Is it relevant to go back to education after 9 to 10 years of working experience in HR?

Hello Everyone,
1. What are the solutions for Career Stagnation in the Human Resource field? Is it relevant to go back to education after 9 to 10 years of working experience in HR?
2. What kind of mileage one can expect by undergoing HR-related education in India and abroad?

Need your inputs on this.

Dear Franidhar,

The replies to your questions are as below:

1. What are the solutions for Career Stagnation in Human Resource field? Is it relevant to do education after 9 to 10 years of working experience in HR?

Reply: - The stagnation or growth of the HR professional will vary from one industry to another, one company to another and of course, one individual to another. There cannot be a generalisation. The growth in career depends on the education, willingness to do hard work, learning attitude and so on. Additional requirements are being diplomatic, opportunistic, manipulative ingratiatory behaviour and so on.

Yes, it is relevant to do education after 9 or 10 years of working experience in HR. However, after doing a certain course, the HR professional should try to implement the knowledge in his/her work. He/she should get an opportunity to do so.

2. What kind of mileage one can expect by undergoing HR-related education in India and abroad?

Reply: - Probably, you meant to say "leverage" and not "mileage". Qualification in a particular field enhances the knowledge base. However, merely having a qualification is not sufficient. That qualification should make the HR professional mature. Otherwise, we have cases wherein people are MBA (HR), but they remained immature. Therefore, leverage depends on the maturity of the individual.

The leverage also depends on the ability to present the knowledge. The ability to present the knowledge depends on communicativeness, expressiveness etc. Many MBA (HR)s are poor communicators. Their poor communication erodes their market worth.

All the best!

Dinesh Divekar

My take on your queries are :
1. Career stagnation in HR function or any other function arises when one remains contented to limit oneself to the routine tasks in the same old manner repeated over the time. Take any field in HR, like recruitment, HRD, compensation pattern, employee assessment, welfare, grievance management, discipline management etc. etc. there are a lot of innovations occurring and in the last decade there is a sea change. As a HR professional, one has to keep abreast of the changes and to improvise/innovate your practices suiting your requirement. The pandemic time has compelled all of us to think differently and bring new methods of managing human resources. That is the challenge and don't rest on the tried and tested oars of yester years. Pl constantly update your knowledge through dedicated studies and Citehr offers you enough learning opportunities.
2. It is always necessary to be professionally educated be it in India or abroad. However, the Indian context differs widely from the international context, so it is all the more necessary to update the knowledge in Indian context.

As far as my personal opinion is, there is no limitation for carrier growth achievements, for any individual. As, rightly said by Mr. Dinesh Divekar, (Quote) ” merely having a qualification is not sufficient. That qualification should make the HR professional mature. Otherwise, we have cases wherein people are MBA (HR), but they remained immature. Therefore, leverage depends on the maturity of the individual” HR job role in any organization is everywhere.”

The above is somewhat depends on ‘whether you are a BIG FISH in a small pond or SMALL FISH in a big pond’. The opportunities are everywhere. Besides the normal HR functions, HR can contribute a lot on Purchase, Production, sales, cost reduction, and even sales and Marketing!, provided you have lateral thinking and having established your own credentials / identity in the organization. I know for certain, a young man achieved / entered as ‘ Welfare Officer’, became a Plant in charge and later became Director on the board.

This is basically, based on how you react to any situation in the organization, and your determination that the same can be achieved. Every question / query / problem, you can contribute, and never say “NO” / NOT possible, Or Not connected with it. If you observe with data’s there are / will have several, alternatives / ways to achieve / overcome it, and select the best suitable, and convince the Management to implement it. Do not be afraid of failures. Establish your own credentials / identity in the organization.

Dear Colleague,

This important discussion is very useful for many HR practitioners in the present scenario:
" Career Stagnation" is common in Government / Non- Government / PSU/ Private/Education and in so many fields. It is an inevitable part in every professional's life. But it is possible to over come this situation provided we are keen and really learning.

Stagnation may be lack of growth, only very nominal increase in salary levels, same role for so many years, no elevations, no new challenging roles, repetitive nature of job, same organization, same department, same function, same .......same .......etc

I would like to quote few insights in addition to what our learned members already shared in their discussion.

Mainly this " CAREER STAGNATION: is happening due to :

1. Individual Factors like Lack of updated skills in the Talent
2. Organizational Factors like Lack of providing Opportunities to its talents to grow
3. Technological Factors to keep move in the fast phase of changing tech in every filed
4. Environmental Factors which are external to Individual and Organization like slow downs, fast moving changes in socio economic factors


- In fields like IT and Medical for example the rapid developments happening every day we all know. A Software Engineer is becoming obsolete very fast unless he picks up new languages and new developments ever minute. A Medical Professional if he stops learning once coming out from college very fast he will become obsolete.

-Even materialistic items like Mobile Phone, TV, Refrigerator and Automobile, Work places are continuously undergoing a BIG CHANGE every minute as we know. Who know the ON LINE PLATFORMS, SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, GOOGLE PAY, PAYTM, PHONEPEE, FOOD DELIVERY PORTALS, UBER, SWIGGY, OLA and so on. Even common man is able to accommodate and learn fast to change to the situation and use these services which are inseparable in common life.

