Graduates ponder job options amid pandemic

The figures are daunting: Hong Kong's GDP growth forecast for this year has been revised down to as low as minus 7 percent, the jobless rate has hit a 15-year high of 5.9 percent, while starting pay for graduates is falling.

All are buckling to the brutal force of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has led to the worst global economic fallout since the 1930s.

Fresh graduates set to emerge from ivory towers and fight for a slot in Hong Kong's dwindling workforce are probably in for a rude awakening.

Luke Chu is about to complete his master's at a Hong Kong university, but is already fretting about his chances of landing a job in the city and his hopes are evaporating by the day.

Last summer, the 28-year-old quit a plum job as a digital marketing specialist with a tech giant in Beijing, headed to his "dream city" of Hong Kong in search of "another way of living" and became a university student for the second time.

To his dismay, his five years of specialist work experience don't seem to matter.

Chu is still waiting to be called for an interview after hurling dozens of resumes into the city's coronavirus-battered labor market, joining a generation lost in the worldwide pandemic.

He is at his wits' end. "I thought my work experience would give me an edge over other fresh graduates, but it didn't. I'll try to lower my salary expectations or even make do with junior posts, probably in other sectors," he said, adding that he had wanted to claim a spot in Hong Kong's film or variety show industries.

Estimates by the Joint Institutions Job Information System－a matchmaking platform for employers and university students run by Hong Kong's eight government-funded universities－speak volumes.

The number of openings for new graduates in the first four months slumped by 44 percent year-on-year to about 15,000 as COVID-19 took a toll on livelihoods in the city.

Compounding the dire climate, at least 30,000 new local university leavers are scrambling for their first job amid the sharpest economic downturn in decades, which has forced employers to freeze recruitment, rescind offers, slash wages, enforce unpaid leave or lay off employees.

The unemployment rate among people in the city age 20 to 24 recently reached 13.4 percent, close to a record high, without even counting this summer's graduates, according to Hong Kong government data.

Kate Sun, a social science graduate from the City University of Hong Kong, is another probable casualty. Eager to launch her career as a management trainee or graduate trainee in Hong Kong, she has submitted about 30 job applications in the city, as well as 20 to companies in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, since February. She has yet to receive any positive news.

"The past few months should have been the best time to build up networks through interviews, careers fairs and social gatherings. But we just got cooped up at home," the 23-year-old said, adding that she has decided to try her luck with other jobs in addition to trainee positions.

Victor Kwok Hoi-kit, a specialist on youth affairs at Our Hong Kong Foundation, a policy think tank, said trainee jobs, favored by fresh local graduates, are among the hardest hit by the pandemic. Many companies have reportedly scaled back or put trainee programs and hiring on the back burner for this year.

Enterprises tend to slow their business plans in response to economic uncertainties, and they will prefer experienced candidates, Kwok said. He warned that in the coming years fresh graduates may still be at the mercy of a slow recovery in the global economy.

"The way we live and the way corporations work are being changed, probably for good, by this pandemic. But there's still a growing need for information technology," he said.

The Joint Institutions Job Information System said the IT sector remains the best bet as it had the most vacancies in the first quarter, accounting for around 20 percent of job openings for entrants in Hong Kong.

Equally worrying for graduates is that face-to-face on-campus recruitment talks are now off the menu. These tailor-made programs are the most important channel for students to find their preferred professions and for employers to identify the talent they need, Kwok said.

Hong Kong's tertiary institutions have taken careers fairs online to cushion the impact of COVID-19 on students' futures.

Since March, the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong has invited employers from a range of sectors to deliver 35 online lectures, with another 35 on career development.

Kelvin Cheng, head of PolyU's Office of Careers and Placement Services, said the institution has provided mock interviews and one-on-one consultations with senior careers advisers.

Most job seekers China Daily spoke with said offline campus recruitment is irreplaceable, while online workshops are less desirable due to a lack of the engagement that helps build up personal connections.

In April, the Hong Kong government decided to provide 200 one-year contracts for temporary posts for fresh graduates, but the move was criticized by observers as "too little" and "lacking sincerity".

Kwok urged the government to subsidize internships and postgraduate studies that would equip graduates with either richer work experience or deeper knowledge, adding to their competitiveness against senior job hunters.

"Before you can land a job, anything that brings new knowledge, experience and skills is worth a try. Doing internships or part-time jobs is useful and fills the resume," he said.

Kristine Wong, a final year business student at a local university, made a U-turn during the pandemic. She was grateful when she was offered a trainee's job before the virus struck, but in late March the company told her the post had been revoked.

She was forced to rejoin the race for jobs, but lagged far behind her peers. "If I fail to get a job by the end of July, I'll apply for summer internships and prepare to go for a higher degree overseas."

Last month, the Hong Kong government said it had drastically ramped up its support for fresh graduates by creating 2,750 trainee or intern posts for architecture, city planning and engineering graduates, plus 1,300 positions related to banking and financial technology, 700 jobs in the civil service and another 700 related to the green economy.

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.