Human Resource Management MSc
I would not be where I am today without my Master’s.
Having worked in HR since I graduated from Kent in 2009, I had reached the point where I knew that I would need to become professionally qualified to progress any further in my career.
I particularly enjoyed the balance of theory and practice provided by the course syllabus and teaching staff.
The modules I found to be of greatest benefit focused on employee resourcing, the psychology of recruitment and selection, and reward and performance management. I have found the content of these modules to be invaluable in my day-to-day work.
The teaching was of a consistently high level and the staff were always happy to make the extra effort to enable me to get the most out of my studies.
The level of support for postgraduates at Kent is excellent. The wide-ranging support is provided from so many different avenues that you always feel entirely assured you will get help swiftly when you need it. The facilities are also great; I never felt as though I lacked for anything.
The professional certification (CIPD) provided by my Master’s was an essential criterion of my current role, so I would not be where I am today without it. My Master’s built on the experience I had gained during more than five years working in HR and, crucially, plugged some important gaps in my knowledge. The completion of the MSc at Kent enabled me to take the next step in my career and will also enable me to take future steps, ie I had hit a ceiling in my career and would not have been able to progress without it.
I now work as an HR Business Partner at Formula 1®. I am the primary interface between the HR Department and the rest of the Company. It is my role to understand fully my departments’ needs and then leverage the necessary support and resources held by HR in order to help staff meet their objectives.
In practice this means working with staff on any number of elements of the employee lifecycle, from recruitment and selection, reward and performance management, employee wellbeing, and employee relations.
Days can vary widely from interviewing prospective candidates right the way through to undertaking exit interviews, from policy writing to policy application. A significant proportion of my time is spent communicating with staff and management on the issues they are facing and trying to offer practical solutions.
Ultimately, I am working towards being an HR Director, although I feel there is a fair amount of experience I am yet to gain before I am ready.
While it sounds pretty cliché, I am strongly of the view that you get out of a degree what you put into it, both in terms of degree classification and experience/knowledge gained. All the support you need to get a good degree is available at Kent, you just need to make sure you take advantage of it.
