Graduates ponder job options amid pandemic

Greater Bay Area

Ken Shen, an IT graduate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is lucky enough to have secured a slot at a tech startup in Shenzhen after working as an intern data analyst for the company since the Lunar New Year holiday.

Regarding himself as an "early bird", Shen started job hunting in December and got five offers from some 60 job applications, mostly from employers in Shenzhen, although the novel coronavirus outbreak hampered the search for his first job.

The 23-year-old initially studied economics before switching to computer studies. "I didn't decide on a very specific career path. I was just trying different projects and internships and eventually discovered my interest in becoming a data engineer," he said.

"Many of my classmates in Hong Kong would have been doing internships in Shenzhen, but they are stuck in Hong Kong because of the mandatory quarantine policy on both sides of the border."

Shenzhen-the nation's tech hub-hasn't lost its allure among young high-end professionals, even though the pandemic has disrupted their overall career plans. Growing demand for teleconferencing and telecommuting has fueled the expansion of tech enterprises.

"We rolled out a larger recruitment drive than last year because a new product was in the pipeline," said Zhong Jinghua, co-founder of SpeechX, an artificial intelligence-enabled startup with offices in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

"My company does not discriminate against fresh graduates. They'll be given equal consideration as long as they have rich internship or university project experience."

Zhong, who has a doctorate from CUHK, said her company has a larger and better talent pool this year because other employers have cut job openings amid the health crisis.

PolyU's Cheng said that in addition to tech openings, the university offers fresh graduates placements in finance, logistics, engineering, tourism and architecture with the help of alumni and partner enterprises in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

For Hong Kong students graduating from universities on the Chinese mainland, the idea of starting a career in the Bay Area is gathering momentum.

Currently, about 15,000 are pursuing degrees on the mainland and about 3,000 graduate every year, according to OCTS Youth Forum-a think tank on the development of Hong Kong youth on the mainland.

According to an OCTS survey of graduates from 2014 to 2018, about 60 percent of respondents were already working in the Bay Area or considering a career there in the next two years, with Shenzhen as the top destination.

About half had studied in Guangdong and more than a quarter are currently working in the Bay Area.

Henry Ho Kin-chung, OCTS founder and chairman, said a major obstacle facing this year's graduates is the quarantine policy, as well as the closure of university campuses on the mainland.

Bill Ko, 24, got his bachelor's at Jinan University in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, early this month, but he failed to return to campus before graduation.

"The university only allowed students staying on the mainland to return," he said.

Starting in early January, Ko looked for marketing jobs in Hong Kong, but his search was fruitless.

"There were too many graduates and too few vacancies. We can hardly compete with experienced candidates," he said.

Ho, from OCTS, said: "It's very hard to predict the students' employment prospects at this stage. Many are stranded in Hong Kong at present, so we're in touch with local companies to try to get internships for them to gain some workplace experience."

Ko has another option. Along with three of his classmates, who were all born in Hong Kong, he is helping to run an education consultancy startup at an incubation center.

"I may return to Guangzhou once the travel restrictions are lifted. The Bay Area is definitely a place for me to live and thrive in the future," he said.