Welcome to the bringing the human Back To Human Resources,
podcast, the podcast, all about the delicate balance between
people and business. And quite literally reconnecting
the to my name is Tracy Ruben. And I have spent nearly my
entire professional career in HR or stories, opinions, and words
of advice is impeach week. Hey everyone!
This is Tracy Ruben. Welcome back to the bringing the
human Back To Human Resources podcast.
It's officially week 6. So I've been doing this podcast
now for almost 2 months which I'm proud of its exciting.
It's an exciting opportunity for me to you.
No, talk to me. Whatever is on my mind and I
think it gives me an opportunity.
Also to interact with all of you that I really invite you to
reach out. If there's something that you
want to talk about specifically or hear me talk about
specifically and actually it leads me into the point of this
week's podcast. But before I go into it, I want
to give you a quick update on how I'm doing with my
commitments to an improved or achieving a better work-life
balance. And on last week's podcast
episode I said that I would be waking up at 5 a.m. everyday.
I really meant Monday to Friday which I Claire Right on
Instagram, but waking up every day at 5 a.m. getting myself
ready to go for the day can giving back to myself, creating
routine having that suit commute, if you will.
And I am here to tell you that I did just that.
So I'm recording right now while I'm still in that week where
I've committed to making those changes to achieve a better
work-life balance and I actually I had to stay like waking up at
5 which I used to do regularly feels so good.
Again. Like I feel actually more
well-rested, which could be because I'm going to sleep a
little bit earlier. I'm giving myself time to do
anything and everything that's not work-related for like 4
hours before I even touch work. And so it's just a really nice
Improvement so far. So I'm looking forward to
keeping it up and I will continue to check back.
And keep you guys updated. I hope that we all can a Zagg
little Community. Hold each other accountable to
these things so we can have better just experiences
specially while we're mostly. I would imagine most of us are
working remotely. If you're not working remotely,
all the more reason to establish a really good routine because
it's not easy to be working in this environment where this
climate right now. And so taking space for
yourself, I think is still supercritical since you get into
today's topic, I've had a lot of Outreach around this topic for
weeks. Now, pretty much since the
beginning of the podcast and I've touched on it a little bit
here and there but I figured why not dedicate a full episode to
this and it's probably going to result in my bringing on a guest
and a future episode 2, really dive into some actionable tips
and tricks but I wanted to talk about breaking In 2 HRS.
And I've engaged with some of you over DM's on LinkedIn
message her and I've been able to give you some of my advice
and thoughts individually. But I know that there are so
many people who don't reach out and so hopefully if you're
listening this will help you. If you are considering a career
in a jar, I strongly recommend a career in HR.
If you like the following things, people business
strategy, having an impact on people.
So great. You like those things check,
right? However, you have to also know
what you don't like, because HR definitely will challenge you.
If you don't like, the following things, being resourceful and
solutions-oriented feeling comfortable, wearing, many
different hats and being extremely agile, not only day
today and week-to-week but also minute-to-minute things, change
constantly and says that agility and adaptable.
Is really, really important. You have to also have an
appetite for some of the administration piece.
I mean, even in my current role as a director, there's so much
admin work still and we have an admin so you have to be
comfortable with systems and operations and I recognize that
a lot of rolls and jobs call on all of these things that I think
the biggest thing is that if you don't like people and if you
don't like helping people find a different career so you didn't
want to hear the truth today. I'm sorry.
You got it. But that is the truth.
If you don't like people and you don't like helping people, then
this is the the sign you've been waiting for that.
You should not pursue a career in HR certainly, there are parts
of each are that have less and less to do with people like you
know some of the admin stuff your, you could be doing a lot
of manual entry and things like that.
However, once You are a part of an HR team.
People will see you as a resource.
And so if you want to be an individual contributor in the
sense that you have no impact, or no involvement with the human
element, don't come into this career in the first episode,
right? I talk to you guys about how my
undying focus and goal is to destigmatize HR.
And that's because there are people in HR who shouldn't be in
HR, who have stigmatized the career, who don't care about
people, and don't want to help people.
