Rosemarie Lanard ⋅ New York, NY McGraw Hill Financial ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi India,
I was just scrolling through old posts and saw your question. I'm not sure where you are currently in your research, but I'd be happy to chat with you if you're still exploring. I am the Chief Diversity Officer of McGraw Hill Financial in New York City. Feel free to reach out to chat if you'd like to set up time to speak: rosemarie.lanard@mhfi.com.
Best of luck to you and thank you for your service to our country!
Rose

India Hall ⋅ Richmond Hill, GA U.S. Army, Warrant Officer ⋅ 11 years served

Thank you to everyone for your input and information. I've gained a lot of insight on what I think I need to do. The idea of starting my own business stands out most as that is a future goal of mine with my husband. I'm doing a bit more research into other academic programs and certifications to make me competitive with my peers. Jennifer I would love to work with you and learn from you. Once again thank you all for your input.

Latashia Jackson ⋅ Montgomery, AL Small Businesses ⋅ 5 years experience

Can I ask you a question, if you spent 7 years in the military, why are you getting out looking for another job, starting over? Why not start your own business, become your own boss. Human Resource is a good field to do other things, especially starting your own business. I am in the process of leaving the military myself and I started my own company doing just that. I deal with finance also. I work commission and I determine my own pay. It was just a though. I wish you luck in your search.

Joe Paschall ⋅ Madison, AL nLogic, LLC ⋅ 26 years experience

Although a lot of military folks aspire to transition into HR, this is actually one of the harder transitions to make due to the huge differences between Military HR and Civilian HR. This is the subject of a good long discussion post in the MC4 LinkedIn Group where the below comment was made by an HR Professional:

"One of the aspects of HR in larger organizations is that there are far more specialized roles - not just "compensation' but exempt salary programs, non-exempt wage programs (both referring to FLSA), incentive plans, sales compensation, stock in all its glorious areas, and so on. Then there are the variety related to benefits. And to strategic workforce planning, organization development, or union negotiations and contracts. Mid-size companies usually have fewer of specialists and use more outsourced services -- which means there are also jobs in consulting firms, benefits firms, payroll, HR services and such. And small firms may have one HR person for everything or no-one at all. Learning about HR law and keeping up with the constant changes at the federal, state, and local level is an on-going requirement for all HR pros.

Military HR folks might look at jobs that are most close to their background as being very similiar, but as above, many actually are quite different. In corporate recruiting jobs, there are far more technologies/applications to learn and networking is quite different although there is a fair amount of F2F among great recruiters. Hiring managers are also qute different - you have to understand the business and specialized fields for each one you serve and you may have to push them pretty hard to be responsive at all. Agency recruiting is somewhat closer to military recruiting but does involve excellent sales skills to get and keep clients. Many military might be more comfortable in a Resource Manager role (a junior position) common in some government contractors which is more employee relations and management but you still need to learn a lot of HR law. If you are a skilled communicator and negotiator, you might consider Employee Relations as a way in. Here you are not only providing advice and support to managers but are helping employees learn to resolve problems themselves or explaining the process to them. This also involves investigations of issues, performance management support, etc.

For anyone in transition, getting your HR certifications is key - best when you can do them before you leave active duty. But if you have already done so, the IVMF program will help you - see VTCP at vets.syr.edu And anything beyond clerical HR roles requires a degree, preferably in HR. Consider veteran-owned firms - more of them are willing to take a military HR person and deal with the transition challenges."

Ashutosh Mehta ⋅ Edison, NJ ⋅ 16 years experience

Hi India,

Please research for earning certificate for Professional in Human Resources (PHR).

Also, check following links:

http://www.humanresourcesmba.net/best/hr-mba-programs/
http://study.com/articles/Top_Schools_for_Human_Resource_Management.html

Good luck.

Susana Moraga ⋅ Hayward, CA California State University East Bay ⋅ 20 years experience

India,

It's good you are planning in advance.
Human Resources is a large field, knowing what you want to do in the field will be helpful in seeking a mentor. The more you know about your field the easier your transition.
Do take some time doing some occupational research; tools like OOH and onetonline are good starting points. They also have links to professional associations; these are organizations people belong to, to stay current in their field.
Once you have an HR focus, it will be easy to identify the specific professional associations related to that field, you can gain further information from their webpages without joining.
The next step would be doing informational interviews to verify what you think you know about your area of interest.
From there you may target people on this network and Linkedin.
Good luck and happy exploring,
Susana