Hong Kong and global graduates, motivated by high salaries, eye career in finance in post-Covid-19 era: CFA Institute survey
- Some 30 per cent of university graduates consider finance as their top career sector, according to a CFA Institute survey
- Financial firms are willing to pay more to hire talent to expand their business in the Greater Bay Area and tap other opportunities, industry observers say
Finance is the top career choice for graduates globally including Hong Kong, as they believe the sector offers better pay and growth prospects in a post-Covid-19 era, according to a CFA Institute survey released on Wednesday.
Some 30 per cent of university graduates said they would consider finance as their No. 1 choice, followed by information technology and telecommunications at 25 per cent and medicine at 21 per cent, according to the 2023 Global Graduate Outlook Survey. Over 9,430 respondents were surveyed in April in 13 markets including the UK, the US, Canada, India, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Germany.
Finance ranked fifth in a similar survey in 2021 during the pandemic when education was the top career choice. Back then, 14.5 per cent of respondents said they would opt for a career in banking and finance.
“Since the end of the pandemic, there has definitely been a shift towards finance as it offers a very broad foundation of knowledge that can take graduates in lots of different directions, and it is better paying,” Nick Pollard, managing director for Asia-Pacific at the CFA Institute, said in an interview.
“This shift reflects graduates’ growing confidence in the future, which drives them to those industries that are based on confidence, optimism and innovation,” he said. “As the markets continue to stabilise and grow, finance as a career would keep its attractiveness.”
