Landing the right job quickly after graduating, or even during a full-time MBA, is the ultimate goal of business school students.
The job market for MBA graduates in Hong Kong at present is 'slightly disappointing to a certain extent', explains Marjorie Cheng, administrative director (career services), MBA programmes at Chinese University. She says the first quarter of this year looked promising as the banking and finance sectors recovered and offered good prospects for graduates.
'The second quarter has slowed down a bit, possibly due to European markets slowing, and the finance industry is very sensitive to things like that. It can sometimes turn their full-time recruitment needs into part-time or contract work.' Despite the market not being ideal, graduates can draw on a host of tools to help them in the search for a job; tools that can be used while they are still on the MBA programme.
The best business schools here will offer their students and alumni opportunities to network with senior executives and human resources professionals from various industries, and provide help with finding work through their career services centres.
At the core of any job search is networking. 'A lot of the time, job seeking is about knowing people and networking in the market, so that is what we encourage students to do,' Cheng says.
Getting exposure to different companies can be done in a number of ways, from taking part in business competitions to joining special interest and industry clubs.