Passionate...about HR...really?

I regularly hear from candidates that they’re “passionate” about Reward, or HR, or Global Mobility, or Payroll, or whatever specialist subject we’re talking about, but I must say, a lot of the time, I’m not convinced. (Actually, it’s not so often that people are that emotive when it comes to Payroll, but then again employees are fairly bleeding passionate when it goes wrong!)

Interested? Certainly.

Dedicated? Undoubtedly.

But passionate? Alun-Wyn-Jones-passionate? Pavarotti-passionate?  Greta-Thunberg-passionate? I’m not so sure.

What I do see however, and I think is genuine, is passion for the people they work with, for the organisation they’re employed by, for making a difference.

I recently interviewed a highly successful international HRD who has worked with some of the world’s most recognisable brands. In one part of the conversation, when discussing an organisation she’d worked for previously, she became significantly more animated, started speaking more quickly, sat more upright in her chair; it was infectious. I felt myself drawn into her stories – and they were stories, not just well-rehearsed responses to yet another recruiter’s curiosity – in that section of our discussion, her passion was palpable, and it’s clearly that which she needs to rediscover in her next role.

I hope you can identify with this, because that will mean you've experienced true job satisfaction, when it transcends 'work', feels more like a mission, a calling, where it’s fun, exhilarating and fulfilling. If that’s how it feels at the moment – not every day of course, but at least once a fortnight – then, I’d suggest, you’re in a very good place.