Happy Holidays everyone!

You do ask the fun questions, don’t you? I find that my HR degree helps me a lot. I was lucky enough to get my degree back in the 80’s at a school where our professors were mainly retired HR execs. One of my first, and favorites, told us about how he hired thugs to beat the union organizers – while not a great business model to follow, it gave us some great insight into why things are the way they are.

So, do you need a degree? My first preference is yes, but I know several very successful HR people with degrees in other fields who took the time to learn the technical skills required to be great in HR. It certainly can be done.

Have a great holiday!

As one of those people who “fell into” human resources, it’s essential that, at some point, some sort of formalized education occurs. I started my HR career calculating and auditing vesting for the company’s ESOP plan. But once I decided that I enjoyed HR and wanted to stay in HR, my company supported me by allowing me to attend workshops, classes and conferences. This gave me the educational foundation to be successful.

But that was back in the day when there were no human resources degree programs. Now that colleges and universities are offering degrees, should that be a requirement? Do you need a degree to be an HR professional?

I just found your blog and really love it. It’s sad that HR people have such a bad reputation. I still see a lot of places where the HR department is lead by the person who was the best receptionist/AP clerk/payroll person. We don’t expect people to become accountants or engineers without training, why do we think they can automatically do HR?

Kevin