Professional careers in hot demand

A number of professionals, including but not limited to regulatory and quality assurance experts, corporate real estate services managers, finance managers, mechanical engineers, analyst programmers, legal secretaries, corporate lawyers, compliance professionals, actuarial candidates and digital marketing experts are "future-proofed" careers, according to the latest Hays Quarterly Report.

These professionals are in hot demand today and in the future as they possess the technical skills and experience employers will continue to need in the future.

While candidates are taking advantage of strong hiring intentions to move jobs to advance their career, they should understand that employers prefer to hire people with longer job tenures with their previous company.

According to the report, "future-proofed" professions include those in:

• Accountancy & Finance: Increased regulation leads to strong hiring activity for HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) regulatory reporting accountants at all levels. Finance managers with three years of Big 4 experience and candidates with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) experience are in hot demand.
• Engineering: Senior mechanical engineers, plumbing & drainage engineers and fire services engineers with both English and Cantonese language skills (including proficiency in technical terms) are needed. Candidates specialising in fit out projects as well as new build engineers with local experience and solid job histories are also in demand.
• Supply Chain: Demand planners with strong planning and forecasting experience in FMCG and life sciences are in short supply. Supply chain managers with experience in planning, order fulfilment and managing 3PL relationships are needed too.
• Property: Due to a continuous stream of projects and low vacancy rates for office space, property professionals in Hong Kong are in high demand, so do corporate real estate services managers, facilities managers and facilities officers, construction project managers and registered architects.
• Banking & Financial Services: Compliance professionals at all levels, including regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering, general compliance and client due diligence experts are in demand, especially those at the senior manager level.
• Procurement: Candidates with specific category knowledge of IT and HR services are needed in the indirect procurement market. In direct procurement, heavy industry companies and those in consumer and manufacturing want direct procurement managers with experience in global commodity management processes.
• Legal: Corporate lawyers and those specialising in capital markets are in high demand, while capital markets (private practice) associates are in constant demand.
• Finance Technology: Senior developers for front and middle office roles to work on trading systems, market connectivity and risk monitoring systems are in need. Banks are increasingly seeking developers to go beyond their conventional technical role and consult with the business while also managing junior developers. Business analysts at a senior level are also needed.
• Office Professionals: There is a constant shortage of legal secretaries, while demand is rising for executive assistants in banking due to a lack of tri-lingual qualified candidates with banking experience. Candidates with administration, personal/executive assistant and secretarial experience in a multinational or large listed company are also in great demand.
• Insurance: Hiring activity is proven to be active in this sector, especially in actuarial at the assistant manager and manager grades for candidates with strong actuarial knowledge. In addition, while changes to the risk based capital system are a few years away from implementation, some firms are getting ready by hiring valuation reporting candidates. Candidates with qualifications in this area will become increasingly sought after.
• Information Technology: Analyst programmers and database engineers are demanded by many corporations to upgrade existing systems or implement new systems so as to enhance competitiveness. Business analysts and IT department managers are in great demand.
• Marketing: The worldwide trend of devoting more marketing spend to digital creates demand for experienced digital marketing experts. Candidates with specialised knowledge in social media, content marketing, analytics, SEM and SEO are sought.
• Human Resources: Organisational development managers and learning & development managers are in demand. Multinationals are hiring more local executives and look to L&D to train future leaders, develop succession plans and monitor talent development.
• Life Sciences: A striking increase in demand for regulatory and quality assurance professionals are expected due to the impending introduction of more restrictive drug safety regulations.

This article was originally published on Hays.

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