He returned to investment banking for a year with ABN Amro, and rose to the rank of vice-president. But he applied for medical school again the next year - and got in. He entered CUHK in 2003, graduated last year and is now an intern in the surgical department at Prince of Wales Hospital.

'I have never regretted it once, though it is quite a lonely journey. In Hong Kong, I am the odd man out, always the oldest in the class,' Tam says. 'I thought I could keep going [in banking] but I wanted to find something more meaningful to me.'

Jobs in medicine may never have looked more attractive. Because of a shortage of professionals, graduates who stick out the degree programme are almost guaranteed work when they get out - CUHK and HKU both have an intake of about 160 medical students, and they're easily absorbed by the public health system for internships before deciding if they want to go into private practice.

CUHK also trains around 200 nurses per year. 'Due to the shortage of nurses, our graduates have no problem finding jobs,' says Janet Chow Yiu-wai, the assistant secretary of medicine at CUHK.

There has been a shift in the types of medical careers that Hong Kong's medical students are pursuing. Where surgery was once the favourite, specialities such as ophthalmology and psychiatry are now increasingly popular, thanks in part to economic concerns.

'The general understanding is that ophthalmology is comparatively stable, with not that many casualties and emergencies, and it is easier for them to go into private practice,' Chow says. Eye doctors can afford their own equipment for Lasik surgery to correct vision problems, which is a profitable line of business.

Demand for psychiatrists has been mounting thanks to the financial meltdown, which has placed extra stress on many Hongkongers. The public system has a backlog of psychiatric patients, while private psychiatrists are as busy as they've ever been. It's also another field where it's relatively easy to set up a private practice.

Tam, 38, says he is interested in working as an accident and emergency doctor. He thinks he's already too old to become a surgeon - which requires 15 years of training. 'By that time I may have a hand tremor and be starting to think about retirement,' he says.

Even the medical field is not quite recession-proof. Elective work, such as Lasik surgery or optional dental works, takes a back seat when times get tough. Greg Taylor moved to Hong Kong from Florida in March 2008 to start a dental practice in Central. He noticed the sudden shift in the economy just from the approach Hongkongers take to their dental appointments. 'This January is looking like it will be my best month since I've been in Hong Kong, whereas last January was my worst month,' Taylor says. 'People were clearly putting things off a year ago, delaying dental work if possible.'

But there are always areas of medicine that are in demand - ones that involve emergency work. 'The portion of dentistry that is recession-proof is pain, or trauma,' Taylor says.

Although medicine is relatively stable, the long periods of study necessary to qualify in the profession mean it hasn't seen a dramatic increase in popularity thanks to the financial crisis. Applications to medical school seem more or less stable at CUHK, with one-third of students accepted under the early-application scheme - typically the academic high flyers - one-third accepted from the normal pool of university applications, and one-third entering by other means, perhaps as a second profession.

Cases such as Tam are rare. The top school graduates still favour careers in finance if they have the grades. Still, academic qualifications aren't everything. Medicine is a people business, after all.

'We need to have students who are academically sound, but even if you have 10 As, if you don't have the mind set to serve patients you are out,' Chow says.