HR consultants – you either love them or you hate them. I set up my business a few months ago after being made redundant. The problems I faced were two small children, that I was only available to work 12 or so hours a week, and wanted quite good money.
I couldn’t find that anywhere – which surprises me, as HR is the champion of flexible working, yet part-time jobs are extremely difficult to find in the profession.
Now the problem I have is only being part-CIPD qualified. I cannot justify the time or money to become fully qualified, even going down the professional assessment centre route.
I believe the CIPD is becoming so elitist and academic that soon it will not be in the real world. Yes, I believe we need to have extensive knowledge in all areas of HR, but do we really need titles after our names? Or can we be happy with saying that we have qualified in the school of life?
Maybe someone should set up a rival HR/personnel academy, so the rest of us can belong to our own club.
Katherine Simpson founder, JDS HR