And so, if you are not being honest with yourself, maybe you
think you like people, maybe you think you want to help people,
but every time someone reaches out for help or support and you
get irritated or you can't find the the motivation behind.
You at least should not be in a business partner roll.
Maybe there's an element of HR that you could get into like
maybe you really, really like to do manual work and entering
data. Like maybe it's HR analytics
that could be totally possible, but again, I really think and I
don't know, maybe I'm completely spoiled by the job that I'm
currently in in the company that I work for, but I think that if
you don't like people are, you don't have an appetite for
helping them that it's just not going to work out.
And actually think that's the case for management to do.
I don't know what jobs are out there where you don't have to
work with people. Maybe it's like software
development engineering, maybe I don't know.
Are there jobs out there that don't deal with people?
Hey, maybe not. If there aren't then you better
figure out a way to like people. That's all I have to say but
it's a fundamental part of this role.
HR is a super Superboy Field. It's kind of like saying retail
right like retail could mean anything retail is literally any
consumer product consumer brand company.
That's what retail is right. The ability for someone to
purchase what a company is selling.
And so it's kind of the same with HR, like, what is HR, you
can find a charger, anywhere in education.
Its Personnel in retail is a jar and Tech, its people operations
in medicine is HR to, like they're basically it's all in
one in the same and yet everything is completely
different. So Step 1 find the industry that
you feel, you're best suited for and this can change over time
when I graduated college, my mom was like, this is your first
job. It's not your last job and that
is really good at advice because I think if anyone can relate to
the experience that I had, I was in college, I felt an incredible
amount of pressure, not only to get a job but also almost like
thinking in my mind that it was like the end-all-be-all and it's
not this year has been really challenging.
I'm sure for recent graduates because they maybe have secured
or had a secured their first job and then you know, the pain.
Make it and they either lost their jobs or they were
furloughed or, you know, something potentially through
real wrench into their plan. And I couldn't imagine knowing
the amount of pressure that I put on myself.
When I had my first job, which was Target out of college.
And I didn't like, think past that I almost and I don't know
why, I don't know if I just thought that you go to a job and
you stay there for 30 years because people who work at
Johnson & Johnson do that? Like, I think that that was my
mentality. Now, I mean Studies have shown
that Millennials are more likely to judge Around between jobs
within a year 2 years of tenure and organization.
I wonder how the pandemic will change that people might see
that. Now, there's a bit more added
value. If you spend a longer time with
the company, I personally, I mean, now I've almost four years
of my current company. I spent almost four years at
Target. I haven't had an experience
where I spent less than 4 years at this point with an
organization that I know that it's real.
It's a real thing and recruiters have actually had to change the
way that they look at candidates.
Knowing that Millennials are much more likely to jump around
and that that's not necessarily reflection of their willingness
to be loyal or their loyalty. I should say to a brand sunny
but I digress. First thing is really again
figure out the industry for me. I had an experience in retail so
I knew I liked it when I was In college.
And in high school I had a lot of leadership experience and I
knew that anything in business or management would really
interest me because it's very similar.
Of course, to a leadership experience, you don't
necessarily need to have all like all of those years of
experience, in order to even figure out what you like or
dislike. If you are considering a career
in HR, first start with like the industry, it helps narrow it
down and I think it's a lot easier than just looking for
entry-level roles across all Industries because there
actually are a lot but it's really overwhelming.
I don't know that it's necessarily time.
Well spent to apply to every single entry level job if you
don't have HR experience, just because it's a job.
Okay, so now you've narrowed down the industry, maybe you
have select three industries that you would really be
interested in working it. Now, you should really think
about, okay? What area of HR interests me
most, so, It's payroll, maybe it's benefits.
Maybe it's compensation analytics, people or business
partnering Administration, recruiting when you take a look
at all of those different facets of HR and certainly there are
more and there is subsets and we can go on and on think about
what it is that you like and what you don't like.
So for example, recruiting requires a lot of talking, a lot
of patients, a lot of listening if you don't really like to meet
tons and tons of people that are going to be really good
candidates, really bad candidates and everything in
between, maybe you don't even appreciate so much speaking on
the phone or FaceTiming, it's probably not going to be the
right facet of hr4u conversely. If you really like numbers and
you like strategy and analytics, payroll benefits compensation
Analytics. Those things actually, really
might interest. You pay roll.
