The Chinese New Year Job Search

Posted by Tim Cole on Saturday, February 28, 2015

Chinese New Year (CNY) is an important traditional Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. Also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year it is a time of celebration and festivities in Hong Kong and China. It is also a time when construction industry professionals commonly choose to seek new employment opportunities. This is primarily due to pay reviews and bonuses which are awarded (or not!) during CNY. Candidates will often wait until after CNY to start their job search.

So now that you’ve decided to start your job search without delay, what’s the best way to approach the search – firstly be proactive! Make sure your online presence is up to date – make use of social media in particular LinkedIn. You can use this platform to connect with recruiters who may have been in contact with you previously, whilst also connecting with industry relevant peers and ex-colleagues. Ensure your profile clearly details your previous positions, experience, companies you’ve worked with and the projects you’ve been involved with. This will allow potential employers and recruiter to clearly see your profile and pick you out of a crowd LinkedIn profiles.

There are a few other things to consider when undertaking your job search and if dealing with a recruiter who is trying to best help you. Be clear about what you can offer a prospective employer by looking at your previous duties and work accomplishments. This includes both technical and personal skills such as your passion and enthusiasm when talking to a potential employer/recruiter.

It’s important to target your job search as well, if you’re interested in working on the latest MTR construction projects then target those contractors specifically handling these projects. Equally if you’re open to various sorts of projects make this clear so a recruiter can consider you for all the potential job opportunities available. Part of targeting your job search includes being specific about the circumstances under which you would change jobs – this includes your minimum salary requirements which need to be clear and most importantly realistic! You should also be specific about job titles and companies types (e.g. consultancies, contractors, developers) if these things are important to you. Likewise if these are not critical to your job search make that clear also.

Once you’ve secured some interviews it’s important to continue in a professional and concise manner. The interview is your opportunity to convince the employer you’re worth hiring!  Employers will be looking for a few key skills/traits when conducting an interview, this include your technical ability/knowledge but also your personality, after all they will still be looking for someone who is a good cultural fit within the office/project team, you can easily show this with passion and enthusiasm when answering questions and being clear about your eagerness to work for them.

Let’s just finally touch on salary expectations – if dealing with a recruiter be specific about any minimum requirements for your next salary. Whilst preparing for an interview, discuss with the recruiter what salary level they have discussed (if any) with the employer. This will allow you to ensure any application forms you complete match up with any prior expectations the employer may already have. Finally after completing the interview it is important to give concise and timely feedback to the recruiter so they can follow up with the employer in a professional manner.

So follow these steps above and with a bit of luck you’ll be the competition to your next ideal job! If you’d like to find out more about the current job opportunities, or just understand more about the current trends in the jobs market please get in touch and we’d be happy to have a chat.

Tim Cole
Maxim Recruitment
Hong Kong & Asia Region