Long queue for 'HK's best job'
Hong Kong now has its own version of the 'best job in the world', to rival the similar position offered by Queensland, Australia.
Touted as the first 'best job in Hong Kong', the position will give the successful applicant a taste of being a 'shadow chief executive officer' and HK$30,000 in pay for just five days' work. The project, inspired by Queensland's example, is a joint effort by Career Times Online, a local job search engine, and the daily deal website Groupon.
The offer attracted more than 300 applicants, who swamped Groupon's new office in Wan Chai yesterday.
Groupon's real chief executive, Danny Yeung, said: 'No working experience is required. Who we're looking for is a presentable, creative and passionate teenager with good common sense.'
The shadow chief executive will be chosen on May 10 and start working on May 16.
The winner will be chosen by a poll in which Groupon will have 60 per cent of the vote and members of the public will cast the balance.
The successful applicant will follow Yeung around to discuss terms with retailers, attend business meetings and gala dinners, contribute ideas for future planning and visit employees to raise their morale. He or she will even take a business trip with Yeung, to Macau by air.
Yeung said he would consider offering the 'shadow' executive a full-time job at Groupon after the five-day experience.
One of the applicants, Sam Shum Lam-wai, a 25-year-old financial planner, said: 'My current job offers me a very decent salary, so I'm not here for the money. The precious experience of spending time with the person in charge of a big company could definitely broaden my horizons.'
Another candidate, Wilson Wong Tsz-ming, 22, is a fresh graduate from Baptist University. 'I don't have as much work experience as the others,' he said. 'But as a new graduate in society, creativity and passion are my biggest edges.'
Former accountant Flora Ip Sze-kwan, 27, said she had quit her job and wants to work in sales and marketing. If she wins, she hopes to strengthen the Groupon website's appeal to young people with some artistic touches.
Groupon was launched in Chicago in 2008 and set up its Hong Kong branch in December last year.
It offers a daily 'group coupon' from a retailer; if a certain number of people sign up for the offer online, then the deal becomes available to all.
