>> Well I like to see a balance of all things, you know, it can't be just education.
Actually, we get a lot of resumes with you know PhD's that never worked a day in their lives.
So, you know, the education has to meet the experience.
The certification I think it's a good incentive on a professional development path,
you know even if the person doesn't have it that here is a plan within a timeframe
for that individual to obtain the certification.
But I think it has to be you know a combination of all elements and it depends
on what position you're applying for.
You know right now we're recruiting for a benefits specialist, very different,
very specialized, you're looking for somebody that can manage benefits, very analytical,
there's a compensation piece in mind.
So, I will be looking at individuals that you know have that type of experience
and have the educational background to back it up.
An internship, an entry level, as I mentioned there are so many different opportunities
within HR depending on the size of the organization, depending on the industry.
So, you can become an HR assistant, you know working at [inaudible] is really neat
because I have people that are studying HR and they have never worked a day
and they think they're just taking any job.
At [inaudible] they're going to learn HR just because they work for the HR Association,
which you know in some cases they're exposed to it.
But I will say you know really have a path in and some goals that you're willing to achieve,
education is one big piece of it.
But education without experience and you're not going to be hired into a mid-level,
mid-manager job if you don't have the experience.
If you have some transferable skills, like if you work in finance
and you have some budgetary experience there might be some transferable skills
that you can bring if you transition into a HR position.
You know we need people that can be analytical, quantitative, qualitative,
so those are good transferable skills.