Employers’ upbeat hiring intentions over recent months sent a positive note to job seekers and young graduates who explored opportunities at the 11th edition of the Classified Post Career Forum in mid-March. Staged at a casual event space — The Wave within vibrant Kwun Tong — the Forum organised by Classified Post contained much that appealed to its audience. It comprised a one-stop shop event encompassing topical seminars, 24 exhibition booths managed by leading corporations and government departments as well as a complimentary photo-shooting service.
Among the newcomers making their first appearance on the exhibition floor were the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), Forward 3D, Television Broadcasts limited (TVB), Vita Green Health Products and APT Pharma Ltd. The HKO was at pains to attract university students with passion and suitable background, according to Senior Scientific Officer Queenie Lam. Previously they went “fishing” for budding talents on visits to primary and secondary schools to promote and share tips on choice of appropriate academic subjects. She said, “This is the first time we have chosen to work with a commercial organiser or employ non-school venues. But Classified Post is no stranger to university students, so it’s an excellent platform. What set our booth apart from the others was the use of two laptops to play videos created for this event. The content illustrated our background and introduced four departmental grades at HKO, namely Scientific Officer, Experimental Officer, Scientific Assistant and Radar Specialist Mechanic.”
Simultaneously, topical seminars presented by Dachser and Hong Kong Police on stage enhanced audience knowledge of their latest Management Trainee (MT) programme and recruitment procedures. Thanks to a record-high registration of the Young Marketer of Tomorrow (YMT) Contest this year, a total of 429 university students (107 teams) participated, which is double as many as for the previous edition. Over 200 participants gathered in front of the stage to pick up hints and wait for the announcement of the official contest theme. Additional chairs were deployed to cope with the overwhelming response.
As usual, the photo-shooting counter was ablaze with flashing lights as registered students or job seekers sat down and smiled for the cameras. Many young and enthusiastic visitors were among the subjects and later walked away with six free passport-size photos. What’s more, CV Doctor by Adecco remained a must-do stop for visitors. The queue was long, but it was worth the wait of 5–10 minutes. Head of Marketing, Hong Kong & Macau Dorothy Ho said, “Based on my observations, one third of visitors to our booth were students while the rest were job seekers. Possibly this was because this time of the year sees much job-switching. On the negative side I encountered some students who didn’t know how to write a CV at all. They had no concept of the format or idea on sequence when listing their working experience and academic achievements. Some even listed their details in reverse chronological order. Frankly, a good CV could maximise the chance to be shortlisted by Human Resources people, so we made this clear to them and put them on the right track.”
