Career Change from Finance to HR - advice

richdeniro

I have just turned 37 and have realised that after 10 years doing finance it really isn't for me. I've never really known what I wanted to do and kind of fell into finance despite never really liking it or having a natural knack to it. My current role and previous jobs have always been accounts assistant type jobs where I raise invoices, do the purchase ledger, expenses, look after a few spreadsheets and that kind of thing - all very general. Balance sheets, P&L, reporting, Inter-company, accrued revenue, management accounts packs and more advance things scare the living daylights out of me.

I don't have any accounting qualifications and whenever I have tried to do the ACCA or AAT in the past have given up because I just wasn't interested enough and couldn't take it in plus failing the so-called easy computer based exams don't exactly help.

Recently my company have employed new CFO (I work in the media/tech industry for a agency) and it's made me very anxious that my job is under threat and I am constantly worried he will soon figure out that beyond the basics I don't know a lot about accountancy, plus if I were to leave it would be very hard to get a similar salary elsewhere - I'm in the mid 30k bracket now. There is also the realisation that I can't really go any higher or forge a happier career without any professional development. Plus the thought of spending the next 30 years in finance really isn't making me feel happy about my future.

I have always been interested in HR and working in my current company I do have a fair bit of exposure to the finance side of HR (i.e. I do parts of the payroll, pension onboarding/admin, deal with HMRC, cyclesheme & other salary sacrifice things, provide HR with basic analysis and spreadsheets on recruitment costs or wage increases and that kind of thing). I think that looking at the CIPD course it is something that I would be able to follow and have a realistic chance of completing.

My main worry is that I am at a point in life where making a career change by starting at the bottom and taking a salary cut in order to find a junior HR job is unrealistic - I have a mortgage and other commitments.

The advice I am really after is:

• Is the CIPD course something I could do at home whilst maintaining my current finance role?
• I'd be doing this off my own back so without guidance from any other HR professionals or employed in a HR role so is it even realistic?
• How long might it take? I would commit to some time after work and weekends.
• How much would it cost at a rough guess and can anyone recommend any home learning course providers?
• Would my HR type experience on the finance side as listed above be of any use if I were to apply for HR roles?
• If in 12 months time would it be realistic to move into a HR job without taking a big salary cut having perhaps progressed to say intermediate level on the CIPD course?

Thanks so much for any advise and apologies for the long post.

getmore4less

Sounds like the sensible thing would be to try and create a transfer within the current organization.

See if there is the possibility to focus on the people part of the company finances, make that your role and try to get involves in the other aspects of people management to help transition in that direction.

richdeniro

I hope that will be possible within my company and I have mentioned in my objectives/review thing that I have every year that I want to take ownership of the finance side of HR although have obviously not mentioned that my ultimate aim is to move away from finance.

I'm not sure there will be much scope to move over to HR here though as it is a relatively small company and the HR team does seem to be fully staffed although I guess things can change.