do many men work in human resources?

lightspeed

hi im looking at possible career change or to at least develop a career and im think about human resources but as a male im wondering is there much sexism towards males in this area or am i just imagining it?
From my experiance any interviews i went for when unemployed for either a recruitment agency or larger company the interviewer was female so of course i dont want to spend years and throw a few grand a down the drain and find it so difficult to find a job just because im a male.
Thanks

amdublin

I think you are creating an issue where there is none

Nolanger

amdublin wrote: »

I think you are creating an issue where there is none

Incorrect!

Women outnumber men by 2-1 in the world of human resources, but despite the numeric advantage women make 30% less than their male HR colleagues. Why the disparity? Human Resource Executive Online reports that while women dominate entry level and mid-level HR roles, that men still dominate high-paying HR executive positions.

http://blog.womenforhire.com/2009/07/women-fill-hr-rolls-but-men-ru.html

amdublin

I would see this more as an issue as a female compared to the op, a male

leeroybrown

Almost everyone I know who've studied courses related to HR are women so it's hardly surprising that the workplaces are female dominated. I see a lot higher percentage of men in recruitment but that's a very different field.

In companies I've worked for or dealt with the HR departments are largely female staffed, longer standing HR managers tend to be male and more recently hired HR managers tend to be female as there are more female candidates available for promotion.

lightspeed

whilst im not gay im am confused as im trying to decide if i should change courses , right now im in my first year of business and law degree and its always been my dream to get into law but from what ive read here about law it seems it would be easier for me to become an astronaut as people are unable to secure legal apprenticeship after years of studying. So right now im still determined to go the route of being a solicitor but id also like to maybe get a degree in another area and HRM seems to have quite a few jobs even now with decent enough pay but having said that that is of little interest to me if it would be a problem that im a male. So it would seem that there is not a prejudice against males in this area and just that not many males are interested in HRM hence the higher ratio of women to men employed in Human resources. Am i correct to assume this?

KylieWyley

lightspeed wrote: »

whilst im not gay im am confused as im trying to decide if i should change courses , right now im in my first year of business and law degree and its always been my dream to get into law but from what ive read here about law it seems it would be easier for me to become an astronaut as people are unable to secure legal apprenticeship after years of studying.?

why not use that aspect of your degree?

lightspeed

hi im not sure i the business side of a business and law degree would be enough to secure a job in HRM? snd to be honest im thinking i was thinking of changing to an LLB in law as in the future if i was to get my degree and probaly do a masters in law it might be as competitive having a business and law degreee and not an LLB in law. Im not sure as what are or job i could get with a business and law degree? i was originally in a computer programming course but found it was not for me and so transferred to business and law and as id already paid the course fees i didnt have a lot of time to choose which other course i could transfer.

KylieWyley

you seem to be chopping and changing alot.

rather than throw money into one of these institutions and start another course that you might like, why don't you take some time out and find yourself.. think about your career and where you want to go.

college courses aren't tailor made for different careers. its not as black and white as "i need to do x and y course to go into z career". in fact, much of what college courses teach becomes redundant when you enter the 'real world'. a law degree is a good solid grounding for a career in many sectors. it gives you many transferable skills such as oral and written communication, critical analysis, etc. etc.

leeroybrown

Stick with your business and law course and just make sure that you work towards a good degree at the end. It should give you a good broadly applicable education that'll allow you to pursue lots of paths in education and career afterwards. In my view unless you're dead set on a specific career path you're better off getting a good general degree then specialising afterwards. Sticking where you are and specialising afterwards when you've a better idea of what you might want to do and are closer to making it into the employment market is a much better move. Undergraduate students tend not to appreciate how good a step a decent general degree is towards a specific career path when they chose at the end.

Perhaps you could also call into your course coordinator/adviser or the college's career guidance unit and talk to them. They'll probably have an idea what career paths people in your area are pursuing.

Mr. Loverman

In my experience (13 years working for multi-nationals) HR is mostly female, but the head of HR tends to be male...

lightspeed

the odd thing about that is i would imagine they start at a junior hrm role and get promoted to head or manager position so how come most human relations employees are women? so in your opinion are the obstacles outweighing the potential for me having a career in HRM? would it not be worth my while doing a college degree as a male?

leeroybrown

I wouldn't try to dissuade you from pursuing HRM at all. As mentioned above, I'd quite simply say that the reason that most HR staff are women is that from what I've seen the majority people who've pursued that career path in recent years appear to have been women. If you're good enough at it then you should be able to make a career of it regardless of gender.

What I would suggest though is that unless you can identify a fast track path to getting into HRM by moving from your current degree, you should consider finishing your current degree then specialising afterwards. It gives you so many more options and so much extra time to make a career specialisation decisions.

micdug

lightspeed wrote: »

the odd thing about that is i would imagine they start at a junior hrm role and get promoted to head or manager position so how come most human relations employees are women? so in your opinion are the obstacles outweighing the potential for me having a career in HRM? would it not be worth my while doing a college degree as a male?

Not really, In big enterprises most HR leaders come from the business as one of the pitstops to take on the way to being CEO. The bulk of HR tasks are clerical (Filing performance reviews, managing interview process, holidays etc) which require junior clerks. The executive stuff such as union negotiations, HR strategy etc require a lot of experiance in the business and executives from the business are far better suited to this. Thus the head of HR tends to be an executive rotating in from the main business lines, who tend to be males, and the clerical roles tend to be women which is the case in wider business. In mid size businesses it tends to be a HR Pro managing HR, but the CEO and senior management will still manage the above "executive tasks". Theres a big brick wall in HR and TBF its caused by the bizarre notion that HR run the business held by many employees i.e. HR decide who gets a bonus, HR decides who gets laid off etc etc.

OP - I'd stick with the business/legal studies and then do a short HR course. BTW HR is suffering badly now - another myth is that HR people don't get laid off. In fact they are nearly front in line, particularily training/CDP type staff.