolled out some initiatives like:
- A fitness and wellness program, where employees can sign up for a gym and we reimburse them for the costs.
- Flexible working hours so people who need to pick up kids can do that and make up for the work after that.
- Remote work.
Employees are now more motivated and use less sick days.
β HR manager @ an IT consulting firm
At larger companies, you could also find more specialized entry-level HR roles. For example, you could work in a recruitment team, where you'd help managers find the right people to hire.
As a campus recruiter, I was tasked with finding interns, so I would go on campus and work with university career centers to be able to share the internships with students.
β Former campus recruiter @ Credit Suisse
Here are some other popular specializations in HR that our HR insiders mentioned.
You can read about more specializations on the Society for Human Resources Management website.
Our HR professionals agreed that there are roles for everyone in HR.
You can be both an introvert and extrovert. There are different roles in HR. If you don't feel you're a fit for one role, you can find your niche in another unit of HR.
- If you're an introvert, you could handle new-hire paperwork or compensation structuring (helping determine salary ranges for employees).
- If you're an extrovert, you could work in recruitment, where you'd talk to a lot of people and you're the face of the company
β HR Manager @ an IT consulting company
Depends on what you're interested in. I enjoy working with people directly. There were always a line of people who needed to talk to me. I got energy from that. But if you're doing back-office, number-crunching jobs in HR, you don't have to be a people person.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
The most important thing is having a passion for your work.
You do have to have a passion or interest in helping people. It's lower pay. You're working a lot of hours. It's a thankless job. It's invisible in some ways. People don't know what you're doing many times since it's confidential. You're seen as lesser than people who bring in revenue. You're overhead for the company. So you have to really have a purpose for going into HR.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
I enjoy getting to meet a lot of different people from different backgrounds. Especially working remotely, you can meet people from different countries.
You also get to help employees develop their careers. For example, I help put together employee training and if employees do that, they can get a pay raise. Just being a part of their journey and being there for employees makes me feel good.
β HR Manager @ an IT consulting company
If you enjoy the people-oriented aspects of HR, you may not be a fan of all the operational work and how much of a premium companies place on this side of HR.
What do I mean by operational work? Think: Going through Excel and looking at records (performance reviews) or coming up with new processes or email management programs.
I found this sort of "behind-the-scenes" work really boring since I didn't get to work directly with people. But companies need someone to manage the total rewards cycle or the compensation. They also need people to come up with new processes to make things run more smoothly.
Companies aren't going to value you more for your ability to serve their people, since they may not quantify it from a profit perspective.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
Letting go of employees is tough. You build a bond with a lot of the employees and they confide in you about a lot of things. So it's tough to be the one to break the news.
Performance reviews can also be tricky. At my current company, it's pretty straightforward since are employees are very smart senior data scientists who know what needs to be done. But at other places, employees may not take feedback well, especially if it's coming from HR who may not work directly.
β HR Manager @ an IT consulting company
I feel like I play an important part in the company. Iβm usually the first point of contact that a potential candidate has with the company and I like that.
Also, I have more of an impact on the company now that I'm HR Manager (and not HR Coordinator).
For instance, I have the ability to come up with creative strategies that align with the overall business goals. An effective HR strategy that I had the opportunity to implement in my company was a fitness and wellness program that promotes healthy living.
To do this, employees who wanted to participate were given a Fitbit and encouraged to reach 10k steps daily. Employees would submit their steps at the end of the month and whoever had the highest number of steps were granted prizes, gift cards, and company swag.
β HR Manager @ an IT consulting company
I definitely felt like I made an impact. You can make the job whatever you want and choose what kind of impact you want to make. I was able to see the outcome of my efforts every day when I served my population of 200+ professionals.
- As an HR leader overseeing teams, I could make an impact on the team members that reported to me, influencing their career development and opportunities and promotions.
- I could make suggestions to individual clients about their careers, connect them to other people, find opportunities for them, coach them. I was able to see how my efforts impacted the career trajectory and employee engagement for everyone I interacted with and supported.
- For the Deloitte leaders, I could make their daily lives less stressful and increase their value with their teams by coming up with ideas and solutions to their complex challenges.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
Generally, our HR professionals said they enjoyed good work-life balance and the ability to work remotely.
