25 pupils get career mentorship from staff at South China Morning Post in event co-organised with Pok Oi Hospital
- Volunteers from the Post’s community service team, SCMP Serve, gave students an office tour, shared about their work and conducted mock job interviews
- Participants share that what they have learned is useful for seeing the bigger picture as they plan for their futures
Gigi Cheng (from left), Jasmine Kiang and Icy Lam are a few of the students who took part in the event. Photo: Charlotte KwanClassrooms are not the only places for learning – often, advice from a mentor can put you on the right path to achieving your goals.
On Saturday, 25 secondary school students had the chance to discuss career planning with staff from the South China Morning Post. The event was organised by the Post and Pok Oi Hospital.
“This is a very valuable opportunity to talk to an actual employee. They shared very useful working experiences which is helpful for me to plan ahead what kind of company I want to get in the future,” said Icy Lam Hei-tung, a Secondary Six student from ELCHK Yuen Long Lutheran Secondary School.
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Volunteers from the Post’s community service team, SCMP Serve, gave students an office tour, shared about their work and conducted mock job interviews.
“The interview flow is like a real job interview as he [the interviewer] ... asked me very in-depth questions about what I am confident with myself … what I can do to improve,” Icy said. “This helps me gain confidence in university interviews.”
In the sharing session, students learned about the typical workday of employees from different departments at the Post, including the digital editorial team and the product and technology department. They were also given advice about how to approach a technical interview and write a strong resume.
“The talk [was] on what to prepare and tricky points of interviews … [and] what we should avoid during interviews,” said Jasmine Kiang Sin-hang, Icy’s schoolmate.
She added that compared to what she had learned in school, guidance from the mentors was more useful for planning her career.
“We always hear words like: ‘It is OK even if we don’t get satisfactory results in DSE [Diploma of Secondary Education] because we still get a chance to change our subject major during our university studies’,” the teen said.
“However, what the mentors shared with us is that even though you are already working in society, even in a very specific profession like radiotherapy, you can still switch to another field of profession and perform well.”
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Crystal Fung Ying-ying, who was the champion of Miss Hong Kong 2016, was invited as a guest speaker to share about her journey from secondary school to winning the beauty pageant.
“Flexibility is very important … There are many possible ways [to choose a career], students need not be limited to only one plan,” said Fung, who is now an actress and is working on a master’s degree in nutrition.
This is the second community service collaboration between the Post and Pok Oi Hospital. The Pok Oi Volunteer Team assisted with student recruitment and screenings for the event.
Dr Chan Shou-ming, the chairman of Pok Oi Hospital’s board of directors, emphasised the importance of helping students explore their interests.
“There are many diverse occupation options. Getting a taste of what it is like working in different fields through internships can help [them find their interest],” he said.
Meanwhile, Danny Chau Chun-tat, the first vice-chairman of Pok Oi Hospital’s board of directors said, “What we want to achieve is to give an appropriate mindset for adolescents that can lead them to a positive career planning and help them to find their goals aside from academics.”