Best Careers for Human Resources Professionals
Why this career track is great: Personal satisfaction? While higher-ranking human resources executives may oversee organizations and strategy, human resources managers get the benefit of person-to-person interaction, helping employees directly. HR managers coordinate and plan HR activities, then manage them once executed.
This may involve guiding employees through the hiring process, benefits programs, training, labor disputes, and other administrative needs important to workers within a company. HR managers, unlike the people above them, have a direct influence and positive impact on the people in a company. For people who are satisfied when they are helping others, this leads to great social benefit, human connection and the satisfaction of having a real impact on your fellow human beings.
Nonprofit Human Resources Expert
Why this career track is great: You are helping people while helping the world
A nonprofit human resources expert could be a recruiter, a human resources manager, a human resources executive, or any other HR professional operating within the nonprofit field. Such an HR professional has many of the same tasks as an expert working in a for-profit role, such as recruiting, administering benefits, training, and development, assisting with policies and strategy and more.
The operative difference is the in the nonprofit world, the human resources professional is working for an organization that exists to make a positive impact on the world around it, whether through health, education, the arts, preserving cultures or any of the many things that nonprofits do. So the impact on fellow workers is magnified in this context. A nonprofit human resources professional truly has the opportunity to impact people directly and, more indirectly, make a strong contribution to the betterment of the world at large.
HR Consultant
Why this career track is great: You make a lot of money, when and where you want it
These days, companies are growing increasingly complicated, and human resources departments are no exception. Enter the human resources consultant, an offshoot of the management consultant who charges companies a high hourly rate to impart much-needed services.
Human resources consultants may specialize in a variety of fields, including benefits, employee incentives and rewards programs, company culture after mergers and acquisitions, employee motivation, retirement plans, recruiting and even the outsourcing of any of the many functions of an HR department.
This high-level individual assesses a company’s current situation and offers and helps deploy systemic recommendations that will get the company to its desired goal. The HR consultant, meanwhile, gets to choose whom he or she works with, when that work is completed, and what to charge. It is the HR path where freedom meets money.
International Human Resources Professional
Why this career track is great: You can visit countries all over the world and experience a great variety of people and cultures. The job of the international human resources professional may involve recruiting candidates into global positions, training and development standards across an international organization, implementing benefits plans as national laws allow, labor relations, employee programs and many more.
This HR track involves the same kinds of tasks that a national human resources professional might engage in, but with a great variety of cultures, languages, and locations thrown into the mix.
International HR is an ideal field for people who love to travel, speak multiple languages and are adept at engaging successfully with a wide variety of different people who adhere to different customs. Boredom is not the operative term for this unique and exciting human resources career path.
Human Resources Executive (Chief HR Officer or Vice President of Human Resources)
Why this career track is great: Money? If you’re good at HR and you want to make enough money for a vacation home—and perhaps a boat—the human resources executive track is the best job for you. The Chief HR Officer and, one tier below that, the Vice President of Human Resources each on average make more than 200,000 per year.
These executive positions require an individual to devise an HR strategy for the company, including policies, systems, and goals. Every aspect of a human resources department, beginning with recruiting and moving through contract signings, training and development, benefits, and more run through the CHRO (Chief HR Officer) or if the company does not have such a position, the Vice President of HR. With 10-20 years’ worth of experience and a proven track record of human resources success, the HR executive can have a satisfying and, above all, well-paying career.
Training & Development Manager
Why this is a great career path: If you love teaching, this is a corporate path for you
Training and development managers help employees improve their skill sets and careers. They do this by training employees in specially-held classes, workshops, conferences and other kinds of gatherings.
Training and development managers are also sometimes in charge of designing the most effective coursework for employees, given the content that their employer wants to emphasize, while keeping training sessions entertaining and informative. If you like standing up in front of people and helping them learn and improve their lives, this career path is a very fulfilling one.
Employee Education Consultant
Why this is a great job: It combines the fun of teaching with the freedom of consulting
In a CNNMoney survey, 60 percent of education and training consultants said their job was low-stress. Such consultants do similar tasks as training and development managers—that is, they hold workshops, classes, and conferences aimed at increasing employees’ skill sets and knowledge—but without the full-time commitment. Companies hire them on a contract or retainer basis to help improve their employees’ skills.
This means that the companies hiring such consultants are already interested in keeping their employees well-trained and happy, so they tend to be welcoming places to work at, according to CNNMoney. The consultants work in an accommodating environment and employees are interested in what they have to say.
In addition, training and education consultants can set their own hours and choose their clients. If an education and training consultant only wants to work six months out of the year, she can. Such freedom makes this job a fantastic choice for anyone who both loves to teach and train and wants independence in their position.