This month, Vicki celebrated her graduation at the University of Exeter, having achieved a distinction in her Masters of Science in Human Resource Management.
Vicki May is a Senior HR Consultant at Fitzgerald HR based in our Head office in North Devon.
To mark Vicki’s fantastic achievement in achieving her Msc in Human Resource Management, we took the opportunity to catch up with her and hear about her experience of studying for the qualification alongside working at Fitzgerald HR.
When did you start working at Fitzgerald HR?
“I joined Fitzgerald HR in February 2016″
What were you doing before you joined Fitzgerald HR?
“I had worked in Human Resources for four or five years before joining Fitzgerald HR. My career in HR started when I joined a local further education organisation as an Apprentice in the HR team. While I was with the organisation, I was an HR Administrator and then progressed into an HR Officer role.
I also studied for my CIPD Level 5 qualification alongside working there. When I joined Fitzgerald HR, I already had a good understanding of HR, but I found transitioning from an in-house HR role to HR Consulting was a really different experience of Human Resources.”
What has your progression been like since joining Fitzgerald HR?
“In the time that I’ve been at Fitzgerald HR I’ve been able to progress quickly. I’ve achieved a lot in that time. I’m now a Senior HR Consultant, so I’m able to work with more clients, and support with more varied projects and complex issues and cases. I’ve also been able to complete a formal MSc Human Resource Management qualification at the University of Exeter.”
“I found there were many benefits to studying for my Master’s while I was working, as I was able to get more from the course.“
What was your experience of studying alongside working at Fitzgerald HR?
“I am quite comfortable with studying alongside working, as I have been doing it since I started my career in HR. It can be challenging to juggle your workload alongside finding the time to study, so it requires good time management.
I found there were many benefits to studying for my Masters while I was working, as I was able to get more from the course. We would sometimes cover a topic which I could apply to real issues. For instance in the employment law module, I would then be able to apply my learning when supporting our clients at Fitzgerald HR.
I think this made the course more beneficial than simply studying the theory alone and not having the opportunity to use my knowledge in practice. It was also useful to be working alongside a team of other HR professionals while studying, because I was able to speak to them and learn from their knowledge of certain areas as well.”
What did you choose to research in your MSc Human Resource Management dissertation?
“It was quite challenging to choose a topic that was both interesting, and one that I would have access to the data I needed to carry out
the research.
I decided to investigate the impact of age on reward preferences in SMEs. I sent questionnaires to our clients, and I was really pleased to have a great response rate. The research involved a lot of statistical analysis, and dedicating time to becoming familiar with the academic literature on this topic. As a result, I feel that I have an in-depth understanding of this area of research now.
The team at Fitzgerald HR were really supportive, and having
access to a wide variety of clients made the research really interesting.
If I could continue the research, I think it would be really rewarding to be able to focus on one organisation in particular, gaining qualitative
research and being able to provide them with specific recommendations on the reward options that would work best for their company. Hopefully our clients may request a similar project soon, I would love to be involved.”
Congratulations Vicki!
Vicki May, Senior HR Consultant – Staff Profile
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