PIHRA Scope - Spring 2009 - (Page 14) HR CONCEPTS an HR Job Is Not HR Work By Mike Deblieux, SPHR Getting transition. It is a subject that no HR professional wants to think about. It is one that we all must be ready to face. An HR professional does not look for a job. An HR professional finds people for jobs. Unfortunately, more and more HR professionals are in transition. Nearly 20 percent of the people at a recent PIHRA breakfast said they were in transition. That did not include those who were too shocked or embarrassed to admit that they did not have a job to go to after the meeting. In MARKETING 101 Your “in transition” job is to market your HR experience to a potential buyer. You are an applicant. The buyer is your next employer. Your first challenge is performing market research to become familiar with the expectations of your potential buyers. Keep your research simple. Keep it organized. Start with your last job description. If you did not have one, write one. Download job postings from two or three Web sites. Make a list of the knowledge, skills and abilities your past and future employers expect in your next potential position. START NOW In transition does not mean out of work. It means working hard to find work. It means becoming an optimist in a pessimistic world. It means ignoring news stories that say there are no jobs out there. You do not need a whole bunch of jobs. You need one job. It may be a needle in a haystack, but it is your needle in your haystack. It is your job to move each piece of straw to get to it. You might get lucky and find it right away. It might take awhile. The job of getting a job needs a workstation. You need to set up an office. Your office needs the tools of job hunting. It needs a computer (the public library has one if you do not), a phone, a calendar and a filing system. You are the boss. You need to define your new job, establish your work hours and set your own performance expectations. WRITING YOUR RESUME Your resume is your marketing brochure. It must tell potential employers who you are and what you can do – in their language. Your resume is not for you. It is for your future employer. It must demonstrate that you can do what that employer needs you to do. You need to make a list of the projects and assignments you have completed in your career. You need to list the classes you have taken, papers you have written and workshops you have attended. You need to summarize what you learned from each of those experiences. Your resume should be created through a process of combining your actual work and educational experiences and the job descriptions and job postings you collect in your market research. It should be a flexible document that you UP OR DOWN THE STAIRCASE You must decide what kind of job you expect (not want) to find. A lot of people start their search by looking for a job one level below the one that they just lost. An HR manager looks for a job as a recruiter. A recruiter looks for a job as an HR assistant. It feels like it would be more secure, less stressful to step down a level. Proceed cautiously. Your career is an investment in yourself. You should not give up on your accomplishments too quickly. Your knowledge, experience and skills propelled you to your last position. You should not discount them. You should use them to return to a place where you can use them again. 14 PIHRAScope Spring 2009 © argus546. Image from BigStockPhoto.com http://www.BigStockPhoto.com
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