Problem in finding expats for jobs in hk

Would anyone know where I can find a directory of resumes for expats only in HK for possible openings in HR/Consulting jobs?

I think Euromoney have a directory but it is a directory for people who make serious cash, I dont think it is limited to just expats and I think you would be hard pressed to find a directory which was confined to expat, its such a lose term anyway. I am a British passport holder permanent ID card holder lived in Hong Kong my whole life, am I an expat, do you consider an ABC, BBC or XBC an expat because they are ethnically Chinese, is someone who resides in Hong Kong holds a foreign passport and is never going to leave an expat or indeed just calls Hong Kong home now.


The best you are going to do is find a directory either based on industry and if you are lucky income, I would have a look at that euromoney directory, I dont know for a fact but my mate said he bought one recently and it cost 7.5K GBP or US$ quite a difference I know, but I don't have all the facts, have a look at their website.

Thanks DB. Basically the requirement is for a fluent English speaker and Chinese is not a requirement. But then again its not a company that would pay millions. The remuneration is more in line with the industry and regions practices. My problem is to access such a directory of candidates looking for jobs. I have been told to go through a search company but its time consuming and need to pay $$ whereas if Asiaxpat had something like that it would be so great.

why not advertise the post on this sites careers section????????

Oh yes, I am also doing the same. Thanks. I have browsed through the resumes here, and for the post I am looking at, I only have 2 resumes for the relevant job (HR Consultants/Recruiters)

There are very few 'expat' jobs in HK these days... most of the recruiters I speak to are looking for overseas education HK people because they have language skills (one told me 80% of their hires are from this group) - there are jobs for english only expats but they tend to be senior management positions vs entry level.


Things have changed massively in HK in the last 15 yrs... I think its a product of having an extremely well-educated local work force with loads of HK people returning from places like Canada (when parents emigrated after 1989) armed with top degrees and language skills...

I am not sure if returnees are always from elite universities and have top degrees, there are of course a lot of those but they are by no means the average returnee and there are a lot of so so's that come back because their language ability commands a higher salary then the country their parents emigrated too and they were raised in.


You are right, A lot of people did leave Hong Kong during the brain drain after Tienanmen Square to places like Canada and Australia because no one knew whether China was going to live up to its one country two systems promise (and barring the odd hiccup like universal suffrage which is all be it a major one, I personally think they have lived up to their promise quite admirably) So it turned out that Hong Kong remained reasonably free and fair, the rule of law remains and all of us aren't required to walk around with little red books. So now there is a trend of both the emigrant's themselves and their children returning to Hong Kong. If you speak English and Cantonese at a proficient level you are going to make reasonably decent money in whatever industry you go on, you command a premium. Why slog away in a country where you probably get paid less and pay almost twice the amount in taxation. It just wouldn't make sense if you didn't have to.


Though my family is not Chinese I am a second generation expat educated abroad and came back and I am here for the same reason, I could have taken a position some years ago within my firm which would have led to a nominal increase in base salary but it would have resulted in moving and after tax my real income would have fallen, so I opted against it. It didnt make sense


My sister is a high priced lawyer in Australia and she moans that her take home is the same as her support staff, I cant understand for the life of me why she isn't seriously looking at Hong Kong, she doesnt answer when I ask why not she wants to practice in the UK now, which is not much better if you ask me. What is weird of the pure expats that is to say the ones the term is named after people who primarily worked for the British Government based in Hong Kong on generous terms and at a later stage for multinationals, over the years I would say perhaps tens of thousands of kids educated here only a really tiny fraction of them ever returned here after university or some did but eventually left. In my year group which numbers a couple hundred students across three ESF secondary schools there are two that are here and the fraction remains similar if you include my generation that is to say the students from years one through to seven during the time I studied in my final year.


I find that really odd, expat kids don't seem to have any connection or affinity to the place they were raised, a lot of people have come back and visited but very few have stayed even when there is a financial incentive to do so, one thing I know for a fact is from my batch at the ESF 99% of students obtained college degrees and of those 95% are successful professionals. The obvious answer is not everything is a financial decision, there are other considerations quality of life who you fell in love with and what their wants and desires are which I understand completely. But a 1% return rate for a city like Hong Kong why so low, I am sure New York or London is at least 50%. I find it the strangest thing.

Ed..I agree with you on a stastical basis. But as DB said, there are so many expats in HK, and so many 2nd generation expat kids. Do they all decide to re-locate and if not, is there a channel for them to find jobs? I'd say one of the factors attributing to their choice of making HK as their home or not (where they have been brought up) would be available job opportunities. Surely, HK has plenty to offer. In my case, I want to employ expats and I simply dont seem to have a resource available to tap. Well atleast not an organized & inexpensive channel. It will work as I know so many expats in HK are also looking for job change/new enployment, I just need to network my way out of this. Whereas for local candidates it took us only 3 days to get the required staff. Do you think there is an equal grievance from the potential expat employee's side too? Maybe its an opportunity to open up something like "Jobs/Resumes for expats"?

freezingpan, I sent you a PM with my friend's CV, he's new to HK from OZ and looking for a job in HR. Cheers

i smell a rat here-"paying millions in salary" "cannot find expat staff" etc etc -come on people have some credibility when reading these posts


show me the money freezing pan

There is no rat here, and this isn't any ad for hiring staff, I was just asking for help to find the right resource to hire expats and this subsequently turned into a debate for expats living and working in HK which was also intended. Nobody's credibility was questioned as I am hiring for positions that just dont pay millions of dollars.

Oh um ...sorry freezing pan amazing what a difference one word makes-completely missed the "cannot"


i gave myself a well deserved slap up-side the head on your behalf

I am sure that there are many expats trying to apply for "normally paid" jobs. I am one of them... unfortunately whenever I try to contact one of these consultancy agencies they always ask the salary as first requisite.

Knowing a place where to post the cv and being considered would be fine also to us...