The APAC Team (You and the APAC Opportunity)

The APAC Team (You and the APAC Opportunity)

At Imperial College Business School Careers, support is organised vertically by industry sectors. Career Consultants specialise in their industry with a view to providing effective, knowledge-workshops and employer events tailored to student needs and the evolving market.

Around this time of year, we review our delivery for next year. Beyond our core industry offering, we are taking in to account the needs of the future job market due to the current pandemic and its effect on the global economy.

In Mandarin, crisis is pronounced “Wei Ji”, which literally mean risk (Wei) & opportunity (Ji). The risk part has been well discussed so let’s have a look at the opportunities the crisis has opened up for our business students.

The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is currently under the spotlight and attracting investment from both the public and private sectors. This is good news for anyone seeking to launch their career in relevant business functions such as consultancy, investment, project management.

E-commerce is also one of the biggest winners during the crisis, with Amazon’s share price reaching new highs, to China’s streaming sales boom; the retail sector is being transformed. This rapid change is bringing a set of new requirements for the marketing, supply chain, operation, and e-finance functions, spurring demand for new talent. 

Increased demand for virtual communication and online work collaboration tools has opened opportunities for online conferencing, cloud computing and online entertainment. Growth has not been restricted to technology giant such as Microsoft and Tencent, with many SMEs tech companies enjoyed rapid growth. These SME’s can be a nice starting point for candidates who prefer a more “start-up” style employer.

The banking and insurance industry is also an interesting area to pay attention to. Hong Kong released 8 virtual bank licences last year. This, alongside a pandemic fuelled e-payment boost, those candidates with hybrid skillsets of finance and digital will be in high demand. 

For those international students who wish to secure top jobs in their home country or outside of the UK, remote working has worked in your favour. Most companies have moved the end to end selection process online with many providing virtual internships. This has levelised the playing field considerably as there is less need to return home for interviews and selections centres.  More and more companies may adopt to this practice and the remote candidate selection may become the new norm. As ICBS careers department, we have many different resources to prepare students for a strong performance when encounter those new hiring practice.

I will talk about what you as an international student can do this summer to boost your chances of success in the competitive gradate market in my next blog.

XiaoBei(Bei) Wu, Career Consultant (APAC)