Young expat looking for opportunities

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    15

    Thumbs up Young expat looking for opportunities

    Well, I'll get right to the point. My contract is up in January and I'm spreading myself around as much as possible trying to find another position because Canada is just not interesting enough to me and I now consider HK to be my new home.

    I'm 23, BBA (honours) with finance, CFA Level 1 (2 next June), outgoing and personable. Over the last year and a half I've done everything I can to survive here: taught English for a while and now working as a research assistant at HKU and also working in a small financial firm in Wan Chai on the side for additional experience. Also, I work with my professor on industry projects (real estate/construction) outside of my job duties purely for experience. I'm now studying putonghua, which is coming along nicely, and hope to be conversational in six months.

    I realise the job market is in shambles at the moment, but I'm just putting myself out there in case anyone reading this is looking for someone with a solid education who is eager to succeed. I'm keeping my options wide open in terms of positions because I'm still young and want to gain experience in a good company. I can be contacted at [email protected].

    Richard


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    14,486

    Richard

    A couple of points first.

    1. Do you require sponsorship?
    2. You're really going to need to sit down and decide what you really want to do, Without a goal then nobody is really going to be able to offer you anything as its not clear what route you wish to head down.

    Gaining experience is good of course but you don't want to be seen as a job hopper and moving from one role to the other just to get exposure as its career suicide. Believe you me I've been there seen it and done it.

    Also what you need to remember is that January/February time is also the quiet period due to chinese new year and nobody will be leaving until they get their 13th month bonus.


  3. #3

    Agree with what Jimbo said.

    Seems like you wanna get into the financial industry? Have you looked into the big firms' graduate programs? they may take recent graduates (although most places' deadlines for next year already passed, from what I heard)

    Once you have an idea what you want to do, you can probably speak to recruiting agencies. They can be helpful with knowing which place is hiring. You can also reach out to alumni from your school that work here, since personal connection works better than just submitting your CV online.

    Hope this helps.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    15

    Thanks for the input guys. I've got my work visa through the university, but I believe I will require sponsorship again, which always is a pain. And yes, I think part of my problem is that I'm not being specific enough. I've tried a lot of the banks here, but not speaking canto/mandarin fluently seems to be a big issue when compared to other candidates, so I haven't had much luck. I'm considering moving back home and getting into Canadian bank and then working my way back here, but that will take quite some time and I'm already established here. I didn't plan on staying here when I came on vacation over a year ago, but that's just the way it worked out...so now I've got to do things the hard way. With all the recent financial turmoil, getting into a bank anywhere is going to be tough. So I'm somewhat stuck right now looking for a company where I can work for a couple years and gain some good experience. Anyways, I'll keep at it. Something is bound to turn up!