Navigating Career Decisions: HR vs Marketing Roles & Decision Making Insights

Respected Sirs and Madams,

I am Swati Mittal and have completed an MBA in HR. I then worked for around 1.3 years in an HR generalist role at a medium-sized company. At the time of my switch, I was offered a good HR position with a 2.8 million annual package. Unfortunately, I became too unwell and had to quit my job. Now, after 7-8 months, I am searching for a decent job in HR but not finding any. Instead, I am receiving offers in "sales & marketing" and "business development" roles with a salary of around 20-25k.

My first question is: I have good communication skills but am very confused about whether I should shift into Marketing. Should I consider coming back to HR, and will I be able to do so? HR is a respectable job, so I am getting lured back. Additionally, I believe marketing involves much more hard work.

Secondly, what is the difference between Marketing and Business Development?

Kindly help as I am very confused.

Thank you.

Have patience and go for your passion. It's better to be late and start with something you want than to hurry and start with something you get thrown in your way. Grab even a small HR opportunity. Perform, learn, gain experience, and decide the way ahead in your life.

Regards,
Shailendra - HR

BD is a gas, a fuzzy thing between sales and marketing. The term is used when the organization isn't clear about whether your role is in sales or marketing.

You won't get a good marketing role at the fresher level simply because you won't understand marketing. You need to do sales for a couple of years at least to be able to contribute to marketing.

When choosing a career, the first salary doesn't matter as much as the choice of the field. If you love the field, within a couple of years, you would be making more money than in an area that gave you a higher starting salary but doesn't excite you.

Regarding something requiring hard work - ask yourself this question: Do you want to work hard and achieve more, or do you want to earn less but lead a relaxed life? Both of these options are equally fair, and it depends on the kind of person you are. Make this decision carefully because if you are a go-getter and get stuck in an easy but low-paying career, you'd get frustrated. If you are an earn-less-work-less kind of person, you'll break down if you join a work-more-earn-more career.