Struggling to Land an HR Job in Bangalore: Seeking Advice on Skills and Opportunities

I am writing to seek advice and suggestions regarding my queries and clarifications on HR. I highly hope that your rich experience will clarify my doubts. Thank you for giving me your time.

Introduction

At the very outset, I would like to brief myself. I am Subasree Sundaram, and I have 2.10 years of experience as an HR Generalist in the Non-IT (Advertising Industry). Over these years, I have gained working knowledge in major HR areas. I have been responsible for the Employee HR Life Cycle role. My expertise is in talent acquisition, employee relations, HR operations, and HR policy framing. My previous experiences are with unorganized companies, specifically small-sized companies.

Challenges in Small Companies

As you know, small companies often work very informally. In my last company, the workforce was around 250 employees. There were no systematic workflows and work processes, a lack of policies and procedures, a lack of organizational structure, a lack of data management, and a lack of goals and strategies, which led to low morale among employees and resulted in less productivity. I worked on the HR Generalist profile from recruitment to the exit process.

Learning from Experience

That experience taught me the importance of HR functions and strategies. I was like a big fish in a small pond (small company). There were no clear roles and responsibilities. As a fresher, I was not providing my assistance, but I was overloaded with senior position responsibilities, and the company was relying on my output (recruitment, policies, and procedures). Certainly, there were no good results due to a lack of strategies, but it laid a good platform for me to understand what strategy is, the important role HR functions play, and how to perform every task from scratch. I was working hard to turn the company into an organized form with my meager experience and knowledge.

Initially, as a fresher, I struggled due to unclear expectations where my efforts failed. Then, with the guidance of HR consultants, I started working on SWOT analysis, strategic planning processes via vision, goals, and objectives, job design, PMS i.e., MBO, general policies and procedures, HR administration, tax planning, payroll, and compliance. That was quite successful. I could not compare the work with the standards of other companies. Despite the difficulties, I started learning HR functions via books, forums, discussions, HR websites, and HR training.

Experience with a Start-up

Regarding my previous experience with a start-up company, I was handling the same scenarios as before. There, I applied what I had learned in my previous organization. Unfortunately, the company shut down due to a financial crisis, so I left the job.

Positively, I learned from my experience what should be done to keep things in an organized form. This is because I learned the wrong ways and informal procedures that will not reap results and keep the company in an unorganized form. I am reminded of Thomas Edison's famous quote signifying the truth of his reality, "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." My perception of this is that in the race, the failed one knows "how fast to run and win."

Current Job Search and Learning

Right now, I am exploring job opportunities for an HR Generalist in Bangalore. I learn daily and update myself on:

1. Strategies
2. Strategy planning process
3. Recruitment/Selection Strategies/Interviewing
4. Retention Strategies
5. PMS - How to devise the performance plan
6. Employee relations/benefits
7. Succession planning
8. Payroll processing & statutory compliance
9. MIS Reports generation

I clear my second round of interviews, but they have not resulted in job offers. I guess these might be the reasons:

1. I am not matching their requirements.
2. I am unemployed.
3. I worked with small companies.
4. I may not be aware of opportunities or the market with fewer opportunities.
5. My salary payment mode was via cash.
6. I lack knowledge or am overqualified.

Could you possibly help me determine if I am right? What are the major areas that I need to concentrate on? What are the sources from which I could learn and update my knowledge? Also, suggest ways to improve my skills and abilities. As I am from Non-IT, I really want to know the HR systems and work processes of corporate IT companies and how others operate. What are the opportunities in the market?

As a quick learner, I could do my best if you educate me on this. Please provide your honest feedback, concerns, and suggestions. This advice will help me take a step ahead.

Awaiting your response!

Thanks & Regards,

Subasree Sundaram

I appreciate your attitude towards learning and your openness to self-analysis and suggestions for improvement. After reviewing your post, my observations are as follows:

1. I do not see points (3) and (5) as hindrances in your efforts to secure a position.

2. This leaves us to focus on points (1), (2), (4), and (6).

Sector-Specific Experience

As regards point (1), I am not aware of the sector for which you received interviews. From your post, it is understood that you have experience in HR in an advertising company. If you interviewed for positions in the manufacturing sector, they may not prefer someone with experience in a white-collar establishment since the skills and knowledge required for a factory are different. You need to be aware of this distinction. Therefore, apply for jobs in establishments with a white-collar setup such as the IT sector, BPOs, KPOs, retail, banking, and insurance sectors where you stand a good chance of being selected.

After an interview, reflect on the questions asked. Did they inquire about any specific skills or technical skills? Do you possess these skills? This reflection will help you understand if you match their requirements.

