Riding on the success of CityU CAReer Launch Scheme (CARLS) launched in June by City University of Hong Kong (CityU), CityU recently unveiled its E-Career Success Fair 2020.

CARLS, established in response to the pandemic, created more than 1,800 job opportunities for 2020 graduates, while the Fair is offering a further 1,500 job and internship opportunities for current students and graduates.

The Career and Leadership Centre has designed a new e-platform to replace the annual face-to-face CityU Careers Festival held on campus as a means to ensure the safety of participants, employers, students and graduates. This was the first time that CityU’s career fair has gone online.

The user-friendly platform allows CityU students to keep abreast of the latest employment trends, offers job and internship opportunities, facilitate career and life planning for more successful preparation for getting jobs and starting careers. 

Over 130 multinational corporations and major organisations joined the Fair, including Amazon Web Services, Ernst & Young, Hang Seng Bank, Hong Kong Productivity Council, Hong Kong Trade Development Council, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) China/Hong Kong Limited, Jardine Matheson Limited, New World Facilities Management Co. Limited, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Swire Properties Limited, among others.

As in previous years, the Fair included the JobExpo and sessions on skills needed for searching for jobs plus recruitment talks. One of the new features on the online platform was the “Executive Chatroom”, a real-time interactive session that enabled senior business executives to share their work and life experiences with CityU students and graduates. Moreover, employers who were also CityU alumni offered tips on job hunting via this platform. 

Positive feedback was received from CityU students and employers. Some students found the employers’ sharing session very inspiring. One of the participating companies, PwC, thanked CityU for providing such an excellent employment platform, saying it helped employers connect with CityU students and identify suitable talent.

“As the global economy faces critical impacts from the pandemic, our graduates are encountering much greater challenges in job landing than before. We hope that our professional support during this period can help students to equip themselves and find their dream jobs,” said Professor Horace Ip Ho-shing, Vice-President (Student Affairs). 

“Originally planned from 21 September to 16 October this year, the Fair was extended to 30 October due to overwhelming response. There were more than 8,000 visits to the JobExpo and nearly 5,000 to the online workshops and activities, which was a record-breaking achievement,” Professor Ip added.

Given the overwhelming success of the Fair, CityU will hold the second e-career fair the next semester, with more local, mainland and overseas employers expected to join and provide graduating students with more employability supports and job matching opportunities.