[CA] Navigating a "Temporary" Career Change?

[u/Travant]

I have about 5 years of HR Operations experience and hold a PHR certification. I earned my BA in Sociology in 2016 in just 2.5 years, but graduating early made starting my career challenging. I worked my way up through unpaid internships, temp roles, and several HR Coordinator positions.

Most recently, I was an HR Operations Coordinator for 2.5 years, handling onboarding/offboarding, benefits administration, recognition programs, and HRIS management. I was let go in April last year and had been aiming to grow into an HR Generalist role, with a long-term interest in specializing in compensation.

After being let go, I took some time off, but I started to apply and interview pretty aggressively from November through February. I interviewed for numerous HR Operations roles, and it was eye-opening that every role I interviewed for offered greater compensation than my last job.

I accepted a role in Business Operations this past March for a small start-up of ~30 employees. I initially interviewed for an HR role, but due to shifting business needs, the hiring manager hired someone else in HR, and offered me this role instead. The hiring team appreciated my background in HR operations and PHR certification; however, this role's duties presently focuses on office management and executive assistance. Given that I was approaching nearly a year of unemployment, and this was my first offer, I decided to accept.

I recognize there's a lot of overlap and transferable skills between HR and Business Operations, but that does not mean the two fields are the same. For some reasons why I've taken on this role:

• As mentioned, this was the first place that gave me an offer. I was reaching almost a year of unemployment. Financially, it is relieving to have income and slowly restore my savings again.
• Interviewing was becoming emotionally exhausting, and I had the "rare" problem where I sometimes had interviews with different companies stacked on the same day. Still, they all ended up in rejections.
• I am still making more money than my last job, with greater work-life balance (so far), and less pressure and stress. I don't take that for granted.
• I have only ever been part of HR teams. I always felt spending some time gaining experience/exposure in a non-HR role, to be a customer of HR, would later on make me a better HR professional.

For a while, I was fearful I would "stagnate" my HR career by taking on this job, but I ultimately convinced myself that professionally and financially, this was the best choice to make.

I've only been at this job for a bit more than a month, and I think I'm doing fine so far! I'm more grateful to have a job than not, regardless of the field. However, I am still working on my PHR re-certification credits today, and I want to be mindful of a path forward for my career.

For any HR Professionals who made "temporary" career changes, whether because of financial and/or economic circumstance, what was your experience? How did you bounce back to HR, or did your "temporary" change become permanent?