The work-life balance in my career has been outstanding. I have the opportunity to work remotely which eliminates the time needed to commute and has allowed me to focus on other areas of my life. For example, I have more flexibility to schedule appointments and other activities outside of work. Overall, I believe that working remotely has improved my productivity, motivation, and provides more time to focus on other priorities.
β HR Manager @ an IT consulting company
Most of the HR people I worked with (except for campus recruiters) were working remotely. Each HR person "owns" a business unit/function, otherwise known as a "population" so it is like having your own business in some ways. You will work with other HR team members but they too will also have their own population they are responsible for.
Many HR professionals have families and are able to do activities, like picking up their kids, going to a play or running quick errands, amidst their busy day. They would still need to join calls, answer their client's needs/calls in a timely fashion and get work done - so in some cases, working on intense requests while picking your kids up is more stressful than just staying home!
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
Work-life balance can vary by company. For example, the HR professional at Deloitte supported accountants and consultants who worked long hours in a fast-paced environment. This culture affected her experience in HR as well.
Despite the autonomy and flexibility, an HR person at a Big 4 firm might feel like they are always "on".
Because of the number of people one might support (sometimes 200+) and the quick responsiveness required of HR professionals, there is always an expectation to keep up with emails and requests. Even checking emails/doing work at night is pretty much the norm for most people.
Someone who is expecting to work a normal 8-5 job with no work at night should not consider an HR career at the Big 4. But I think that's the tradeoff for getting a fantastic opportunity to work at a leading company and gain skills most HR professionals would not get though!
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
According to the numbers, HR is a growing field.
However, when it comes to job stability, HR probably isn't the best field, since it's generally considered a "cost center" (a part of the business that doesn't bring in revenue).
HR is always going to be first to go when there's layoffs. When the economy isn't doing well, there will be few openings for experienced candidates, so it'll be even harder for students to find entry-level opportunities.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, HR specialists are paid an average of $67,650 per year whereas HR managers are paid $136,350.
The HR professionals we spoke with don't seem particularly happy about their pay.
Am I satisfied with my pay? No! When I was living in DC, I was paid enough to survive. In my most recent role as a senior manager, I got a bump and was paid fairly.
But in general, I don't think HR is paid fairly for what we do. HR is kind of like teaching in this sense. We don't pay teachers enough for turning our kids into citizens.
As an HR person in professional services company, you'll see people in client services (like consultants) getting over $200k a year including $30k bonuses β whereas my bonuses were $1k. So you have to wonder!
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
Your pay will also depend on your industry. According to government data, HR roles in the tech industry make the most, though the pay may still not be satisfactory.
Right now, I make $80k. I think I'd need to make $5k more to live comfortably considering the cost of living where I am.
β HR Manager @ an IT staffing company
There is always something new to be learned in HR. In order to stay up to date with the current trends I took the initiative to pursue a masterβs degree in human resource management, gaining specialized knowledge in all aspects of HR including employment law, compensation and benefits, recruitment, talent management and much more.
I also learn a lot on-the-job. For example, working on the company wellness strategy allowed me to improve my strategic thinking and creativity skills. In order to implement this strategy, I had to think outside the box to come up with innovative ideas to improve employee engagement and the overall health and well-being for our employees.
It also improved professional skills like communication and stake-holder management skills. This strategy required careful communication with all stakeholders including employees, executives, and vendors. For example:
- We provided data from other companies that proved that strong wellness programs help create a healthy work environment which ultimately leads to higher employee productivity, engagement, and morale.
- We also conducted regular check-ins to discuss priorities, goals, and concerns and update executives on the strategy. This helped ensure everyone was aligned.
β HR Manager @ an IT staffing company
I experienced a ton of learning and development on the job simply because of the high stakes, high volume and intense pressure placed on an HR person in terms of deliverables and performance.
I realized after leaving my role how much exposure and responsibility I had compared to other HR professionals. For example, I would often have to lead calls with over 30 senior partners and have to drive the discussion, come prepared, drive decisions and come up with on-the-spot talent solutions. The professionalism, advisory and consultative skills I gained were really the best anyone would ever get in the HR industry.
β Former HR leader @ Deloitte
You can find plenty of internships on Prosple. We have a vast selection of internships curated for students like you. Just filter 'til you find the right fit!
And for tips on landing an internship, check out How to break into HR as a student.