Skills required for marketing and HR in MBA.

What is the true picture of HR as a profession?

• what is its scope and future? what are the opportunities? what are the skills required to be sucssefull in HR apart from academics? What are the main roles one has to perform on job in HR?  i am a business studies student and have to make my specialization decision. availible options are HR, Marketing and Finance. i am highly confused. i need experts opinions and professionals serving practically in HR on my questions please.

• Answer:

  While that is a lot to pack into a single answer I will try and do my best. I also graduated with a Business Administration Degree focused in Management/Human Resources. Plain and simple, Human Resources is about people. Its about the people that make the company go 'round. Different aspects of HR take care of employees at different times during their employee lifecycle, or specialize in certain parts. Benefits specialists, Compensation analysts, HR generalists/specialists, recruiters, trainers, wellness specialists. To excel in HR you have to be willing to work with people, and all the quirky weird and crazy things that they do all the time. Each of these employees ideally should be involved with the employees life-cycle and helping them pass through it easily and smoothly: recruiting, onboarding, developing/training, promoting, and retiring. HR is currently in a state of flux, many of the functions that used to be done by HR have been aggregated into Information Systems. This means that HR has become a hugely strategic tool in the corporate structure. They have an immediate impact on succession planning, employee content/discontent, development and training, and implementation of culture. With their hands in all these crucial components of business strategy they are becoming more and more recognized as critical to the success and direction of the company.