The unemployment rate in Hong Kong may still be exceptionally low but the graduate recruitment market is as hot as ever – and finding a top job to act as a catapult to professional success is as always a major priority for many young people in the city.
That’s one of many reasons why the recent Classified Post Career Forum, held on October 6, once again drew a huge crowd of eager jobseekers, with over 900 students, fresh graduates and young professionals attending the twice-yearly event at the InnoCentre in Kowloon Tong.
More than 30 companies offering hundreds of quality jobs were onsite to share their career advice, talk about their vacancies and showcase their trainee programmes, covering industries including banking, property development, retail, law enforcement, engineering, accounting, aviation, utilities and much more.
Meanwhile, a full-day’s schedule of topical seminars saw experts from a number of these industries take to the stage and share their career insight and tips with enthusiastic attendees.
As always, a major pull of the forum was the opportunity to take part in the Shadow a CEO Programme selection process. The programme, which runs together with the forum twice a year, gives successful applicants the opportunity to spend three days working side by side one of Hong Kong’s top senior executives, seeing what it takes to succeed at that level and picking up invaluable advice on management and leadership.
A total of 85 applicants were interviewed at the forum by representatives from recruitment specialist Robert Walters, with 18 making it through to final interviews with the programme’s participating companies.
Up to nine of these will ultimately be selected to shadow one of three senior executives: Stanley Yau, director of human resources and administration at Hong Kong Airlines; Andy Ann, founder and CEO, NDN Group; and Anna Yip, CEO of SmarTone.
The programme will take place in December 2016 and January 2017, with coverage of what the successful shadows got up to during their three days appearing in the Classified Post in late January.
Robert Walters also performed another vital role at the forum in its capacity as “CV Doctors”. Nearly 120 attendees visited Robert Walters’ booth to get one-on-one expert advice on improving their CVs – from better highlighting their key experience and skills to removing unnecessary details and brushing up formatting.
This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Finding the right path.
