City Beat | Hong Kong companies adopt Shenzhen interview tactic
It may be to check if a job applicant is on a mainland blacklist for political reasons
If you are a fresh graduate looking for a job, are you willing to cross the border for an interview first if the company, like many others in Hong Kong, has a business arm on the mainland?
Recently, I was invited to a lunch by a university president together with other media representatives, and he told us an interesting story. Many Hong Kong companies have lately adopted a new hiring rule: fresh graduates need to go to Shenzhen first to see their human resources people.
Some of us concluded that it must be a way for employers to test the willingness of locals to work on the mainland, as surveys over the years have shown a lack of interest among the city's youth to leave Hong Kong for career development. But the president gave us a very interesting answer: it's more than that; it has another specific purpose - to see if any applicant will be banned from crossing the border!
We were all wowed by this example of killing two birds with one stone. But we also realised that such an idea in fact serves two purposes for the employers: it helps to eliminate job seekers who are not interested in working on the mainland and it can help to find out who is "blacklisted" by Beijing so as to avoid possible future problems for the company.
After last year's 79-day Occupy protests, besides major student leaders, certain second- or third-tier activists have also been barred from crossing the border. But what many people are not aware of is the ban has reminded certain employers to set a new hiring condition.
The university president, who preferred not to be named, said he therefore felt obliged to remind students to bear in mind possible consequences in their future development due to their political stand or participation in protests at a time when society, including campuses, are getting more politicised.