Transitioning from Sales to HR: Where Should I Start and Do I Need a Consultancy?

Dear All Esteemed Members of this Forum,

I have been in touch with this forum for the past couple of days and found it very informative. I have been working in sales and administration for the past few years and now wish to transition my job profile to HR. Could you kindly guide me on where to start? Do I need to join any consultancy firm first?

Kindly help.

Hi Rajneesh,

I would suggest you to research a little more on this because every field looks green when you are not in it. Like someone said, the grass is always greener on the other side. Or probably our own Indian version of the same quote, ghar ki murgi daal barabar.

CiteHR is a good place for you to interact with people. HR, like any other field, is huge. You have to decide in which field you want to plunge into, not the field completely. Recruitment, training and development, policy framing, etc., are all part of it. Decide which part appeals to you the most, and then you can make your decision. I think if you are young, you can decide to get some HR-specific education or something at that level. Talk to a few more people before making the BIG decision.

Hope this helps!

After working for several years, I have started my own firm, which is just two years old. It's in Mumbai. Why?

Ok. Dear Sir, today I had an interview. It was a good interaction between me and the HR manager, but one question she asked me left me speechless. It was, "Why do I want to change my profile to HR?" I was not able to answer it comfortably. Kindly guide.

Hi Rajneesh, I really liked your reply, specifically "the grass is always green on the other side." Wishing that you help me with my query too. The thing is, even I am confused. I have been working in sales for the last year, and being new to the industry, I don't know how to transition out of sales. I am not bad at sales; I'm pretty good, having excellent communication skills and being hardworking. I have always been an intelligent student, but now I'm just done with it, and I want to switch to HR. The truth is I want to open my own company in the future, so I want to understand the workings of each industry. It's very different from bookish knowledge. Now the problem is I have an MBA but not in HRM; it's in marketing and finance.

Guidance Needed for Transitioning to HR

Anyways, can you guide me if at all I enter the HR industry, will they consider my work experience? Will they consider my MBA? And what fields are actually there in the HR industry? Recruitment and training have always magnetized me. Hope you help me with it because I have no godfather in the job sector; I belong to a business family.

Thanks in advance :)