One of the things I am very interested in learning about is how people got into HR. Weāve had some lovely stories from some of our community members, like Zoe and Nina.Ā
Iām curious about everyone else here as well! Have you always wanted to work in HR? Or, perhaps, was there some other field, some other line of work you were in?
What were you doing before making the leap to HR? And how did you get here?Ā
Canāt wait to read your stories!
Ā
Looking forward to hearing from some of our regulars!
ā
I had a classic āwigglyā career journey to HR!
I started my working life as a Graphic Designer, and then after about 8 years in little design agencies moved in to a Sales and Marketing role for a small property company.
I stayed with the property company for 15 years as it grew, moving in to a āGeneral Managerā role, with line management responsibilities, as we opened lots of new buildings. That was a lot of fun - I did all sorts of things; viewing new office spaces to buy, designing floorplans for the office layouts (serviced offices/coworking spaces), dealing with fitout and facilities management, recruiting all the teams for the centres, managing all of the Centre Managers, selling office spaces - it was a steep but useful learning curve!
I was nominated to be the HR Manager at the property company by an interim HR ManagerĀ (much to my horror...), discovered I actually loved it, got my CIPD Level 5 qualification during covid (lots of completely empty offices to write all my essays in), and then moved to my current HR role in March 2023.Ā
Iām now Head of HR in a āSaaS for clinical trialsā scale-up (their first HR role as a business), and in the last two years have set up the āpeopleā function, introduced employee benefits, new contracts, policies etc. I hired an HR Admin Manager in Sept 2023, and a Talent Acquisition Partner in April this year - so we are now an HR Team of threeĀ 
I have only ever worked in small companies, I think because I like to be able to see an immediate impact from what Iām doing. I canāt imagine being part of a huge HR team in a large corporate!
Being in HR wasnāt a childhood dream...Ā but I like it now Iām here.
I had a classic āwigglyā career journey to HR!
I started my working life as a Graphic Designer, and then after about 8 years in little design agencies moved in to a Sales and Marketing role for a small property company.
I stayed with the property company for 15 years as it grew, moving in to a āGeneral Managerā role, with line management responsibilities, as we opened lots of new buildings. That was a lot of fun - I did all sorts of things; viewing new office spaces to buy, designing floorplans for the office layouts (serviced offices/coworking spaces), dealing with fitout and facilities management, recruiting all the teams for the centres, managing all of the Centre Managers, selling office spaces - it was a steep but useful learning curve!
I was nominated to be the HR Manager at the property company by an interim HR ManagerĀ (much to my horror...), discovered I actually loved it, got my CIPD Level 5 qualification during covid (lots of completely empty offices to write all my essays in), and then moved to my current HR role in March 2023.Ā
Iām now Head of HR in a āSaaS for clinical trialsā scale-up (their first HR role as a business), and in the last two years have set up the āpeopleā function, introduced employee benefits, new contracts, policies etc. I hired an HR Admin Manager in Sept 2023, and a Talent Acquisition Partner in April this year - so we are now an HR Team of threeĀ
I have only ever worked in small companies, I think because I like to be able to see an immediate impact from what Iām doing. I canāt imagine being part of a huge HR team in a large corporate!
Being in HR wasnāt a childhood dream...Ā but I like it now Iām here.
Now that right there...is aĀ journey! š¤©
Itās always so surprising to me how varied the paths are for folks to get into HR. In your case, youāve done this wide range of work and I have to imagine that someone saw it allĀ and said, āsheās doing literally everything else, sheās gotta be able to handle HR as well!ā 
Might be a silly question, but, looking forward, would being at a huge company (where your impact isnāt immediately obvious) push you away from HR and potentially onto something else?Ā
Tagging some other folks Iād love to hear from:
ā
wow, itās definitely been a long way for me too! 
I actually was in hospitality all my life, my parents have a restaurant, my uncle and aunt a hotel. Of course helping out a lot while growing up. In Switzerland we have the concept of apprenticeships and I did mine in a big 5* hotel in a popular ski destination. I was always good at admin, accounting and guest relations and thatās where my focus was. After that, I changed to a 5* hotel on lake Geneva before I went to work on a sailing passengerĀ ship as a cruise director. Definitely had the best time there! š¤©
Coming back to Switzerland, I decided to do the Hotel Management School together with my sister (of course she went to the same line of work as well) and apart from having leadership experiences from before, I think thatās the first time I came in contact with HR in general.
