Human Resources: A Career for Gregarious People

By Sarah Clark
Career Colleges Columnist

If you enjoy working with people, consider a career in human resources. Recruit, train and retain workers, and serve as a mediator between the company and its employees. Learn how to launch a successful career in HR and personal management, beginning with a quality education.

Human Resources: Recruiting Top Talent
As a recruiter for a large company, you might coordinate recruiting events around the country. Large firms, such as Booz Allen Hamilton and Microsoft, periodically hold job fairs in metropolitan areas, like Washington, D.C., New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. As a member of their human resources team, you’ll travel to these events, armed with a list of jobs the company needs to fill.

You might also attend networking events as another means of recruiting top talent. If you work in the advertising industry and are looking for graphic designers, for example, you might attend events sponsored by the American Institute for Graphic Arts. Similarly, if you work for a management consulting firm, you might attend business school alumni events to meet potential job candidates.

Personal Management: Developing People
Personnel management and human resource professionals may also spearhead initiatives aimed at making a work place friendlier and more satisfying. They implement programs designed to boost productivity through better management practices, such as holding employees accountable for their performance and rewarding them for a job well done.

Personnel management professionals also make sure that a workplace is comfortable for all workers. They ensure workstations and chairs are ergonomically correct, implement a grievance system, and train new employees on company policies regarding sexual misconduct.

Your Human Resources Education
What education and training do you need to enter the field of personnel management? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, experience and training will vary according to the job. Nearly all HR-related jobs, however, require a four-year bachelor's degree. Whether or not you get a degree in human resources, business, or another discipline depends on the type of HR work you'd like to do, advises the BLS.

So for your next step, begin exploring jobs in the field of personnel management to determine which one will best suit your interests.

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