I have met people who love people, payroll, and I have met
people who hate payroll. Actually, I am one of those
naysayers, the payroll. I knew after having my
experience at Target where I was a generalist really like, an HR
Manager, HR generalist. I had that payroll experience
and I knew that it did not motivate me.
And so for me, I was like, okay, I know I'm not going to do that,
but I also knew that I loved interacting with people.
I loved connecting with employees helping them solve
their problems. You know, applying different
strategies on the people and operation side of things.
So is very easy for me to realize that being a business
partner were, you know, being like a head of HR, one day would
be what I really wanted to go after.
So kind of likes, think about what it is that your strengths
are what are your opportunities? What don't you like, what
motivates you that's there. We should help and then.
So now, you have your industries, you have your likes
and dislikes. Now you can get to applying to
jobs. How do you do that first?
Is reach out to your networks? I'm sure you've heard this a
million times over. It's all about who you know
right. Like we hear that probably from
a very young age and it's really true like there's no denying it
people and those connections and who you know really matter and
it might not necessarily mean that you get the job because of
who you do, but it's certainly can me and that you avoid the
paper pushing and bureaucratic process of job application
referrals. For example, if you have someone
who works at a company that you really want to work for or that
has a job posted, that you're really interested in reach out
to someone that, you know, maybe you spoke with them.
Ten years ago, maybe you spoke with him 2 days ago, reach out
and say hey do you have an internal referral?
Process because this is the job, I'm really interested in.
Can you refer me? I would love and really
appreciate an opportunity at this you know organization.
If you're not that close with the person you're reaching out
to one of the ways that I would suggest reaching out if you
don't really know the person. But you're familiar with who
they are, or maybe it's a friend connecting you to one of their
friends, have an authentic and real conversation first Reach
Out. Say Hey, you can we grab a
coffee and a non covid World, maybe stay safe and we FaceTime,
I'd love to pick your brain on your experience.
That is a really, really great way of building a network.
But also not just saying, hey I'm hitting you up because I
want a referral kthxbai, this is an opportunity for you to
actually like building that work or connection on your own
through the connection that you have or previously had with this
person and it makes them feel good.
I appeal to them, be strategic, be authentic, but also use that
as a way to ultimately get what you want.
So now you have some of those tools in your tool belt, Riley,
picking up the industry, picking out the likes and dislikes or
the things that you really want for a career.
And then, the third is leveraging, your network with
the forces that your resume needs to reflect the skill, set
that the role requires. If you're applying to a
recruiting position, you need to be able to reflect on your
resume that you have some kind of skill set or experience with
interpersonal communication communication skills in general.
How you bring people together how you keep networks and
connections alive, if you're in a sorority or fraternity, that's
not working, right? So high like that really focus
on the skillset be. Cuz if you have even one year of
establishing or generating maintaining a skill set, that
can be applicable or transferable to the job that
you're applying to knowing how to talk to it is really
important. Okay?
So let's take it way back to say, I'm at back in college.
I went to Binghamton University in New York and I had
internships every summer and usually during the winter also,
and those internships I didn't necessarily have as much as a
strategy for. I thought I was going to go into
some sort of government work or environmental work.
Like I studied English and I got a minor and environmental
science, so, clearly like, that's not HR, that's not
business, right? But I also know, we was able to
translate my skill-set from what I gathered as a student and in
my education and Basically transfer that into a career with
Target in management. Like how do you do that, right?
You do it in talking about your skill-set, making sure your
resume reflects the experience that you have had.
That's irrelevant to the job that you're applying to when I
was a senior in college. I went to a job fair that was on
campus and historically, the the vendors, or the recruiters who
were at the college fair. We're really looking for like,
Finance and Accounting students engineering students, pre-law
poli-sci and so it could have easily deterred me from going.
But I was like, I said, there could be someone interesting
there. Let me go.
And I went and certainly there was someone interesting there
and her name is Target and they were speaking to me about my
leadership experience in a sorority.
