SBS Blog > Human Resource Management - finding the right fit by Hannah Yule

Human Resource Management - finding the right fit

By Hannah Yule - Posted on 10 February 2022

Recent graduate Hannah Yule talks about how the MSc Human Resource Management was where she found her professional calling and how it led to her securing a graduate position at Scottish Water.

A series of events contributed to my decision to return to university to complete a MSc in Human Resources Management.

Going back to 2018, I had graduated from the University of Strathclyde with an undergraduate degree in History. I loved the subject but decided against jumping into a masters, being unsure about long term career options. Instead, when an opportunity in my retail job for a management position opened up, I went for the role and worked full-time as a sales floor manager for just over a year. I really enjoyed this role and found a real passion for the ‘people’ aspects of the job. Then the pandemic hit. I was furloughed and went overnight - as so many others did - from a busy work and social life to sitting at home wondering about my long-term prospects in retail and with a lot time on my hands to think about what I was going to do in life. During this thinking time, I started to look at options for returning to university.

Human Resources was something which kept cropping up. I knew I loved working with people and I had an interest in employees’ experiences of the workplace from working in my manager role. However, I still didn’t really know what I was getting into when I enrolled onto the course. At first, I felt very out of my depth. I’d been out of education a while and the business lingo was a significant step away from my History roots. Yet, thanks to supportive peers and the fantastic teaching staff at Strathclyde Business School, by the end of the first semester I had settled in and felt much more confident in my subject. Despite our entire year being carried out online, the lecturers and the 2020/1 cohort of students helped to create a real sense of community, with lots of opportunity for collaborative work, helping all of us to progress over the course of the degree.

I enjoyed the variety of topics we got to cover in our academic studies. I feel in combination these give students a good breadth of knowledge to prepare for a future HR career and therefore, all were an important part of the learning journey. That being said, I particularly enjoyed the Employee Reward and Contemporary Employment Relations classes. I also feel like the Business Skills class was so important, preparing us with many practical skills and opportunities for development. These set you up for thinking about the professional world of HR and entering what we all perceived would be a particularly competitive graduate market after the impacts of the pandemic.

Working with a real organisation during the Integrated Dissertation and Research Report was a real highlight of the course. The business school, especially Karen Morrison who coordinates the placements, works really hard to secure students some amazing workplace opportunities to support their dissertations. I managed to be approved for one of the placements offered with the Mental Health Foundation. Working in a research-based setting was a fantastic opportunity to gain invaluable development of my research skills. Working on this placement opened the door for my consequential research in mental health and wellbeing initiatives and how effectively these are implemented in a Police Scotland Division. Although working with a real organisation has its challenges, the overall experience of completing the research alongside an organisation offers students real time insights into their chosen HR issue and definitely boosted my confidence for entering the professional HR field.

I would recommend the course for anyone with a passion for people, who care about improving the experience of employees in the workplace. The skills and knowledge gained have been essential for setting me up for professional practice. Moreover, students not only gain the accreditation of a masters degree, they are also able to work towards the CIPD level 7 qualification which employers massively value in the realm of HR.

My ultimate achievement from this degree, especially from the dissertation, was finding a real calling in life. I am absolutely passionate about employee wellbeing, what makes good quality work and how we can support mental health in the workplace, as part of a wider societal shift in improving the available support out there for people. I believe being able to convey this enthusiasm for the topic of employee wellbeing played a significant part in landing my graduate role with Scottish Water. I am now helping to support the wellbeing of employees within my first placement which has been a brilliant start to my career, allowing me to jump right in and put learnings from my degree into practice.

The graduate programme at Scottish Water has really offered me a lot of opportunity to contribute my own ideas from the offset but also Scottish Water has put a lot of investment into my professional development, including from the daily interactions with the professionals in my specific area to the ability to try out multiple areas of HR through different placements during the graduate programme. There are also lots of professional development sessions with the wider graduate cohort, across many disciplines in the business. What's more I’ve personally had the chance to collaborate on projects with senior leaders in the business, outside of the People Directorate, and have been put forward for the Young Scotland Programme 2022. Therefore, there have been great opportunities to expand my horizons.

My experience of a graduate programme with Scottish Water has been great and I would recommend that other students seek out these roles. My advice would be to not be put off by the fact these programmes are often competitive and can seem out of reach. I spent too much time telling myself I wouldn’t be able to get a graduate role like the one I have managed to obtain at Scottish Water. Focus on what skills and experiences you can bring to that business from all areas of your life: your studies, your work life and things like volunteering. Try to show the organisation what you’re passionate about – I feel like this helps to set you apart. These organisations value the fresh insights and energy that graduates can bring to the table so show them what you can offer!