How does one become an HR Manager?

I'm a recent college graduate. I offically graduated December 2007 with a BA. My family owns a staffing firm which I've been working for since I was 16. Initially I started as their PC troubleshooter, admin, web/graphic designer. I joined the firm officially as a full time recruiter/headhunter and have been working as such for a full year.

My responsibilities range from cold calling, interviewing, placing ads, coordinating with our client HR personnel, background checks, and everything I had been doing as an IT guru. We make placements on all levels in virtually all industries.

I'm planning on moving and would like to know how I should go about acquiring the necessary work related experience to become an HR Manager. My ultimate goal in life is to become a manager.

It's kind of funny that I'm asking, since I should know essentially what the requirements are for 90% of the jobs out there. I was hoping someone experienced would comment and give me their story of how they made manager status.

I'd expect to work hard as a recruiter/hr generalist for 4 or 5 more years. What else should I expect? I'm considering getting an MBA perhaps in two-three years.

Hey Tom , It is all who you know! Join a HR dept at a hospital or something simple and work your way up.
Good luck with the move to FL and keep in touch if you want. cflaroche@gmail.com

When you look for a job in HR department, do you find yourself going to Career Builder, Monster, Dice, Hot Jobs, etc. sites, and performing searches on each of those sites? If that is the case then Job Finder is for you. It can find jobs for you from all the above websites and more. You mention all your search criteria from one platform and it does all the heavy work of finding jobs based on your criteria from all www.motiont.com/jobfinder.aspx
www.motiont.com

Recruiting does not prepare you for a true HR role. You need to begin your HR career working up through the ranks (HR Admin reports, file maintenance; HR Coordinator creating HR Metric reports and understanding the data you're gathering and analyzing) so you can learn how a HR dept operates and gain analytical knowlege by having your manager mentor you in handling personnel issues such as determining compensation, terminations vs discipline (policy infraction vs outright violation), conducting investigations, creating and administering training programs, etc.

You will not be able to jump straight into a HR Generalist position no matter whom you know. Thanks to Sarbane-Oxley, HR must be able to defend in court the chosen candidate: N+2 with structured interview documentation as to how/why the chosen candidate was more qualified for the position than the others who were interviewed.

Unfortunately, you will be up against others who have real HR experience. You are a newby. Don't be in such a rush. Plan on at least 5 yrs of broad HR operations experience before you may have gained enough broad HR work experience to be considered for a HR Mgr position. You will also benefit, gaining HR knowlege from studying for the PHR certification (Professional in Human Resources) through your local SHRM Chapter ... a great place to start networking!