Why am I finding it difficult to start a career in HR?

Hello sir. My name is Joshua and I’d like to tell you that I am so inspired by your works and contributions to human capital development in Nigeria. I hope to someday achieve as much as you have. I have gained so much knowledge from your contributions on Nairaland and your writeups on your career forum, JarusHub. Thank you.

I am a digital human resources enthusiast with huge interest in digital strategic workforce planning, organizational network analysis and natural language processing. However, I haven’t been able to get into the HR field despite my background in Social science (Sociology), my passion and the soft skills I have developed from self learning on the internet.

I have applied for internships, entry-level and associate roles but I haven’t been able to land any or even get an interview. I am reaching out to you to seek your advice and also ask if you know anyone or organization that’ll be willing to take me on at this time. I completed my youth service less than 10 months ago having finished with a good degree from Obafemi Awolowo University. Thank you for taking the time to read through. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Josh

Dear Josh

You did not tell me the grade you made, but if it is lower than second class upper, then that is where the problem may lie – most companies require minimum of second class honour at entry level.

It is made worse by the fact that HR is a somehow restricted field and it can be difficult to break in as an entry level. Most companies just do general graduate trainee recruitment and post some people to HR where they begin an accidental career in HR. I will advise you just apply for all the general graduate trainee programmes and see if you can be posted to HR when you get job there. If you made second class upper and are below 26, you could also try advisory units in KPMG, PwC etc which all recruit from time to time. HR is part of their advisory role

All the best.

Jarus