- Who are stagnating is Who are willingly refuse or unwilling to learn. There is a saying that
" In the present century who is the most illiterates is the one who STOPS LEARNING"

- Hence the " Stagnation" happens when the " SPEED" is Low with which one is coping up and pick up the new learning that happens around. If the SPEED is high and instant with Willingness to CHANGE then there very remote possibility for STAGNATION. Whether we are in HR, Finance, Operations what so ever, this is a fact.

Mainly the Stagnation in HR happens when we do same type of role over a period and not able to explore different segments due to factors like UNWILLING TO COME OUT FROM COMFORT ZONE, UNWILLING TO CHANGE, LACK OF CHANCE IN THE ORGANISATION and so on. Mainly TECHNOLOGY is changing and when we are behind in the race in learning NEW TECHNOLOGY used in HR we become stagnant very fast and also become OBSOLETE.

1. What are the solutions for Career Stagnation in Human Resource field? Is it relevant to do education after 9 to 10 years of working experience in HR?

How we can over come career stagnation is focusing on - What are the external demands in Skill set and What is the internal skill the person posses. What the organizations expects and What are the Key skills one is possessing. If it is mapped what are the gaps. If there are identified NEEDS Vs REQUIREMENTS whether mere adding qualification is going to help or to undergo any professional SKILL TRAINING / CERTIFICATION further. Hence the suggestions are :

- Come out of Comfort Zone
- Take moderate Risk in Career
- Check possibility of Growth in same organization if answer is NO then move out to a suitable organization out side
-Add your SKILLS and NOT QUALIFICATION
- Overcome Resistance to Change
- Look for each new opportunity and volunteer to take up
- Take part on your own in the new projects/ process / changes happening around in your organization as well as externally
- Assess Whether there is enough growth opportunities available in the Organization or the Person has to look outside / external organizations to move ahead in career.

2. What kind of mileage one can expect by undergoing HR related education in India and abroad?

I would like to mention that a Doctor who needs to become a Surgeon can not become expert if he adds another qualification like MS from London alone. However definitely this doing of MS will add weightage to his career growth. What is key challenge here is that how good the Surgeon and what are his SUCCESS RATE in doing surgeries is what is going to determine how the Patients going to prefer this surgeon. For this he needs to keep himself updated in his SKILL of doing the surgery and using advanced technologies in his filed. Similarly, EDUCATION alone, in my view will not be of help. But if you do an Advanced Certification in HR from XLRI, IIM, Symbiosis like Institutes it will give you a Passport to move to next league in your Career. But what is more important is to update your Skill and try to do CERTIFIATION PROGAMS and not degrees or diplomas

Now, in general one has to be focused on :

- Keep travelling along with phase of Technology
- Keep Skills updated
- Move in different roles and not do same role for more than 2 years
-Change Organization once in 3 or 4 years time or maximum 5 years and to choose the growing filed - Not to conventional Industry
- Take Risk in every Walk of life ( some time it may be challenging and we may face failures but it is inevitable)
- Have your own LIFE and CAREER PLANS and please do not depend on ORGANIZATIONAL PLAN for your growth. If things are as per your aspirations, then ok otherwise move fast where it is available
-Above all NEVER STOP LEARNING

You may like to add more thoughts from other collogues

Thanks for this wonderful question raised as everyone is undergoing this challenge in their career.

All we are advocating, an HR professional one shall not be like the 'frog in the well', meaning do not limit yourself to the organisational practices but keep abreast of the changes in the profession. If you see the vocabulary of HR professionals in the last one decade, there is a sea change now, so there is a need to update one with the current knowledge. Then there is no end to improvise and innovate the practices rather than follow the beaten path.

Thank you so much for your valuable inputs. Your suggestions would truly help other professionals to shape up their career. In addition to my query above need your inputs on following points also -

Many of my friends have worked in area of HR Statutory Compliance and right now working for other functions like L&D, whenever they appear for interviews, interviewers / hiring managers are of the opinion that profile / experience is very confined and limited.

On the other hand my friends are unable to learn from other areas of HR as they are getting stuck with regular work.

Please suggest any resources to be able to fill up this lack of hands on experience.

Keep your eyes and ears open. Don't be fettered in your vision to the day today tasks. See what is happening outside your table, how the HR function is able to integrate the human resources and channelise their energies. Try to get idea on what others are doing and benchmark them against your work profile. Learn using professional bodies like Citehr and grow in your profession.

Hello Franidhar,

Be it Human Resource or any other field, when a working individual feels a lack of engagement or productivity with his or her work, s/he can do the following steps to overcome it:

#Set a goal
#Identify the skills you are good at and the ones you need to learn
#Keep upskilling along the way
#Take up challenging and engaging tasks
#Connect more with people in your sector (it will open new doors for you)

Also, you can definitely go back to education and learn new courses after working for 9 to 10 years.

In addition to this, no matter what HR-related course you take up, you should make the most out of it. In simpler words, you will excel in your career only if you practice the learnings in your work life.

I hope this answer helps you.