So I was, I held a few chair position.
Enzyme leadership positions in that sorority.
I was an RA. I was a tour guide, like I was a
very involved and I was a student leader on campus.
And so, I was able to take all of that experience and
translated into what ended up becoming my first real
out-of-school manager experience and I had an interview the next
week, the following week the following week and then I think
I went through like maybe six or seven interviews and then by
Halloween of my senior year, I had a job lined up.
It was the best Halloween weekend probably of my life.
I won't go into too much detail because this is an HR podcast
not a party podcast but nevertheless it was a really
wonderful way to feel secure and stable and it doesn't always
happen that way I get that. My point is really that I didn't
have manager experience. I had leadership experience.
I had experience running events Bringing people together,
networking. I had all of those transferable
skills test from my IRA job on campus where I was managing
people in a different way but also in a way that translates
for the role that I was applying to.
So, if your resume doesn't currently speak to the job that
you want, and it only speaks to the job that you have, you are
missing opportunities. So, take this, as a piece of
advice that you should go into your resume, get yourself
prepared for interviews, with your resume, with your stories,
getting everything going, so that you can really talk about
what it is that you are able to do or what you will be able to
do based on the experiences that you have.
You no retained and achieved over the course of however many
years. That you've either been a
student or in the career that you might currently be in.
And so if you are not a student and you're looking to make a
switch into the Industry. It's really all kind of the same
advice in that your resume should reflect the job that you
want, or the job that you're applying for, and not the job
that you're currently in. The key.
There is that, of course, your resume is going to say all of
the things that you currently do.
But you have to frame it in a way that doesn't necessarily
speak to the past or the present, but speaks to the
Future. So if you're in a current role
or current industry, that is an HR and you want to kind of get
into or break into the industry. Take a look at your resume
first. Take a look at your networks.
It's all the same messaging. Write all of the same advice
that I have for you as I do for a recent graduate or a current
students, think about how you can interview and get those
stories out. So someone asks you, what why do
you want to make the switch from x2hr?
You have to be able to really speak to the wise and also
talked about the challenges that you know will be there.
So one of the questions that I usually ask people on interviews
is what is an opportunity that you have that we need to be
aware of so we can support you and your first like 30 60, 90
days, for example, or maybe even a little bit different.
What is it that you are going to struggle with that?
We need to be aware of and it's a question that can throw some
people off. But really what I'm looking for
is an awareness of the challenge of the role and transparency
into opportunities, just stop with the, my biggest opportunity
is that. I care too much.
That's not an opportunity. That's a strength.
Let's be real here. Get yourself prepared for a real
interview and a real window or providing a real window into
your interest. And I think that it's all in
that authenticity and the transparency and awareness that
can make the interview just be that much better.
Obviously, there's a lot to break down And I I'm going to, I
know, I keep promising this, but I'm going to spend time on an
episode talking about interview skills, and how you can best set
yourself up for that changing industry.
But it really, it all comes back to that.
For those of you who are already in your careers, switching into
HR is the hardest thing for you. It's going to be hard as for
those of you who are already in your careers, it's not going to
be as hard for someone who doesn't have experience.
And it's because when your 8 when you get into HR and you
finally break in, you are starting from the ground up and
while yes I've been talkin about transferable skill set, that's
definitely going to help you. The HR has its own Acumen,
industry-specific and knowledge, and things that can make it more
challenging for someone who has not had their career in HR, and
isn't just starting out. So I caution you there, however,
I think The most important thing for someone who's already in
their career is to Leverage. The Network's first.
Anyone, you know, at any company is going to be a better way for
you to break into the room. They're going to be your best
bet. My other piece of advice is that
you talk to your current manager and your current HR partner and
express your interest is one of the best things that you can do.
And actually, I think it's a lot easier to break into HR in the
company or for the company that you're currently at because they
know who you are, they know how you perform and there's no risk
or there's less risk when you apply for an external
opportunity. Not only are they taking a risk
and not knowing what your performance is like, and how you
work? They're also taking a risk
because you don't know the industry, and you don't know the
role, my suggestion will always be Breakin 2 HR at the current
company or the current organization that you're with
and then make a move. I hope that those pieces I swear
helpful for you, I know that 30 minutes is not enough to really
like break down every single thing that can be helpful or
every single thing that you should keep in mind.
