Hello Everyone,
I am currently a psychology major and am really interested in getting a Masters in Human Resource Management. I was wondering what you guys and gals think about my major? Do you think its a good major to get into a HRM program? I am thinking about adding a business minor to it or take some management/HR courses at my college. Is this a good combination or should I switch a major (I have enough room to switch if you guys encourage it)
What do you want to do?
Start there. You do not need a Masters in Human Resources for virtually any job in HR. For some functions (Labor Relations) there are highly specialized programs. For other functions (comp and benefits) a master’s in statistics is more useful than a Masters in HR. I am in corporate recruiting and have an MBA like many of my colleagues.
But before you even think about grad school you should plan to get a job so you can get some experience under your belt. No point paying for a Masters degree you don’t need, or in a discipline you discover you dislike.
Work first. Grad school can wait.
I second what @blossom said. I have my BA in HRM and have never had any problems getting a job. You should get a job after you graduate and work for a few years to see if there is a need for you to get a Masters. You don’t want to be over-educated for positions that only require a BA. Internships and experience are more important than an advanced degree for Human Resources.
It’s not unheard of for Psych majors to get jobs in HR, but you need practical experience. A double major or minor in HR plus some internships will be helpful.
My college (William Paterson University) doesn’t really have a separate HR program. Currently, I am registered for a psychology of business and industry class (kinda like a I/O meets HR class) that I am taking. I could do a double major in management but I may have to take a extra semester to graduate on time or I could switch into a management major while changing my psych major into a minor. What do you all suggest?
I too agree that a Masters program is not something you should do right away. I am a professor at a place similar to WPU and the ms programs at many colleges are simply cash cows for the university. An MS from WPU will not mean much without employment experience. Naive undergrads think these programs will land them a job, but in reality , they just add more debt.
Try to get a summer job , even.part time, in a small or medium sized business where you may get to do multiple things. Students I know with job in hand after graduation were ones with some experience while in college.
Graduate in four years. Get a job. You do not need to add additional majors/minors, etc.
Get a summer job that exposes you to HR. If you don’t need the money, volunteer for a non-profit on their Talent Management team- a hospital, museum, foundation, Red Cross- all of these organizations have professionals who manage comp and benefits, do employee relations, recruit, do org strategy/professional development, etc. Get one of these jobs even if volunteer; entry level is where everyone begins.
Much more credibility than a Master’s or a second major is to have practical work experience in the field. A summer job or volunteer gig demonstrates that.
Paying for an extra semester is madness. A Psych degree which includes a statistics sequence is enough- demonstrate the ability to interpret data, draw logical conclusions from numbers, etc. Regardless of which path you take in HR at some point, senior management will come to you and ask, “Our retiree benefit claims went up last year- can you tell us why?” or “recruiting costs per hire increased 8% even though the number of people we hired decreased- we’d like you to figure out what’s going on” or “if we increase the maximum raise for strongest performers to 10% next year and hold the increases for everyone else flat, what’s the impact on payroll”.
Any math/stats/analysis course you take which gives you the tools to answer these questions is sufficient- you don’t need a Master’s or a second major.
Agree with graduating in four years and working before getting a masters. Can you minor in management or business? You did not mention that as an option. If not, then try to take a business law or a labor law class as an elective. At smaller companies, HR is a jack of all trades and helping sort through hire/fire decisions is an integral part of the role.
Looking at Linked In profiles for HR folks at my mid-size employer, most have BBAs with a MBA. One has a law degree (a lot of lawyers don’t like to practice law or can’t get a job in it right now). Several have accounting backgrounds- they seem to be those in our compensation group.
My sister is an EVP in Human Resources for a major company. She has a bachelor’s in psychology (from a decent but not outstanding state univ) and an ABD (all but dissertation) in experimental psychology. Her specialty area is compensation. The kinds of questions blossom references above are spot-on; she gets asked a lot of those kinds of questions, in compensation, employee satisfaction, retention, etc.
My school does have a business administration minor. I am gonna check and see if they have a management minor. My original goal before I decided that HR was something that I wanted to do was to try to get into a full funded I/O psychology phd (or MS) program. But now I know that getting industry experience is more important. I am gonna contact my school’s business college to see about where to get internships (since I am a second-semester sophomore so I have a lot of time to possible do summer internships and part-time hr assistant jobs). I am also planning on taking the internship class in my psych major (a lot of the intern placements are in hr related areas).
I’d recommend a masters in I/O psychology over a masters in HRM. I went straight to grad school, and I have worked with others who have done this more recently. I’d recommend minoring in statistics, management, or computer science if the program allows it. An alternative is to work a year or two in HR or in a consulting firm. That’ll will help confirm your interest in the field and help your later job search.
Thanks DRDM37! If you don’t mind me asking, what job opportunities have you had out of grad school?
I have worked in a large private sector company in HR and I’ve also done leadership research as an external consultant. I have a PhD, but there seem to be more and more master’s grads who I meet. Most people I’ve known either went straight to grad school or took just one year off and worked. Check out the SIOP website (www.siop.org). There is info about grad programs and you can check out the job postings to get an idea for the kinds of jobs available for MS and PhD grads with varying years of experience. You can PM me if you want more info.
HR comes in lots of different flavors. Before you spend a dime on more education, it would be worthwhile to figure out where your interests lie. Someone who does succession planning at a large media company has a very different career than someone who works in labor relations for an airline, which of course is very different from someone who is an expert in partnership compensation for global law firms. The kind of education/certification/work experience is very, very different for these three HR functions. (and everybody loves a comp expert with a strong accounting background!!! And some actuarial studies are very valuable for a benefits professional.Which most HR focused students don’t realize).
Which is why getting a job before committing to a grad program is what I advised above. No sense getting a Master’s which prepares you for a career track you decide you hate. I have a colleague with a PhD in Psychology who leads a global Organizational Development team. I would have lasted five seconds in that function. I have a colleague with a law degree (focused on employment law) who now works as a mediator for Fortune 50 companies working to avoid the courts during labor disputes (specialty is sexual harassment allegations). Again- I’d have lasted 5 seconds. I work in global talent management/recruiting and my friends in other functions can’t understand why I love it.
You gotta figure out what you are interested in before spending money on a Master’s because you may need an MBA (which I did) or a law degree or a Master’s in accounting… or no degree at all.
Your undergrad major is fine for a career in HR. You might want to try to get some work experience in the field before you go on for a Master’s degree (you may find you don’t need the Master’s).
I am thinking that since I have about 40 credits of electives I have not startedf that I might enroll into the Management BS program at my school so that I can get some business experience and also do a few internships. I may have to stay a extra semester or two but I would rather do that and save a ton of money then go do a advanced degree right out of undergrad. (Since I only take out about 2 thousand a semester in loans while the rest I get in grants). And then maybe after I work a few (like 5 or 6) years in HR or Organizational Development that I will get a Masters or MBA and either teach as a adjunct part time while having a full time business job or stay with a full time business job.