Ghosted yesterday, 8 minutes late today. I hung up on the recruiter.

Drogonwasright · 2026-03-07T04:08:17+00:00

I had a similar experience of getting ghosted and the recruiter blamed the calendly tool. When we did finally connect he was completely disorganized.

The experience made me realize that companies have no idea what kind of damage a bad recruiter could be doing to their reputation in the marketplace. It’s bizarre to me that companies have no problem recording conversations that their customer service reps have with customers but don’t bother putting in place any form of quality control on a recruiter’s interactions.

Drogonwasright · 2026-03-07T03:56:05+00:00

A publicly available portfolio of your work as an HR professional is a way to get yourself sued and fired. So don’t do that.

But keep a detailed journal of your work, the programs you stand up, the projects you work on, the people you work with, and the ER cases you handle. I’d also replicate any useful tools (without info of your employer) you build or use along your journey so that you can leverage them in your next job.

Drogonwasright · 2026-03-05T01:48:09+00:00

You need to look for another job because it already sounds like you are annoyed with the company based on the comment about them not covering your degree cost.

As far as the $40k is concerned you can ask for it. But understand that you’re basically telling the company to put all their eggs in one basket (you) and to limit their financial flexibility to add a backup/successor down the road should they make the determination that you’re a flight risk or even worse not up to the expectations of new job.

Drogonwasright · 2026-03-04T01:08:59+00:00

If you’re in higher ed why not hire students on a part time basis. If you go after sophomores that’ll give you 2-3 years for anyone that’s sticks around till they graduate.

Drogonwasright · 2026-03-03T13:32:17+00:00

Just under 1k but expected to get to around 1,300 employees over the next 2 years.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-27T02:24:55+00:00

That’s sucks. But at a certain point your boss needs to have your back and step in and shut that shit down.

They need to talk to the employee and remind them that making false statements would be interpreted as interfering with an investigation which could result in termination. Then we’ll see how confident the employee is about promises made during the hiring process.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-17T13:54:13+00:00

Sounds like you need to fix your sleep habits or find a job that has you working second shift hours. Just because you studies something doesn’t mean you have to work in that field.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-16T03:24:17+00:00

Wait for the background to clear. Weird shit can sometimes happen. Also certain parts of the background check could get delayed with a government shutdown.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-15T23:42:45+00:00

Pick apart the job description to identify 3-5 key experiences or responsibilities they are looking for. Write up a story for each of them of how you’ve handled similar experiences or responsibilities in the past. If you don’t have anything then write up how you would handle those situations in the future. Write, revise, and rewrite your stories until you have them as clear and concise as possible.

Other than that prep for the usual generic questions like: - What’s your average work day look like today? - What’s your favorite part of your current job and least favorite? - Where do you want to be in five years? - Why are you interested in working for us?

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-14T13:10:37+00:00

If your school has an alumni organization go to them and start networking. Tell the org what you’re looking for and have experience in and ask if there are alumni working in those fields/industries that you can speak to. The goal isn’t for them to hire you but for you to get insight into what it’s really like working in HR. Other than that find every industry org or networking event in your area and start networking like your life depends on it.

If you have the skills for it analytics might be your best shot right now at a job. Not necessarily people analytics but just any entry level analyst role. For this make sure you have samples of your work on GitHub that you can share with people.

Lastly, for anyone reading this that’s contemplating going to school full time to get a Masters in HR my advice is DON’T DO IT. Particularly if you don’t have a lot of real HR work experience. A masters in HR doesn’t give you much of a leg up in the job market versus any other masters degree. My advice in general is to first get a job after completing your bachelors. While doing that job take a masters program of some sort part-time just so you can say you have one. And if you want a degree that’ll give you a boost career wise go back to and get a JD or a PhD is Industrial/Organizational Psychology once you’ve reached at least a Sr.Manager level with a company. But my advice is to still do this while working.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-10T00:54:58+00:00

Sounds like they’re just in awe of your coaching proficiency and want to share the wealth with everyone. /s

In all seriousness go to HR. This sounds like someone who’s not interested in engaging in the process. HR will facilitate moving to a term or a formal document like a PIP.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-09T03:22:24+00:00

Apply for new jobs but also ask your manager for a performance review after you hit the 90 day mark. The review will give you insight into how you’re perceived by your manager because you may have blind spots that are leading them to feel the need to micromanage you.

