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Student Perspective: My journey in Human Resources
I my time at university as a Student Ambassador for Human Resources New Zealand and can say with confidence that HRNZ has played a fundamental role in terms of both my knowledge of the industry and the connections I have gained along the way.
Before university, I did not have a clear career path in mind. However, I was certain of the fact that I wanted a career that empowered and uplifted others. With this in mind, I chose to major in psychology at the University of Otago, taking a few management papers out of interest in order to keep my options open. It was through these additional papers where I understood the power HR could possess within an organisation, and by my second year of study I had included a commerce degree majoring in Human Resource Management as part of my conjoint. By taking part in this, I found I was able to take the knowledge I had gained from my psychology degree and implement this into an organisational setting. Within this career path, I felt a strong sense of belonging and passion for the topics at hand and had a strong sense of engagement surrounding my studies. Based on my learnings so far at university, I have developed interests in the fields of employee engagement, transformational programmes and organisational behaviour.
HRNZ first became apparent to me when Matt Hesson, the 2017 ambassador, spoke in a management lecture about the opportunities HRNZ provided for students and the application process for becoming
a Student Ambassador. From here, I decided to give it a go and have been the Otago Student Ambassador and a committee member for HRNZ Otago ever since. From a student’s perspective, HRNZ provides a vast network of like-minded professionals and mentors, granting the ability to rub shoulders with those already working in positions you may aspire to achieve. A distinct trait of the HR industry is that people-oriented personnel are incredibly friendly and easy to talk to. As a young aspiring professional, this fosters an incredibly easy and safe entrance into the industry that could otherwise be perceived as daunting. From here, we (as a branch) have been able to encourage many other HR students' into the world of HRNZ, through means of our annual Otago students evening and other networking events.
Being an HRNZ Student Ambassador has aided my aspiring career immensely. The friendly and open nature of networking events and committee meetings has helped me to gain confidence in my conversational skills amongst senior management personnel and has personally been one of the most valuable learnings I have gained throughout my time with HRNZ. With these opportunities I’ve also been able to gain informal career advice and knowledge, and it was through these connections with HRNZ that I was able to obtain opportunities such as an interview and enjoyable summer internship with the team at Abano Healthcare.
Listening to influential speakers at the HRNZ annual conferences and regular networking events throughout Dunedin, HRNZ has shown me first hand the importance of fostering a sense of community within working environments, to achieve the highest productivity and wellbeing amongst employers. Taking this knowledge, I have enjoyed implementing this into my extra-curricular areas around university. Examples of such include taking on the role as the founding vice-president of the Otago Psychology Society and fostering community within the business realm as secretary for the Otago Commerce Students Association.
Overall, there is a multitude of aspects to my aspiring career to which I owe HRNZ. Some of these have been direct influences, while others have been incidental benefits I have gained throughout my journey. While many of these have come about from working within the Ambassador role, HR Management students will find many of these benefits, regardless of being within this role or not.
Grace Dalton: HRNZ 2018 and 2019 University of Otago Student Ambassador. Grace is a fourth-year Psychology and Human Resource Management student at the University of Otago, with strong interests surrounding the areas of employee engagement and organisational behaviour. E: gracedalton24@gmail.com
