For background on me [30M], I am an Army HR manager (Battalion S-1/42B for Army folks) transitioning out of the military after 8 years as an officer looking into civilian Human Resources positions in NYC. While in the Army, I received a bachelor’s degree, my aPHR, and, most recently, my PHR certification.
So far, the search has not been great. I had a generalist position fall through last minute after reaching the final step before an offer and have not made it very far in other interview processes.
One thing that has really been grinding my gears are the arbitrary requirements some companies list, with the biggest one being specific certifications. Some jobs will not let me continue my application if I answer “no” on whether or not I have SHRM-CP, despite the job description describing basically everything I have done on top of me meeting every other qualification.
My questions are: what makes the SHRM-CP certification more desirable to some jobs than the PHR? Secondly, is it worth doing both?
When deciding which one to do, I decided on HRCI’s certifications based on the descriptions of what they cover along with some people’s perspectives on some of the shady business dealings of SHRM and it basically being a society rather than just a certification institution.