Hello👋 fresh graduate, welcome to enter the real IT domain in Hong Kong.
Landing to real word ( photo from https://flic.kr/p/Tq3iN9 with CC2.0 )
TL;DR
Gov or Bank opening — Good pay, good Benefit, and never get layoff.
Outsourced or contracted opening — Quick money, short-term commitment.
Opening in Government, Bank, Public organization, or Research position
If you are a stable person, you should apply for the opening in Government, Bank, Public organization, or Research position. They do not require the officer to have top technical or good at programming or chasing the latest stuff. They only ask for people comes with patient and able to deal with a lot of paperwork, daily meeting, and handle repeating daily routine e.g. Email forwarding, the wording in the Email, pick up the call from management. It is boring but they will never fire you.
As the tech division in those companies or organizations is considering as an expansion rather than bring up more values. Almost all of their on-going projects or products are running via vendor ( a type of one-off contractor in HK ). Therefore, the opening is most likely a supervising or they call it vendor management.
The pain point is that most of your managers or workmates are actually coming with zero coding background. You should expect they cannot tell you how to write a testable code or how to organize your service as a professional.
(https://www.freepik.com/free-psd/old-computer-mock-up-design_1076466.htm#page=2&query=old+computer&position=42)
As they are almost blind on the tech side so you need to consider they are end-user also. From my own experience, they do not know Ubuntu, Docker, Git. It takes my time to advise the whole division to adopt anything new. And I failed to work with them as I need to show what is firefox or chrome as it is not listed in their approved software.
Also, the worst case is that as they do not have knowledge on the Tech side, they do not understand the difference between programming languages, front-end, and back-end engineering. You might need to work with some projects you do not have knowledge for those projects enter to maintenance stage without contractor support.
Given an example, they might ask a Php back-end engineer to work in a React Native project as you are the only people who know how to code.
However, if you are okay with this kind of working environment e.g. project budgeting and a lot of paperwork etc. It is a good place to enter as they never shutdown and their benefit are quite good in HK e.g. guarantee 13 mouths pay and housing allowance.
The only drawback is that you will be not that competitive after a few years.
Outsourcing position in Government and Bank
If you try to make some quick money, you should apply for the outsourcing position in Government and Bank. Those opening able to offer more money $$$ in your contract and normally will come with a contract gratuity when complete the whole contract.
However, please keep in mind that those positions are not continuous opening and they can terminate your service anytime or refuse to renew your contract based on the project life cycle or the budgeting of the department.
Remember, always get the intel from your workmate about the existence of your opening after the contract end.
Do not be a nobody within the sector as you are not with those continuous staff in the contract or in their mind.
Keeping collect the information from those will ensure you plan on the track in both your life and career.
The duration of the employment can start from 3 months to 1 year it really depends on the department budget or finance funding.
In Hong Kong, companies or organizations always consider IT projects are one-off and they do not want to maintain a long-term relationship in anything on it. They will try their best to outsource their project to anyone and cap the budget as low as possible.
A unique structure comes with this arrangement, we called it “T-Contracting” or “Secondment”.
They are the actual coding or engineer inside those company but they are not the formal staff under those companies. They are carrying a title with a tech consultant or any position with the prefix “C”.
(https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/original-hand-drawn-leadership-composition_3292886.htm#page=5&query=boss&position=47)
As we know outsource or contract staff does not get the payment from the companies directly but through their agency or tech consulting company.
You need to understand that It happens all around the world but in Hong Kong, the employment regulation is not that good. You might not entitle to any paid sick leave or I hear the worst case is that want to renew the position every few months to keep the position rolling or fit their budgeting.
To wrap it up, those contracts or outsourcing opening might come with different reasons e.g. fitting the department expenses, new project launching, or native turnover. It is a good place for you to make some quick money but mind it in your mind it just a temporary opening do not help in your career expecting to earn the proof of working years.
Next
I would share the remained types of companies in Hong Kong — Vendor and startup.
Disclaimer
All images on this page can be found in Freepik free image set and I do not own any of it.
