Career advice
Curated writing from operators, recruiters, and HR leaders — written for people building real careers in HK.
Remember the most successful and popular students you knew in school? They seemed to be comfortable with everyone, intelligent, kind and fun. Anyone would be happy to work with them on a group assignment. These people are probably well-liked and respected as adults too, and would be valued in any workplace. What do they have that others don’t?
In the past few years we’ve produced more data than in the whole of human history. The volume and dynamic nature of the data is changing not only how we live our lives, but how we do our jobs. Why does this data explosion matter to you? Data can reveal patterns and regularities that allow us to predict anything from what people want to buy, to what creates customer loyalty, where crimes are most likely to occur, to your possible future healthcare needs. All industries can benefit from the potential insights big data can reveal.
Being a “nerd” growing up was never easy. On the playground, schoolyard bullies often picked on those who were more interested in books and other things that lay along the “fringe” of what was deemed socially acceptable. Being labeled a nerd was enough to banish you to the outskirts of popularity and it was easy to fall into the despair of loneliness. Surprisingly, it is now those so-called nerds who are taking over the world, especially when it comes to working in the fields of technology and creative arts or design.
For many Hong Kong engineers who finished secondary school in the 1970s, choosing a career path was straightforward. Having picked the science stream in secondary school, aspiring youngsters who did not like their chemistry or biology as much as their maths and physics would choose engineering rather than the medical sciences in university. Ir Victor Cheung, however, did not have that choice. Growing up the son of a cook, he seemed destined for a life in a commercial kitchen too – until two mentors stepped in.
Not many people would choose to suspend a successful career as director of a surveying firm and start all over again …