The most important assets of any business are its employees. Employees who need to be kept happy, trained, enthusiastic, efficient, and maybe even out of trouble. As businesses grow, and as labor relationships grow increasingly complicated and demanding, more and more companies are turning to human resource managers to help them communicate with, reward, and enthuse their employees. If you’ve ever spent ten minutes by the proverbial office water cooler, then you can imagine just how demanding of a career this can be. It requires someone who has a clear knowledge of business management and administration, as well as someone who knows how to deal with people. As a Human Resources Management major you will learn about business administration, as well as gain an understanding of corporate and labor law, planning, and psychology. If there was ever a high-growth field, this is it. Human resources managers are needed in almost every sector, private and public, from Fortune 500 corporations to the next generation of start-ups.

Preparation

You’ll need some decent accounting skills when you’re determining bonus scales, so pay attention in algebra and your other math classes. Any knowledge you can get out of a high school economics class or two will prove valuable in college. And since human resources management is really a specialization within business administration, you should take some business classes if your high school offers them. And then there’s psychology. Yes, managing humans will require a little understanding of there needs and desires. So if you can find a psychology class at your school, dig into it.