Is Human Resource Management A Good Career Choice?

by Alex Morgan · February 28, 2023

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Human Resource Management is a necessity for every business. So, is it a good career choice?

Human resource management is one of the leading career paths for business graduates. Around 58% of companies depend on these HR professionals for talent recruitment, hiring, payrolls, etc. And, with 97% of companies looking to invest more in recruitment technology, HR professionals will be necessary to run those operations.

In other words, right now seems like an ideal time to dive into a career based on human resource management expertise, but is it a long-term commitment? Besides that, is it a career path that’s easy to take? This article will answer these questions and more. So, let’s get started.

Human Resource Management Career Paths

If you’re dedicated, then a long and fruitful career in human resource management is one of the most probable outcomes. While human resource management sounds straightforward to most, it has many complexities.

Moreover, it has intricate areas that require an HR manager to tend to—so the organization can run smoothly. That’s why human resource management has many different job titles, and each one tends to be a specific and necessary part of HR management.

To make it simple for you, here are the primary career paths and positions an HR management bachelor’s degree holder might find in an organization:

Human resources generalist: This job title is usually responsible for managing generic aspects of the human resources department. In the early stages of your career path, you might be required to tend to the needs of a higher-up as an assistant or associate HR generalist.

Training Specialist: This specialist is responsible for training and orienting new hires. As the title suggests, they might even train the new employees about company policies, etiquette, and other important aspects of the organization. However, this person is NOT responsible for job training.

Compensation/pay structure specialist: This HR position requires the manager to handle the payroll aspects of the organization. It also requires them to research key areas and improve the company’s pay structure. Besides that, they also research other organizations to learn more about their pay structures and how the company can compete with them.

Benefits Specialist: This professional usually makes calls for hiring new employees. They are also the ones who post jobs and write job descriptions. Their primary responsibility is to talk, assess and research specific benefits, compensations, and other perks provided by the company.

Recruitment specialist: Much like the benefits specialist, the recruitment specialist is the primary contact between potential new hires and the organization. They make calls, post jobs, handle meetings, and arrange interviews with potential candidates.

Labor relations specialist: In large organizations, the labor relation specialist is responsible for managing the regulations and rules of the organization. They also write and formulate new rules according to company goals and requirements. Their additional responsibility may also include conflict resolution.

You can only reach the above level of specialization and expertise if you have a human resource management college degree. Your HRM college degree will offer a host of in-depth courses such as mathematics, accounting to compute compensations and benefits, and cost accounting to understand role of HR in business, etc. Apart from these, there are many other branches from these core specializations that can help you enter into the field of HRM.

Human Resource Salary According To Job Groups

Human resources management specialists have highly paid salaries which makes this career path lucrative and worth pursuing. To understand human resource salaries, you must first understand that HR positions vary depending on the scale of the organization, the experience of the individual, the and area they specialize in. Thus, the categories of HR salaries can’t be lumped together.

But, to avoid discrepancies like that, we have average salaries listed down here for you to gauge. In other words, the type of pay you can expect in the HR career. Let’s take Human Resource Recruiter, for example; here’s how much they earn according to Glassdoor:

A person with experience of 1-2 years earns $68,000

A person with experience of 4-5 years earns around $82,000

A senior-level employee with 7-9 years of experience earns around $92,000 – $123,000 per year

Now, these are hefty salaries, but it’s important to remember that they are for one position only. According to SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), the highest-paying HR job in the United States is Professional Development Manager, which averages around $308,000 per year.

According to a LinkedIn job search, there are around 28,000+ job openings for this position. So, it’s safe to assume that only higher-ups or more experienced development managers earn that much. But it’s still one of the highest-paying jobs that fall into the HR category.

On the other hand, Talent.com generalizes human resources as a general category and says that the average salary for a human resource expert is around $59,000 in the United States—with the higher-ups reaching $100,000. So, to sum it up, it all depends on the following:

Organization

Job title

Experience

Degree/educational qualification

Skills

Hence, you will have to develop them to become a considerable and stand out person for human resource management jobs. That’s why you’re going to need formal education and training.