But I'm, I'm always here for outreach if you guys have any
questions or if you want to dig in a little bit more on any of
the points that I have drawn out on this week's episode.
You also can actually email me. I set up an email its podcast at
HR tracy.com. So if you have a lengthier
question or something that you'd really like to dive into,
whether it's on this topic or another topic, please shoot me
an e-mail. I'm happy to engage in a lengthy
or conversation. So, in the coming weeks, I am
going to have probably one or two guests on, I'm still working
on it. If there's someone in this HR
space or business space, or maybe a completely different
industry that you'd really like to hear from, please let me know
whether it's through that email, like I said, podcast that HR
tracy.com or through my social networks, please let me know.
I'm excited about the people that I'll be interviewing this
coming week. I don't know when the podcast
will launch with their interviews but I know that the
conversations are going to be really exciting and kind of
touch on some of these things that we talked about today and
previous on previous episodes. So, nevertheless, I thought I
would share a story that I think is really sweet when I travel to
Japan with one of my friends back in 2016 for solids, the
most amazing beautiful. Incredible country.
So if you get the chance, once this pandemic is over and it
safe to travel again, you really should make make moves get to
Japan. It's incredible.
But when we were there, we went to a American Style Diner.
So was basically like American food but it was Japanese and it
was called bills and I think it was in Harajuku and when we were
sitting there and we were eating breakfast, I saw these two young
women who were taking like I guess I guess I'll see you or a
picture with their phones and they had this incredible like
attachment on the front facing camera or no I'm sorry the back
facing camera and I used Google Translate to say I think I even
said to my friend like oh my gosh that's so cool.
They're basically able to use the fisheye lens on their phone
for their pictures and I used Google Translate to tell them
that I really liked their phone camera and it sparked a
friendship and actually, they traveled to New York and we all
stayed in touch and we went to Chelsea Market and we showed
them around there and we got pizza and they did not speak
English. And we did not speak Japanese
and I don't know if anyone from Google is listening, It was a
commercial. It was such an incredible
experience to connect with them without speaking their language.
And without them speaking hours through Google translate, just
to have like a little chat, we ended up taking a picture and
yeah, like I said, they came to New York and we all got together
and we still speak to this day. I actually recently, I think it
was probably over the summer had like a little FaceTime with one
of our friends that we met during that whole experience.
I call her my pen pal, and she learned English, and it was
actually really easy to speak with her.
And I share this, because she reached out to me on Instagram,
which we, we are connected on on Instagram already, like, on my
personal account. But she also follows my HR,
Tracy, Instagram, and I followed her back, which I did for pretty
much everyone because I realized I actually have to follow
someone in order to see if they tagged me in a story, if they're
private. So, I pretty much followed
everybody that followed me, but she messaged me on Instagram and
she said, I'm so excited that you followed me from this
Instagram account. I listen every week and
actually, I know that she listens because I see in the
metrics for every episode, like the location.
And I see Japan. And actually, there are like
three or four listeners in Japan, which is really cool.
And I just thought it was an exciting way to share that.
The, the world is so Much smaller than we realize.
And she learned how to speak English and she's still
learning. And she has hopefully learned
some new words and idioms, but she listens every weekend.
It just warms my heart to see her message and know that I'm
reaching her on a topic that might not even like matter.
So much even though she has her own embroidery business.
And that's super cool, but it was just an exciting story that
I thought I'd share and hopefully also warms your heart.
So when I hope that we can all see each other soon, as always,
I remind you to please rate, review And subscribe, if you
haven't already, wherever you're listening to this podcast, you
can send me an email at podcast at HR Tracy.
Cam, you can follow me on Instagram at HR, Tracy, of
course. That's Tracy with.
And I, you can also connect with me on LinkedIn or you can go to
my website and do all of that without even having to having to
think of They going to HR tracy.com.
Thank you so much, please see you next week.
They going to HR tracy.com. Thank you so much, please see
you next week.