After completing the school, I started again in a hotel as a Front Office Manager and got then also promoted to Hotel Manager. Unfortunately, even though itās ānot expectedā, itās still kinda expected to be available 24/7 as a Hotel Manager and as I wanted to focus on growing my own coaching business (Mindset & Perception), I couldnāt do both.
I wasnāt necessarily looking to change industry but it came as it came and I now work at a SaaS CIAM company as People & Operations Coordinator. Starting with just general HR Admin stuff but quickly came involved in more strategic projects as well. 
wow, itās definitely been a long way for me too!
I actually was in hospitality all my life, my parents have a restaurant, my uncle and aunt a hotel. Of course helping out a lot while growing up. In Switzerland we have the concept of apprenticeships and I did mine in a big 5* hotel in a popular ski destination. I was always good at admin, accounting and guest relations and thatās where my focus was. After that, I changed to a 5* hotel on lake Geneva before I went to work on a sailing passengerĀ ship as a cruise director. Definitely had the best time there! š¤©
Coming back to Switzerland, I decided to do the Hotel Management School together with my sister (of course she went to the same line of work as well) and apart from having leadership experiences from before, I think thatās the first time I came in contact with HR in general.
After completing the school, I started again in a hotel as a Front Office Manager and got then also promoted to Hotel Manager. Unfortunately, even though itās ānot expectedā, itās still kinda expected to be available 24/7 as a Hotel Manager and as I wanted to focus on growing my own coaching business (Mindset & Perception), I couldnāt do both.
I wasnāt necessarily looking to change industry but it came as it came and I now work at a SaaS CIAM company as People & Operations Coordinator. Starting with just general HR Admin stuff but quickly came involved in more strategic projects as well.
Wow!Ā
Thank you so much for sharing! One thing Iām curious about is your ambition to grow your coaching business. Has your time in HR made you reconsider this entirely? Or have you picked up some lessons or perspectives that you might eventually take to your coaching career?
wow, itās definitely been a long way for me too!
I actually was in hospitality all my life, my parents have a restaurant, my uncle and aunt a hotel. Of course helping out a lot while growing up. In Switzerland we have the concept of apprenticeships and I did mine in a big 5* hotel in a popular ski destination. I was always good at admin, accounting and guest relations and thatās where my focus was. After that, I changed to a 5* hotel on lake Geneva before I went to work on a sailing passengerĀ ship as a cruise director. Definitely had the best time there! š¤©
Coming back to Switzerland, I decided to do the Hotel Management School together with my sister (of course she went to the same line of work as well) and apart from having leadership experiences from before, I think thatās the first time I came in contact with HR in general.
After completing the school, I started again in a hotel as a Front Office Manager and got then also promoted to Hotel Manager. Unfortunately, even though itās ānot expectedā, itās still kinda expected to be available 24/7 as a Hotel Manager and as I wanted to focus on growing my own coaching business (Mindset & Perception), I couldnāt do both.
I wasnāt necessarily looking to change industry but it came as it came and I now work at a SaaS CIAM company as People & Operations Coordinator. Starting with just general HR Admin stuff but quickly came involved in more strategic projects as well.
Wow!Ā
Thank you so much for sharing! One thing Iām curious about is your ambition to grow your coaching business. Has your time in HR made you reconsider this entirely? Or have you picked up some lessons or perspectives that you might eventually take to your coaching career?
Ā
Actually no ahah, it just reinforced my ambition to grow my coaching business. Itās really staggering how people today struggle so much and Iād love to make a difference.Ā
As for the lessons and perspectives, Iām sure there are many Definitely a few about how NOT to do management and how to do it differently 
but I also really love the mantra āAssume positive intent!ā, meaning that whoever Iām interacting with didnāt get up this morning consciously making the choice to annoy people today or make life hard for others, theyāre just in their own world and story and sometimes forget that weāre all just human. 
wow, itās definitely been a long way for me too!