Continuous Learning and Improvement

Regarding point (2), do not sit idle. Try to pursue a short certification course or a consultancy job in an HR recruitment consultancy during the interim period. Alternatively, consider joining as a faculty in a training institute that aligns with your knowledge and skills background.

Networking and Opportunities

As for point (4), utilize references and professional sources such as your classmates who are currently employed. Look into the retail sector, which is vast, covering items from groceries to electronics to telecommunications. Another growing sector is banking and insurance. Additionally, consider HR consultancy (not recruitment) where consultants undertake projects in organizational development, performance management, training, etc.

Qualification and Career Path

Regarding point (6), I do not consider over-qualification as an impediment since an MBA in HR is a qualification that employers seek for core HR jobs unless you are aiming for routine administrative roles. Strive to enter into a proper HR function. If you have doubts about inadequate knowledge, refer back to point (1) and analyze the issue in relation to the interview questions.

I hope this guidance proves helpful.

Regards,

B. Saikumar

HR & Labor Law Advisor

Mumbai

It might sound funny, but the truth is most CEOs I know don't have a ready answer to the question "How does your HR leader help your organization compete?" nor do they have a handy list of must-do activities for HR executives charged with boosting the organization's competitive future. Honestly, if you ask a CEO "What does your HR leader do?" he or she is likely to say: "You got me. I just know I need to have one."

We expect our HR executives to look after employee records, hire and train people, administer performance reviews, and see that compensation and benefits practices chug along. It's every HR chief's highest calling to make sure his or her employer has the most excited, switched-on, and capable people on the market.

As an HR professional, our key job is to attract, retain, and grow human capital. However, to do that, it would be an added advantage if we have exposure to other functions, i.e., Finance, Sales, Marketing, Quality, etc.

Here's a List of Things Your HR Head Should Be Doing Right Now:

1. Work with a mission of taking the company from one level to the other by collaborating with you and other leaders to design and communicate a vision for the company, using every communication vehicle you have. Instead, most people are very comfortable playing the role of carrying out the CEO's plans blindly rather than reasoning. In short, the CEO's "Yes" person. Building a culture of collaboration that fuels every important program at your company. If your HR chief isn't the advocate for people and evangelist for your culture, that's a bad sign.

2. For one who really wants to make a contribution, selling the company to the vast "talent pool," and making it a company where people would want to work. This has to be done by utilizing every opportunity and every media available—in person, online, and via print and broadcast media. An HR Leader should articulate the organization's history, culture, and story, not only for recruiting purposes but to fuel all the other activities—clients, vendors, media, and the business community. Building a pipeline of qualified, energized people to fuel the company's growth—scrapping the requisition-by-requisition, transactional recruitment model.

3. An HR Leader should "walk the talk" and be an influencer so that employees would want to emulate by holding "integrity" at work, especially when sticky interpersonal or political wrangles crop up. They should have the liberty and be empowered enough to even tell the CEO they aren't always right. Reinforcing a culture that emphasizes ingenuity over irrelevant, one-size-fits-all metrics. Asking your team members every day for their input on your business, their own careers, and life in general—not via a sterile, once-a-year "employee engagement survey." Replacing fear with trust at every opportunity, in policies, training sessions, management practices, and via every conversation in the place.

4. Installing just enough HR process to meet your company's regulatory compliance needs but not so much that people are stymied or treated like children. Shifting the HR function away from a break/fix model ("Benefits question? Second door on the left.") to an embedded function in your business units.

There are 4 key parts of the HR value chain as outlined in the picture, i.e., Talent Acquisition, Organizational Development, Employee Engagement, and HR Service Delivery, which includes the entire spectrum of HR transactions, including compliance with the law of the land. To build a successful career in HR, it is imperative that we build depth and breadth in each of these and subsets of these strands and deliver consistently on defined CTQs (Critical to Quality). If we skip any of these and somehow manage to reach leadership positions in HR, we will find it difficult to strategize, and even if we strategize, it would be difficult to visualize the entire execution phase. Most strategies fail not because they lack perspicacity and sound judgment on the part of the strategist, however, they fail as it is difficult to execute them, and the person who strategizes without going through the rigmarole fails to anticipate the bottlenecks in execution.

I have seen HR people more willing to do employee engagement/Organizational development-related roles and are happy carrying out the transactional spectrum of HR, which is an operational matter and truly the backbone of any HR organization.

In my view, aspiring HR professionals must build the efficiencies, depth, and breadth to become Transformational HR Leaders. This will help them in the long run and catapult them into "hands-on" HR leaders where they will not demand but command the respect of their staff.

Should you want to know more about Transactional vs. Transformational HR, I suggest you google it, and that will lead you to a lot of information.

Best wishes and warm regards,