Her Story
About Parris
Parris Wimberly is a Human Resource Consultant based in Atlanta, Georgia. She began her career in human resources in March or April of 2017 and has accumulated over nine years of experience. Her professional journey includes serving as an HR coordinator for five and a half years at a large fashion company where she gained international experience, followed by a role as an HR generalist at a global international company focused on hiring salespeople and developing trainings, and then nearly two years as an HR specialist at a nonprofit organization. In her current role, she consults with small businesses of 500 employees or fewer, primarily in the Northeast and Southeast regions of the United States and occasionally on the West Coast, with a main area of expertise in employee relations. She earned a certification in the Human Resource Management Program from Kennesaw University in 2024. Parris attributes her success to benefiting those around her and values integrity, honesty, and respect in both her professional and personal life. She advises others not to become jaded and notes that things are not always as they seem.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Parris
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to it doesn't necessarily have to be something that benefits me, but if it benefits the people around me, whether that be in my professional life or in my personal life, that is success. I don't always have to gain something in order for it to be a success. Just knowing that someone else is happy, or they're able to reap the benefits of something that I've done is also good enough for me.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is that things are not always as they seem to be. This was given in the context of a confusion with a friend, where my partner explained that sometimes people seem upset but it could be something bigger than you, not necessarily negative.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Some advice I would give is try not to become jaded. Especially when you work with different people in human resources, which is also like a form of customer service. It's easy to become jaded when you feel like you can't make a difference, but trust to believe if you are able to at least reach one person and help someone, no matter what it is, how big or small it is, that will mean a lot.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think it's just a lot of misconceptions of what HR is, and who HR is because people always say HR is not your friend, they're not here for you, they're here for the company. There are HR professionals that are like that, but that is one of the biggest challenges, realizing that just because there's one or a few bad apples it doesn't mean everyone's terrible. It just means you need to work harder to disprove or dispel those misconceptions by doing the best you can.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Values that are important to me is definitely having integrity, honesty, and just respect. That is definitely important in my professional life, especially, but also in my personal life, because those are the values that I had instilled in me as a child. My mom was she always used to say, your actions are who, you know, they make you who you are.
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