I actually was in hospitality all my life, my parents have a restaurant, my uncle and aunt a hotel. Of course helping out a lot while growing up. In Switzerland we have the concept of apprenticeships and I did mine in a big 5* hotel in a popular ski destination. I was always good at admin, accounting and guest relations and thatās where my focus was. After that, I changed to a 5* hotel on lake Geneva before I went to work on a sailing passengerĀ ship as a cruise director. Definitely had the best time there! š¤©
Coming back to Switzerland, I decided to do the Hotel Management School together with my sister (of course she went to the same line of work as well) and apart from having leadership experiences from before, I think thatās the first time I came in contact with HR in general.
After completing the school, I started again in a hotel as a Front Office Manager and got then also promoted to Hotel Manager. Unfortunately, even though itās ānot expectedā, itās still kinda expected to be available 24/7 as a Hotel Manager and as I wanted to focus on growing my own coaching business (Mindset & Perception), I couldnāt do both.
I wasnāt necessarily looking to change industry but it came as it came and I now work at a SaaS CIAM company as People & Operations Coordinator. Starting with just general HR Admin stuff but quickly came involved in more strategic projects as well.
Wow!Ā
Thank you so much for sharing! One thing Iām curious about is your ambition to grow your coaching business. Has your time in HR made you reconsider this entirely? Or have you picked up some lessons or perspectives that you might eventually take to your coaching career?
Ā
Actually no ahah, it just reinforced my ambition to grow my coaching business. Itās really staggering how people today struggle so much and Iād love to make a difference.Ā
As for the lessons and perspectives, Iām sure there are many Definitely a few about how NOT to do management and how to do it differently but I also really love the mantra āAssume positive intent!ā, meaning that whoever Iām interacting with didnāt get up this morning consciously making the choice to annoy people today or make life hard for others, theyāre just in their own world and story and sometimes forget that weāre all just human.
Ā
ā
I am reading more and more about mindset these days because, like most people, I could always use more focus on this. I am among those foolish enough in the past to have thought little about mindset and its importance. Now, Iām all into learning how to change my own mindset and to use these positive changes to power myself through facets of life. Itās already helping in a massive way in my work life, excited to learn more!
Do you have any recommendations on books/ podcasts/ other resources on this topic?
wow, itās definitely been a long way for me too!
I actually was in hospitality all my life, my parents have a restaurant, my uncle and aunt a hotel. Of course helping out a lot while growing up. In Switzerland we have the concept of apprenticeships and I did mine in a big 5* hotel in a popular ski destination. I was always good at admin, accounting and guest relations and thatās where my focus was. After that, I changed to a 5* hotel on lake Geneva before I went to work on a sailing passengerĀ ship as a cruise director. Definitely had the best time there! š¤©
Coming back to Switzerland, I decided to do the Hotel Management School together with my sister (of course she went to the same line of work as well) and apart from having leadership experiences from before, I think thatās the first time I came in contact with HR in general.
After completing the school, I started again in a hotel as a Front Office Manager and got then also promoted to Hotel Manager. Unfortunately, even though itās ānot expectedā, itās still kinda expected to be available 24/7 as a Hotel Manager and as I wanted to focus on growing my own coaching business (Mindset & Perception), I couldnāt do both.
I wasnāt necessarily looking to change industry but it came as it came and I now work at a SaaS CIAM company as People & Operations Coordinator. Starting with just general HR Admin stuff but quickly came involved in more strategic projects as well.
Wow!Ā
Thank you so much for sharing! One thing Iām curious about is your ambition to grow your coaching business. Has your time in HR made you reconsider this entirely? Or have you picked up some lessons or perspectives that you might eventually take to your coaching career?
Ā
Actually no ahah, it just reinforced my ambition to grow my coaching business. Itās really staggering how people today struggle so much and Iād love to make a difference.Ā
As for the lessons and perspectives, Iām sure there are many Definitely a few about how NOT to do management and how to do it differently but I also really love the mantra āAssume positive intent!ā, meaning that whoever Iām interacting with didnāt get up this morning consciously making the choice to annoy people today or make life hard for others, theyāre just in their own world and story and sometimes forget that weāre all just human.
Ā
ā
I am reading more and more about mindset these days because, like most people, I could always use more focus on this. I am among those foolish enough in the past to have thought little about mindset and its importance. Now, Iām all into learning how to change my own mindset and to use these positive changes to power myself through facets of life. Itās already helping in a massive way in my work life, excited to learn more!
Do you have any recommendations on books/ podcasts/ other resources on this topic?
