2yr PQE lawyer (Sydney) finding it hard to move to HK

[barrylar]

Hi all

As the title indicates, I am an almost 2 year PQE lawyer, currently in Sydney finishing up on my graduate program. My aim is to move back to Hong Kong, where my family are, but I am finding it increasingly difficult.

Over the past 6 months, I've been submitting applications to headhunters/recruiters in HK but have effectively gotten nowhere, and if anything, it has made me feel more and more disheartened with each application. In addition, I haven't considered internal transfers because it can't be done with my current firm.

I think I am a good candidate - I was trained at one of the big global firms, my actual transactional experience (I'm in banking/finance) is quite good for a graduate, and I have a HKID (with working rights).

Things that count against me include not being able to read or write Chinese at a business level (I can't even read a whole newspaper article), the ability to converse in Cantonese at a business level (although conversational is perfectly fine) or Mandarin at a natural conversational level (although I am learning!).

I've been told that firms sometimes waive the language requirements for banking lawyers but so far I think this has been the biggest stumbling block for me. Maybe the supply of talent is also high?

Does anyone know someone who's in a similar position to me and have gone through this process, whether successfully or not?

Has anyone got any tips as to what I am doing wrong, or what I should be doing?

I'd be most grateful for anyone's advice.

Thank you

[jimbo]

Sounds like you're not networking.
Do you have a profile on linked in etc?

[Laksa Girl]

Apply direct to firms. Any level of Chinese language skills are a bonus.

[Beanieskis]

Come on holiday to HK, and arrange meetings whilst you're here. Applying from overseas rarely works unless you're senior or your skills are highly in demand.

[Lootoo]

Oz is fairly active at present, so you could just stay there for a while, gain some more experience and--most importantly--work on improving your Mandarin. As far as I can tell (based on corporate and finance, rather than banking), Cantonese is not very relevant at the big firms in HK, but Mandarin is. Good luck!