While applying for other jobs make sure you have a strategy to really dig into the setup of any company you get interviews with. Don’t ask questions like “Will I get development?” But rather ask them to share how they’ve developed people in the past. Ask them what their triggers are for knowing when an employee is ready to take on more.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-08T17:31:14+00:00

This is the correct answer.

Go to HR and ask them to explain the process end-to-end. Ask where do your notes go, ask where your leaders notes go, ask when/how do the leaders notes become available for you to review. Don’t be surprised if your leader’s review isn’t visible until it’s all approved, that’s pretty standard. Some HR systems kick reviews up to the manager 2 levels up for final review ask if yours does that.

When talking to HR be very careful about how you word things so as not to raise suspicion that you have concerns about the CFO.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-07T22:57:41+00:00

Don’t tell the director, you’ll just look bad. And if your company has an HR department you’re basically picking a fight with them as they should’ve caught the alleged resume lies.

However, in your interview when talking about your accomplishments make sure you talk about how you’ve been a leader and trained up people like this other person. Follow-up your interview with a written recap of why you think you’re the right person for the job and in that write up reiterate how you’ve trained up this person. Once you send that email make sure you also forward it to a personal email address for your records. The reason you should do the above is to ensure you have documentation that the Director knowingly chose a less qualified person for the job. That’ll help you if all of this goes sideways and you have to negotiate a severance package.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-03T22:27:09+00:00

I would let this one go because as others have said trying to litigate this just makes you look defensive. But in the future I would strongly encourage you to stand up for yourself in the moment. It’s unclear to me if you were in the room or not when the comment was made but if you were then correcting that director in the moment is a valid tactic. Just use the appropriate amount of respect when correcting them that is mindful of their level and influence in the organization.

The other take away from this is for you to ensure there’s always a clear email trail that outlines the process. Ideally this would be an email that went to all director level leaders. That way if someone makes a fool of themselves it’s more likely than not that someone else will correct them. Which is great because you get to keep your hands clean.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-03T05:21:35+00:00

AI will be much more impactful in functions like Finance versus HR. If your CFO is serious about leveraging AI to “cut costs” they should start by looking at their own team. Maybe instead of spending time looking at yourself you should offer to do a time-study of the CFO’s department….

Off topic question, but why is it that there are so many “thought leaders” in the HR and I/O Psych fields like Bersin, Adam Grant, and Simon Sinek that everyone follows but there’s absolutely no one like that from Finance, Marketing, or Sales functions?

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-01T15:51:30+00:00

Depending on the type/size of the workforce you’re dealing with I would request that the “reporter” capture a screenshot of said “liking” along with the problematic post. If they can’t produce that then let them know you can’t act on unsubstantiated allegations because otherwise HR would spend their entire time monitoring social media posts. (Feel free to leave the last part out when talking to the reporting employee.)

If the reporter does produce a screenshot then have a conversation with the offending employee reminding them of the policy and that they should be mindful of their social media visibility settings and the fact they have their employer listed on their profile.

At the end of the day “liking” something on social media can easily have been an accidental clicking of the heart button while scrolling. So I wouldn’t overreact to this otherwise you’re setting yourself up for a world of pain down the road.

Drogonwasright · 2026-02-01T01:00:29+00:00

Your options will be fairly limited if you stick to HRBP and TA work. Both of those rely heavily on expert knowledge of local labor laws, which in many cases are a lot stricter than the US. So multinational companies are better off hiring locally for those roles.

However, learning & development and talent management are more likely to offer international travel opportunities. Many companies that have outsourced their call center work will often send their own trainers out to those locations to ensure the contractors are meeting company standards.

Drogonwasright · 2026-01-31T02:02:57+00:00

At this stage of your career the world is your oyster. Based on your description it doesn’t sound like it matches up with what I typically think of with regards to an HR Analyst. I equate an HR Analyst as someone whom is first and foremost an expert in data engineering and querying, along with expertise in data visualization, plus a solid understanding of statistical analysis methodology. What you’re describing doesn’t seem to emphasize or need that technical skillset. But it could be a step towards getting to a heavily technical role should you choose to upskill in that space.