Ā
Huff, thereās so many!
I personally learned a lot from Bob Proctor and Peter Sage whereas from Peter I also got certified to guide people through his programs. 
Youāll find a lot from both on YouTube, Peter has a few TedTalks that are really great!Ā
Also, I really love Rory Kilmartinās work about Archetypes. He studied them in a completely new way and his work is transforming relationships so beautifully. 
Iāve recently become part of growing a community called The Sacred Space, a nurturing home for personal evolution. It offers daily live calls, soulful practices, and a conscious community to support each personās journey in body, mind, and spirit, meeting them exactly where they are.
As for books, here some that I really loved:
Thereās of course also quite a few podcasts I love like Lost and Found w/ Sabri Gazail andĀ The Diary of a CEO but Iām more on Audible these days. So many books to still listen to. 
As you can see, I could go on forever when it comes to this. Happy to chat more if you wish to!
wow, itās definitely been a long way for me too!
I actually was in hospitality all my life, my parents have a restaurant, my uncle and aunt a hotel. Of course helping out a lot while growing up. In Switzerland we have the concept of apprenticeships and I did mine in a big 5* hotel in a popular ski destination. I was always good at admin, accounting and guest relations and thatās where my focus was. After that, I changed to a 5* hotel on lake Geneva before I went to work on a sailing passengerĀ ship as a cruise director. Definitely had the best time there! š¤©
Coming back to Switzerland, I decided to do the Hotel Management School together with my sister (of course she went to the same line of work as well) and apart from having leadership experiences from before, I think thatās the first time I came in contact with HR in general.
After completing the school, I started again in a hotel as a Front Office Manager and got then also promoted to Hotel Manager. Unfortunately, even though itās ānot expectedā, itās still kinda expected to be available 24/7 as a Hotel Manager and as I wanted to focus on growing my own coaching business (Mindset & Perception), I couldnāt do both.
I wasnāt necessarily looking to change industry but it came as it came and I now work at a SaaS CIAM company as People & Operations Coordinator. Starting with just general HR Admin stuff but quickly came involved in more strategic projects as well.
Wow!Ā
Thank you so much for sharing! One thing Iām curious about is your ambition to grow your coaching business. Has your time in HR made you reconsider this entirely? Or have you picked up some lessons or perspectives that you might eventually take to your coaching career?
Ā
Actually no ahah, it just reinforced my ambition to grow my coaching business. Itās really staggering how people today struggle so much and Iād love to make a difference.Ā
As for the lessons and perspectives, Iām sure there are many Definitely a few about how NOT to do management and how to do it differently but I also really love the mantra āAssume positive intent!ā, meaning that whoever Iām interacting with didnāt get up this morning consciously making the choice to annoy people today or make life hard for others, theyāre just in their own world and story and sometimes forget that weāre all just human.
Ā
ā
I am reading more and more about mindset these days because, like most people, I could always use more focus on this. I am among those foolish enough in the past to have thought little about mindset and its importance. Now, Iām all into learning how to change my own mindset and to use these positive changes to power myself through facets of life. Itās already helping in a massive way in my work life, excited to learn more!
Do you have any recommendations on books/ podcasts/ other resources on this topic?
Ā
Huff, thereās so many!
I personally learned a lot from Bob Proctor and Peter Sage whereas from Peter I also got certified to guide people through his programs. Youāll find a lot from both on YouTube, Peter has a few TedTalks that are really great!Ā
Also, I really love Rory Kilmartinās work about Archetypes. He studied them in a completely new way and his work is transforming relationships so beautifully.
Iāve recently become part of growing a community called The Sacred Space, a nurturing home for personal evolution. It offers daily live calls, soulful practices, and a conscious community to support each personās journey in body, mind, and spirit, meeting them exactly where they are.
As for books, here some that I really loved:
Thereās of course also quite a few podcasts I love like Lost and Found w/ Sabri Gazail andĀ The Diary of a CEO but Iām more on Audible these days. So many books to still listen to.
As you can see, I could go on forever when it comes to this. Happy to chat more if you wish to!
This is AWESOME š¤©
Ok, so youāve actually given me an idea here. Iāve discussed the idea of an HR/ working life book club with a few folks in the community - ā
Would you be interested in participating as well? 
ā
Ā
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