Human Resource Bachelor Degrees To Pursue

The path to a successful career in human resource management begins in a college, university, or school. However, to be a successful human resource manager, you need to pursue a relevant degree after high school.

So, which option should you look for? We’ve picked four such degrees that you should put your focus into. Here they are:

Bachelor’s in Human Resources Management

The Bachelor’s In Human Resource Management studies theoretical practices in an organization, which is why it’s the first degree you should pursue. In most states across the United States, these human resources management degrees are offered and shouldn’t be that difficult to find.

Besides that, these degree programs usually encompass all there is to understand practices that an organization needs from human resource managers. So, what does this degree usually entail? Here are some courses that you can expect to take in a bachelor’s in human resource management curriculum:

Organizational Science

Behavioral psychology

Business development

Law and organizational ethics

Communication

Training and development

Besides this, universities and colleges add other courses to their curriculum to make their degrees more appealing and suited to a modern working environment. So, you can expect the use of technology, risk management, HR diversity, etc. kind of courses as well.

Bachelor’s in Business Administration

A Bachelor Of Business Administration or a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) is another degree that you can pursue to become a human resource manager. Now, you might be thinking that “this doesn’t mention human resource management anywhere in the title,” and you’d be right.

However, human resource management IS one of the major parts of administrating any business. That’s why some of the common courses you’d find in these degrees include:

Business communication

Principle of economics

Business statistics/law

Principles of marketing, finance, and management

As you can see, these common courses in a BSBA or BA degree are enough to teach you about the common aspects of human resource management. That’s why a lot of BA, BBA, or BSBA degree holders head into human resource or business development management.

Bachelor’s in Workforce Development

With a Bachelor’s in Workforce Development degree you can learn about the human development area of any business. That’s why it includes courses such as business law, statistics, analysis, etc. Is it enough to get you a job in Human Resource Management? Yes, it is, as it’ll teach you about specific areas of HR as a core component of growing a business, and how to utilize human resources to maximize business growth.

With these three undergraduate human resources degree programs, you can enter and work in the human resource management department of any company or business immediately. If you can’t find any of these HR undergrad college degrees then, you can always find online human resources degree programs that offer a lot more leniency. Even better though, it is recommended to find human resources management school in your state; otherwise, you’d have to pay out-of-state charges. Therefore, the best way to avoid that is to enroll in a business college or university near you.

Top Human Resource Degree Colleges Near You

Finding an accredited human resource degree college near you doesn’t require much work. You can find a lot of colleges on Google by simply searching for them. However, there are specific universities and colleges that stand out in each state.

For instance, Berkeley and Stanford universities stand out in California. Whereas Harvard and MIT are the premiere names in Massachusetts. The point is to find something that’s near you and allows you to study a program ideal for you. So, what should you look for? Keep these three things in mind:

A university in your state will be a lot cheaper than any outside of it

Any university or college near you will make conveyance easy for you

You can stay near your support system and find jobs while studying.

A high school student can seldom support or opt for a “new start,” and going to a university in another state will do just that. If you’re looking to become a human resource manager, the best course of action is to find something near you to gain the advantages mentioned above.

But, to keep things simple for you, here are a few universities from each state that stand out as the top option for human resource management:

Princeton University – NJ/NY Area
Harvard or MIT – Massachusetts
Berkley or Stanford – California
Penn State – Pennsylvania
Yale University – Connecticut
John Hopkins University – Maryland
The University of Michigan- Ann Arbor – Michigan
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – North Carolina

Suppose you wish to find other top universities for human resource management near you. In that case, you can always check out USNEWS and its list of top universities for specific degrees. Or a simple Google search can also do the trick.

And, if you’re still in high school, then finding a student counselor near you isn’t a bad idea to seek more information about a career in human resources and learn about the best places to get this degree.

Conclusion – Why Pursue HR Career Path

The HR career path is full of challenges, but that also means it promotes growth and constant development. If pursued correctly, a career in HR isn’t only fulfilling but also one that pays well. On top of all that, there are constant opportunities at every corner, in every possible industry.

That’s why pursuing a career in human resource management is a popular choice for business-minded students. So, if you want a career that’s always changing for good reasons and promotes constant growth. In that case, human resource management is for you.