What steps can I take while in college to work toward becoming a human resources manager?

The most important steps are to get to know yourself well enough to be sure of selecting a career area that suits your personality traits and then doing person to person in person networking to further acquaint yourself with that career area and those involved in it to be sure that there is a comfortable fit.

Getting to know yourself and how your personality traits relate to people involved in various career opportunities is very important in your decision making process. During my many years in Human Resources and College Recruiting, I ran across too many students who had skipped this very important step and ended up in a job situation which for which they were not well suited. Selecting a career area is like buying a pair of shoes. First you have to be properly fitted for the correct size, and then you need to try on and walk in the various shoe options to determine which is fits the best and is most comfortable for you to wear. Following are some important steps which I developed during my career which have been helpful to many .

Hi Sade: One of the most valuable things you can do while in college to become successful in the Human Resources profession is to gain as much experience as possible. I previously worked with HR students and the most successful one followed these steps: join the Student Human Resource Management organization as a student (SHRM), attend their meetings, network with faculty in business department with HR background, create a LinkedIn profile specifying your interest in HR--fill it out completely and update it often, attend job fairs to volunteer, shadow or intern in their organization. Near the last two months of your senior year, attend job fairs and search LinkedIn for jobs in HR. Also, stay connected with your Career Services office for upcoming networking events . Best of luck!

Hello Sade! I think there are lots of great steps that you can take to set yourself up for success in this arena.

As an HR Manager, a large part of your role will be to bridge the "people" side of your company with the "business" side of your company. So, on the academic side of things, I would recommend coursework that relates to psychology (courses like human development and small group dynamics come to mind) and business (maybe international business models or how to read a P&L). Being able to highlight these types of courses on your resume will certainly be to your advantage.

Outside of the classroom, there are a number of things you can do to set yourself up for success as well. I would recommend being closely involved in at least one student organization. Ideally, you could hold a position that focuses either on the business side of the organization (think, Treasurer) or on the people side (think, Historian or Membership Admin).

While in college, I personally held the position of New Member Educator in my sorority, and having "onboarded" new members into our organization was part of what helped me get my first job in human resources - a coordinator position where 50% of my role was onboarding new employees. I would recommend this route to anyone if that sounds interesting to you.