I get a couple emails a month from people wanting to know how they can get into HR. It always amazes me. I mean, you're emailing me so I assume you've read some of my posts...yet you still want to go into HR?
Instead of telling the boring story of how I "fell" (as many do) into HR, I'm going to tell you how I believe I developed "the temperament" to be in HR. Of course, all kinds of temperaments can be helpful and make you successful in HR (whether in a strategic or tactical position). This is just an illustration of one of them.
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When I was in elementary school I was often asked to help other kids with assignments. I wasn't some sort of wizard, but I was very good at paying attention and following directions. I was also polite. In the sixth grade, my teacher made a big poster with all of our names on it. Next to each name, she wrote a compliment. All of the compliments were one or two words such as, "humorous" or "very nice". Next to my name she wrote, "modest".
I was so pissed off.
What the crap does that word mean? I asked my friends. They had no idea. I wanted to look it up in the dictionary, but I didn't want the teacher to know I didn't know. So after school I asked my mom. She smiled and told me it was the highest compliment EVER in the history of the world. She was so proud she got teary. She told me it meant that I did good and I didn't brag about being good.
I wasn't sure if she was telling the truth. In the third grade she made me the laughing stock of the play ground by insisting the word "virgin" meant "unmarried".
My memory, it is long.
I thought "modest" sounded pretty boring. I wanted to be "sweet" or "funny" or "stylish".
Anyhow, on with the story. I was often bored in elementary school. Many of my classmates came from not so great backgrounds and/or had very serious issues going on. It is difficult to pay attention in class when you are hungry, don't have clean clothes or someone that gives a crap about you in your 9 year old life. So teachers regularly went slow, repeated lessons and spent a lot of time with kids who struggled to learn. Those of us that didn't struggle were given extra credit assignments or were allowed to read books from the library to pass the time.
We were often told, "when you get to middle school you will be in honors classes with the other advanced students and you won't be so bored".
Oh, middle school. How I longed for you! Your lockered hallways, your dance classes, your cheese zombies!
I heard they had racier selections in the library, too.
So I got to middle school. Guess what? The curriculum was a lot more interesting. However, since I had spent so much time in elementary school being bored, I sucked up all the new info in middle school at lightening speed. Guess what I did with my extra time? Helped those who struggled. It's not like I could say "No. That kid is dumb if he doesn't get that Africa is a continent and not a country, so screw him".
Eventually, as 12 and 13 year olds will, I got cranky and complained. My teachers assured me, "when you get to high school you will be in all honors classes and it will be so great you will pee your pants".
Well I got to high school. Math became much harder all of a sudden. Science got REALLY boring. English, history, art and the like were still fun though. But if I thought kids in elementary school had problems, I was in for a major wake up call in high school:
- pregnancies, abortions & miscarriages;
- physical and mental abuse;
- drug & alcohol abuse;
- sexual orientation issues;
- gangs, gambling and crime;
- depression, anxiety, bulimia, anorexia, cutting;
- major car accidents;
- attempted and "successful" suicide;
- murder.
So, yeah. My work as a quasi-tutor was still necessary. Now teachers told me, "Just wait until you get to college, it will be great because there you can study what you want to study". I remember on the last day of a sign language class I took the teacher went around the room and said something nice about all of us. She was sweet, funny and everyone really liked her. When she got to me she said, "It doesn't matter how rowdy the class is getting, I can always look at you and your eyes tell me 'don't worry Mrs. Agate, *I'M* listening'."
I went to college. A state college, thank you very much. I had to take the equivalent of 2 years of subjects I wasn't interested in because it was a liberal arts college.
DANG IT!
And now? Now I work in Human Resources where I am in daily contact with "the strugglers". It makes sense, no?
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