🎁 Career options: Thinking out of the box

Dec 18, 20242 min read

Sharing 2 recent stories regarding career options:

☎️ Story 1:

My professor called me to ask for my advice as many of his students who graduated with a Master of Finance from Ivy Leagues were unable to land a decent job offer in finance in HK or China or US.

🥂 Story 2:

I attended my high school reunion dinner last week. Many of my seniors at Concord College who went to Oxbridge/UCL went for different career paths such as setting up their tuition centres, coaching students for overseas studies or IELTS or becoming a clinical psychologist.

Other alumni ended up in the sports science or engineering or medical/dentistry field in HK.

I am the only Concord alumni who went for a banking then now recruitment role.

🌏 It was an eye opening and rewarding experience for me to talk to smarter people than myself who are out of the finance/legal industry as I am always surrounded by them due to my job nature.

My thoughts?

🔥 Keep an open mind

🔥 Talk to as many people as you can

Knowing the job market is difficult globally

📚 Many graduates are struggling to find an ideal job

My experience taught me not to focus purely on traditional career paths.

You might think traditional banking/PE might make a lot of money.

It was true in the past but trends gradually change now with global recession.

🎒 I have met peers at my age (late 20s - early 30s) such as:

An AO makes HK$200k - 300k monthly with housing allowance.

A physiotherapist makes HK$150k - 190k monthly.

A GP/Specialist makes HK$200k - 500k monthly.

My seniors/friends who set up business/education centres makes around this range as well...

Their monthly salary already exceeds the MD base pay at banks/PE or even C-levels. Many banks' MD pay already almost topped out at HK$220k-280k monthly.

And bear in mind, I have rarely come across any MD/C-Levels in their late 20s or early 30s, especially in this market.

💰 Even though career choice should not be 100% focused on monetary terms

I want to illustrate that there are many options out there in the job market when you are facing challenges

☀️ Granted money is important in certain ways but after you hit a certain income level - self actualisation becomes more important!

🥇 Explore as many fields as you can - then you will find out your talent might lie elsewhere and money and happiness will follow after!

🚶‍♂️ Keep walking to explore the future!

When you feel frustrated, take a short break then keep walking!

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www.thenicolehui.com

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