What exactly do you do?
What do you like about it?
What do you hate about it?
I would like to be a job recruiter and employement interviewer, is human resouces the right field for these jobs?
Thanks.
I’ll tell you about, but I can’t tell you the secret handshake quite yet.
I work in Human Resources in a large corporation. My focus has been on analytical roles.
What do I like about it? I would say that I am always interested in the human element of anything that is going on. This is different from being a “people person” in the sense of being very friendly. I like to be focused on how people affect the success of a company and how employment and the labor market affect the lives of people.
What do I hate about it? There are lots of times when you are telling people things they don’t want to hear. There is quite a bit of pressure. If HR makes a mistake it is often very high profile. It is quite political.
Yes, recruiting and interviewing are within HR. Job titles to look for are Recruiter, Staffing Specialist, etc. Some of the easier to get entry-level jobs for this type of work are with temporary agencies. They often hire someone to do interviewing full-time. Any work with a temporary or staffing agency will have some sales component, almost certainly.
Some of the most enjoyable stuff I’ve done in HR is develop behavioral interview questions and then interview candidates. Behavioral questions are when you ask people to describe how they have handled a previous situation that they are likely to encounter in the job. For example, asking a customer service rep to tell about a time they dealt with an irate customer, then evaluating their response.
Good luck to you!
Well, I don’t work in HR anymore, but I was the HR rep for a large warehouse between 95-99.
What I did: I pre-screened applicants for all positions including sales, order entry, warehouse workers, and drivers. Depenging on the number of applications received that may or may not have included pre-screen interviews. Once I’d narrowed down the field to the best 3 or 4, the managers of each respective department interviewed and selected the applicant for hire. I facilitated the medical insurance program (I did NOT have to choose or manage it, which was a very, very good thing). I processed payroll. I had to sit in on (and document) any employee disciplinary action. I maintained all of the documentation for the employee files. Etc. blah, blah.
What I liked: I absolutely loved the people I worked for until they sold out to a ginormous west coast distribution center. For the most part I liked working with the employees. I enjoyed conducting new hire orientations and various EEO training. The smaller company had some really nice benefits and they excelled at welcoming people to the family. I enjoyed my interaction with pretty much all my co-workers. It was a really nice family-type atmosphere.
What I didn’t like: I wasn’t crazy about doing payroll. I found that kind of tedious. HR is lots and lots of paperwork and one simple rule: document everything! After a while, I found myself losing the ability to sift the important stuff out of the b.s. I also am not great at dealing with extremely emotional outbursts. Didn’t happen often, but every now and then in the midst of resolving one issue or another, an employee would weep copiously all over my desk. I’m not one of those women that cry at the slightest provocation, so that always made me a little uncomfortable.
Sounds like HR is a good starting place for what you want to do.
Whatever you do, good luck.
I spent a number of years in HR. I’m no longer in the field; I moved to IT.
I enjoyed the complexity of the problems we were asked to address, and I liked the human element, but I got sick of the grinding thanklessness. Corporate management tends to see HR as a sinkhole of cost, because it brings revenue to the company only indirectly; and employees in general see HR as the folks who (a) cut benefits and (b) schedule useless sexual harassment training and such. So after a few years of getting reamed from both sides, I got out.
Based on that, if I were you, I’d consider looking into a dedicated recruiting-and-placement firm, as opposed to joining the staffing department of an actual company. More money, better focus on what you want to be doing. They’ll probably require some experience, so you may have to pay your dues in a department, but keep the long-term goal in mind.
Thanks for the responses. 
Cervaise, can you tell me more about recruiting-and-placement firms? I’ve never heard of such a thing. What’s the difference be that and HR?