For those with established experience in human resources (HR), you may be under the impression you know all there is to know about HR and applying it in your workplace. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Tulane University Law School's online Master of Jurisprudence in Labor & Employment Law (MJ-LEL) program has been designed for those just entering the field as well as for those with years of HR expertise under their belts. For instance, current student Janet Bashen has decades of work experience in human resources, but she felt the academic credential of a master's degree was necessary to proving her legitimacy in the field.
“I am a business owner, and I’ve been in business for the last 23 years. And my business is HR. I’m an HR consulting firm, and they consider me a national expert, but I just felt like something was missing, that little piece that made me legitimate,” Janet said. “I thought I needed just an additional educational edge. I wanted credibility, something that I could really put my arms around and say this is really for me.”
As a national expert in HR already, she worried her classes would reiterate what she already practiced in her day to day. However, the robust curriculum proved far more useful than she had anticipated, ultimately helping her to modify her daily practices to fit new employment law policies and establish a new, better way of doing things.
“I’ve done many, many mediations, over a thousand mediations, and all of a sudden, I started seeing other aspects of what I’m doing,” she said. “For example, I thought I knew how to negotiate. I was very direct. There was a way I always did my negotiations, but we’ve gone over all these different formats for negotiating, and I’ve actually used some of those. I’ve changed my technique, and it’s had a significant impact,” she said.
“You know, I can write all the papers I want and do all the lectures I want, but it still boils down to credibility and education, coupled with, of course, the experience,” Janet explained. If you’d like to hear more about her time in the program so far, watch Janet’s full testimonial in our video below.
For more on the advantages of an online MJ in Labor & Employment Law degree, hear from another current student and HR expert here.