More roads to HR careers

You might have come across the #mypathtoHR series that has been trending on Twitter recently. We’ve loved seeing the different journeys that the inspiring HR community have taken to reach their current roles and we thought it would be great to hear some of the paths our own HR team have taken to get to where they are now. We have already published some of the stories from the NGA team and now here
are some more inspiring HR stories!

Daniel Kasmir, Chief HR Officer

I originally got into HR because I firmly believe people are the biggest resource in any organisation. Businesses that are open to creating great cultures that let their people do amazing things are inspiring.

My career in HR started when I was lucky to be hired by Shell on to their Graduate HR programme. I stayed at Shell for 7 years, by which time I was working as an HR Manager. Since then I’ve worked in a variety of different businesses in different HR roles to get to where I am now. I love working with a variety of different people, the mix of what goes on and dealing with the unexpected

I’d say two things have stood out on my path to HR:

First, you can’t underestimate the value of plain hard work. A lot of it comes down to just that – rolling up the sleeves and getting on with the job at hand.  

Secondly, look for the opportunities. I’ve had some great bosses who took a chance on me and I leapt at the opportunities they presented.

Lisa Baggaley, HR Lead

I fell into a HR role – it wasn’t a planned career choice.  I had been teaching music to children in Germany and came back to the UK looking for a career change. I applied for a role at the Benefits Agency (now the Department of Work and Pensions) and was placed as an administrator in the HR department as an HR Assistant. I was quickly promoted to HR Advisor and then into an HR Manager role.

Once I started to work with the HR team I decided to stay and make a career, so I enrolled onto the CIPD course and went from there.  I volunteered for different projects to gain a variety of experience. I ran the project looking at RSI (a hot topic in the 90’s) and I introduced a new performance management process across the public sector.

I love the challenges the business presents, and the variety of work HR can get involved with. The people I work with really make the job fun. Not taking yourself too seriously always helps too.

Marva Christian, HR Business Partner

My first job after leaving college was working in the Accounts team for a local company.  I knew that I wanted to work with people and the Personnel department (as it was known back then) seemed warm and friendly, and interested in the welfare of employees.  I applied for a role as HR Assistant with another company. I wasn’t successful, but they hired me for a role within their Accounts team due to my previous experience.  After a year there, the HR Assistant they hired had resigned, and the HR Manager came to find me to ask if I was still interested.  I nearly bit her hand off.

Whilst the function name and work has evolved over the years to Human Resources, my interest in this field has never changed.  I love the famous line in the Forest Gump movie, “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you’re gonna get”. HR life is also like a box of chocolates; every day is different, you never know what is going to crop up next. That’s what I love about working in HR.