On the right track

The latest edition of the cpjobs.com/JiuJik Career and Education Fair, which was jointly organised by cpjobs.com and JiuJik, took place at the Novotel Citygate Hong Kong, Tung Chung, on May 29. Attracting more than 400 visitors and over 30 exhibitors, the one-day event provides young jobseekers with the opportunity to get started on great careers.

The fair also featured sessions on how jobseekers can make themselves more employable, focusing on skills such as how to be a better job candidate and how to survive a gruelling interview.

The wide range of exhibitors attending last month’s fair included major players from the telecommunications, accounting, finance, retail, food and beverage, hospitality, tourism, beauty, logistics, property, aviation, security, health care and welfare industries. Among these were City Super, HKT Teleservices, Watsons, ParknShop, Fortress, G2000, Timberland, Brink’s, Colourmix, Swire Resources, AATC, Wharf Estates, Adidas, Disneyland, Centaline, Saint Honoré and Ricacorp, who, between them, had more than 1,000 job vacancies on offer.

Variety of job opportunities

As one of the largest recruitment events in Hong Kong, the job fair serves a distinguished clientele, many of whom are repeat exhibitors. Among those, Cathay Pacific Airways had a strong presence on the occasion. Vicky Au, assistant manager (employer branding and talent community), said, that “the proximity of the venue to Tung Chung, where most of our target workforce reside, should boost efforts in our recruitment drive.”

Au said that the airline was aiming to bolster its frontline team. “We have plans to recruit more flight attendants, customer service officers and customer contact specialists, as Cathay Pacific is launching four direct routes, linking Hong Kong with Brussels, Dublin, Copenhagen and Nanning. Anyone with five DSE passes or more is welcome to apply for our posts.”

“Successful flight attendant candidates will complete an intensive seven-week training programme in Hong Kong that covers the technical and service aspects of the airline’s inflight operations, while our customer service officers will engage in a different training programme that focuses on customer service skills within airside duty, and technical check-in procedures training on landside,” added Au.

Global Exchange Hong Kong was one of the newcomers to the job fair. Ernny Chow, HR recruitment specialist, said that the fair venue could prove a big help in the foreign exchange company’s recruitment work. “We now have seven branches at Hong Kong International Airport and are planning to open three more by the end of the year. We need more people to join us and I assume many of them will be from Tung Chung, due to the proximity to our workplace,” he said.

Global Exchange is an experienced multinational company specialising in providing currency exchange services at 55 international airports in 22 countries on all five continents. “We opened our first ever Asia office in Hong Kong in 2018. We are relatively new to the Asian market and can offer plenty of room for career advancement,” said Chow. “Global Exchange is a customer-oriented company made up of people who are committed to continuous improvement. We are looking for young, dynamic customer service representatives. As the job requires meeting tourists from all around the world, bilingual or multilingual applicants should have a greater chance to be hired.”

Among the 400 jobseekers in attendance was Sarah, a Tung Chung resident. “I am a high school student looking for a summer placement,” she said. “I heard about this fair a while ago and decided to come and take a look today. It has more job variety than I expected. I am most interested in joining the food and beverage sector, as it has a relatively low threshold for job requirements. I think retail will suit me fine too even though I have no experience in this line of work. I reckon there is no harm in giving it a shot.”

Mandy was another high school student attending the fair. “I have always wanted to be a flight attendant or do something related to the aviation industry,” she said. “This fair presents a great opportunity to meet so many representatives from most of the major local airlines and aviation businesses. I have talked to some of them and have handed in a number of applications. I am looking forward to being called up for a second interview.”

This article originally appeared in the Classified Post, 9 June issue.