Human Resources Mysteries: Is Human Resources a Good Career Option?

Depending on what your skills and aspirations are, it can be a great career option.

Please consider the following:

Pluses:
- you have the possibility to implement a lot of great measures to motivate and help the employees;
- you have the possibility to represent your company in public meetings, conferences, at the University, at job events, you get to talk to the media, to students, to teachers, you can even get to present your company in the same auditorium where you used to study - this time in front of the students;
- the management asks for your opinion concerning recruitment plan, training opportunities, employee motivation, labor requirements, performance management, employee surveys and action plans - your opinion matters;
- you can influence the image of the company when communicating to candidates and job portals;
- you can influence the well being of the company by recruiting and developing the best people;
- you can create a great work environment by organizing team buildings and various other smaller team activities;
- you can help people by offering them advice or simply listening to their problems and at least trying to improve their life;
- you get to talk to a lot of people, to learn new things, to make friends.

Minuses:
- working with a lot of people every day can turn you in an anti-social person; you need to really be a great people's person if you want to survive; human resources is not for those who want to work alone in a closed office in front of their computer;
- sometimes people drive you crazy with silly questions and actions: they lose their badge, they don't like their photo in the database and absolutely need another one taken, they forget to fill in and sign things and you have to chase the around, they don't read the procedures and make mistakes that you have to help fix all the time, they forget their passwords, they create chaos and you have to be a moderator for disciplinary actions, they forget their locker key at home and come to you for another one for the day, they lose, forget, ignore and don't pay attention to details and make your life a living hell;
- most of the times when something's wrong, they come to HR, even if it's not HR's job (someone took their parking space, someone stole their food from the fridge, there's no more coffee in the machine, they don't like the carpet in their office, they want to suggest removing plastic cups from the kitchen etc etc.); all this because you did their Induction training and they don't know who to go to;
- bureaucracy can be a killer in HR; legal paperwork takes ages to complete, has strict deadlines and is not valid if a word or number is missing; so you must be really careful about the paperwork you prepare and register with the authorities;
- payroll, unless outsourced can drive you crazy - lots of numbers to insert in the system - hours, absences, sickness, bonuses, advances, vacation, new hires, leavers, taxes, contract changes; you must be a patient and attentive to details person;
- if you work as a recruiter, the huge number of resumes to read and people to interview can become overwhelming; you may end up at home after 14 interviews with no desire whatsoever to see anybody, to be called by anybody - you can even turn up to consider water dripping down the pipes tooooo noisy :) ;
- candidates not coming to the interview after you bothered to read the resume, prepare tests, schedule the meeting, prepare questions etc. can make you really mad sometimes, especially if recruitment deadlines are tight;
- reporting in HR is also annoying - everybody asks for HR data in all sorts of formats, most of the time it's the same information in 5 different templates that the 5 requesters can't seem to agree upon and want it their way;

All this being said, inform yourself and choose wisely. HR can be rewarding but also crazy. You decide...