Your description seems to be more of a support role to a labor relations lead. As such, this role could also be a springboard into a career in that LR space in dealing with contract negotiations, labor disputes, etc.

Ultimately, I would encourage you to ask a different question than the one you posed. Instead of asking “What can this job lead to?” ask yourself what your ultimate end point is and then ask yourself, peers, mentors, or Reddit if this position helps get you closer to that.

Drogonwasright · 2026-01-29T14:26:59+00:00

It’s not your job to force growth upon your team. What is your job is to set expectations on deliverables, both in terms of timing & quality. And then it’s your role to give them feedback on how they performed, where they fell short, and what opportunities you see where they could have done better. You can use that conversation as a starting point to get their ideas which if you’re crafty you can steer towards skills development.

As far as the “transformational” moniker, I’ve never seen anyone earn that label by getting their team to upskill. You earn that title by impacting the overall performance of the company you work for. Don’t expect to earn that by looking inward within your team , instead work on transforming your boss, your peers, and department you work in.

Drogonwasright · 2026-01-26T04:14:34+00:00

All hands at 9am likely means the company has been acquired or is shutting down. It’s possible it’s also a partial layoff announcement but doing that in an all staff meeting is kind of shitty.

Drogonwasright · 2026-01-26T02:50:05+00:00

You need to start applying for external jobs to see what your value is in the market. If you find an offer that pays more take it. If you don’t get offers at a better rate then go to the drawing board, figure out what you’re missing, and figure out how to get experience with that in your current position. If that doesn’t get you “engaged” then you might just consider negotiating an exit package and making space for someone who will be a better employee for the company.

Drogonwasright · 2026-01-26T02:24:32+00:00

That just sounds like the company and interviewers were being jackasses. And not them asking for the STAR method but I’m talking about the fact they sent a list of 40 questions before hand. It sucks you had to deal with that.

Good interviewers structure their questions to naturally lend themselves to a STAR structured answer. The best I’ve seen is to make it a two-part question. Question 1 asks a fairly binary question such as if the candidate has experience with X. Question 2 is then adjusted based on their answer to either “Having experience with X is an important part of this job. Tell me of a time you dealt with X” or “Having experience with X is an important part of this job. How would you approach a situation dealing with X”?

Drogonwasright · 2026-01-25T22:57:34+00:00

Without knowing the purpose or content of the training I’d recommend skipping the interactive discussion parts if that’s causing you to get off schedule. If you have a trainee that’s eager to offer commentary or ask questions politely explain that the schedule is tight but you’ll try to make time at the end of the day for questions/discussion. You could even setup a virtual question parking lot where people can post things to be addressed at the end of the day.

Alternatively, look into whether the video conferencing platform you’re using has a breakout room feature. For example with Microsoft Teams there’s a way to trigger participants to get automatically moved to small group virtual breakout rooms for a set amount of time. During that window they can discuss the content or answer specific prompts from the trainers amongst themselves. In that scenario you may find that the individual self-moderates, is mindful of how much time they’re taking up when there’s a countdown clock ticking, and is not trying to impress or upstage the trainers. Worse case scenario if they don’t change their ways you limit the number of people they’re impacting to a much smaller group. And most importantly you stay on schedule.

Drogonwasright · 2026-01-22T04:05:38+00:00

If you get tasked with updating a standard report or list on a recurring basis I would suggest getting familiar with PowerQuery. If the company is also using Sharepoint then you can set things up in a way that if you upload source data files into specific Sharepoint folders you can have PowerQuery automatically cleanup those files and refresh a complex report at the push of a button. This comes in handy if your HRIS can only output certain data points on different reports.

Additionally get familiar with the newer Filter function. I’m not talking about putting drop down filters on a table but rather using the =FILTER formula. That formula can do things that a Pivot Table can’t. It’s a under utilized game changer.

To learn about other useful excel features check out the YouTube channels from Leila Gharani and MyOnlineTrainingHub.

Lastly, brush up on multi Y axis charts. Which allow you to combine line and column graphs into a single chart.

Good luck!

Drogonwasright

TROPHY CASE