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Engineer looking for job with only conversational cantonese

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    1,896
    Quote Originally Posted by Claire ex-ax:
    You should be fresh or recent graduates who possess excellent academic achievements, high developmental potential, good analytical and problem solving skills, and excellent communication skills in English and Chinese (including Putonghua)
    If you take the stuff companies write on their career pages seriously then you'll never find a job here

    @OP - most engineering jobs here in HK are indeed property/construction related, but I don't see why you shouldn't be able to do HVAC system design when you previously worked on oil rigs. Try to look for more internationally focused employers (airlines, big engineering consultants, etc) rather than MTR and KMB (e.g., https://www.jobable.com/aecom-jobs/h...authority-6207). With a work visa in your pocket it shouldnt be too hard.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    2,879
    Quote Originally Posted by amlc1984:
    My aim is to look for a junior/trainee position as a Mechanical Engineer in a new area, as my current area of expertise is engineering in oil & gas which there is no market in HK. I have looked on indeed.hk and found that there are several jobs posting everyday and most of them considers less experienced for assistant position, which led me to believe that there are maybe chances for me to get a job.
    What's your exact background? I have somebody in mind who needs ME's (advanced and trainees) so if you give me some info I'll introduce ...

    Oil & gas is not far from what they do, but smaller parts though (large projects on the other hand).

  3. #13

    HK Chinese work better with HK Chinese. Same written and spoken language, same culture. HK also educate and train enough local engineers. People and government here don't really want an outsider to take their jobs. If HK gives an outsider opportunities, they should be grateful.

    Honestly, employers in HK do screen applicants based on age,sex, race, languages, photos, local or not, new or old to hk.


  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by 100LL:
    What's your exact background? I have somebody in mind who needs ME's (advanced and trainees) so if you give me some info I'll introduce ...

    Oil & gas is not far from what they do, but smaller parts though (large projects on the other hand).
    Thank you for your disposition!

    I first worked in the Automotive industry with natural gas vehicles conversion, similar to the LPG used by the HK taxi and public transportation, then I switched doing FEED and detailed engineering in oil & gas projects (upstream) as a piping engineer, specializing in calculations of pipe stress.

  5. #15

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    Jun 2016
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    14

    Just curious, why do you want to work in HK?


  6. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by acacac:
    Just curious, why do you want to work in HK?
    I'm from Venezuela which currently is suffering the worst crisis of its history in all kind of aspects. Basically everyone who is holding a degree are looking to move abroad.

    HK is the logical place to move considering that my parents are chinese and most of my relatives are living there. I have visited HK a couple times and really liked it.
    z754103 and chuckster007 like this.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Dec 2013
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    Hong Kong
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    Quote Originally Posted by amlc1984:
    I'm from Venezuela which currently is suffering the worst crisis of its history in all kind of aspects. Basically everyone who is holding a degree are looking to move abroad.

    HK is the logical place to move considering that my parents are chinese and most of my relatives are living there. I have visited HK a couple times and really liked it.
    One of the better answers to this question o have heard!
    vmlinuz likes this.

  8. #18

    Red face

    Just wanted to update the thread.

    I'm right now in HK, being for almost 2 months now. Got my work visa (open) and HKID.

    I would like ask for some tips anyone can give me to increase my chances of getting interviews, if possible.

    I have been applying almost every day for about a month to several entry level engineer position (assistant engineer, trainee, fresh graduates), as I said in the first post, my experience background come from developing engineering for the oil & gas industry which doesn't quite apply to the Hong Kong job market. I have only been contacted by a couple of recruiters, but unfortunately they were looking for someone with experiences in areas that I don't possess.

    I believe my lack of cantonese fluency and basic mandarin skills might be the main obstacles. Although I have been self learning for the past couple of years and currently can read some basic-intermediate texts and write basic stuff with pinyin. Ironically, for my cantonese and mandarin to fully pickup, I believe I need the exposure to a cantonese environment that only a job might offer me.

    So, I would appreciate any tips you can pitch in in order to improve my job hunting efficiency or if you know anyone who is looking to hire with my profile, even better .

    Thanks in advance!


  9. #19

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    Oct 2006
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    Sarcasm - because beating the crap out of people is illegal
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    14,622

    One of the best ways to job hunt in Hong Kong is to network.


  10. #20

    Thank you Claire ex-ax, I'll try looking for expat or spanish speaking people group meetings or something alike to see if I can start building a HK friends network.