Just write up an article for our new product blog, sharing our
experience of hiring developers for both oursky.com and pandaform.com.
Hope it will be useful as a starting point to discuss this common
problems for start-ups.
Hiring Talented Developers in Hong Kong
January 27, 2010 by shkadmin
This is a good post with practical experience about hiring in HK. I wonder if some of this is just a matter of current perceptions, and that once the local startup community is more established, if it will be viewed with the long term advantages that it has. This was touched on, but perhaps not explicitly: just like with my experience with local engineers that I’ve worked with in the toy industry, I think the locally education tends to leave one huge problem of not handling open ended problems well. A good example is that an engineer from the US will welcome a less defined problem to work on since it represents something interesting that they can really come up with their own creative solution. I think the local (HK and China mainland) engineers tend to see it as being a risk of failing, and so they will be reluctant to take on or make progress on this type of problem. This same issue, I think, is why it is less likely for someone to found a startup company here, or to take up a position with a startup. Perhaps the same issue makes local investors be less open to a risky investment. I suppose there can be something said for the success of those people that follow the sure path, but I think there will be less and less opportunities for sure paths within the local job market. Outside of the (currently turbulent) financial industry, all other businesses in HK that have alternates in the mainland are facing those jobs moving over the border. Many people are being faced with having to station at factories or lose their position. I think this situation could prove to be the impetus needed to get the startup community growing, as people look for alternatives to their current work. I’m not claiming to know what the opportunities are, but I think there are some unique situations in HK that can be exploited by local businesses that identify niches that can not easily be pursued by companies overseas or in mainland.
Jonathan, that's a good point. Personally from what I observe, graduates here often have the "employee" (打工仔）mentality. They want to be an employee. But that's good news for us because it means we can find people to hire. There is also a gradual trend that recent grads are looking for roles that deviates from the traditional careers like banking, finance, sales, etc. More and more people are looking for more interesting roles. I feel that there's definitely opportunity here to create a better reputation towards startups and that joining a startup is not considered a "failure". I think this is bound to change as more and more startups in hk make their way into the mainstream as conditions change in the market.
Actually as a recent local graduate, I think one culture reason behind the problem of inability to handle “open-ended” problem, or even part of the reason why not many local graduate doing start-up, is rooted in our education.Our education tends to give you a fixed path to success so you can say, amongst those who get a degree from local universities, are those who success in the “game of education”.Another observation is actually happening in our team — new team member tends want to follow something — in our team we used to keep an “as open as possible” environment so that everyone can be creative and have the flexibility to work in their own ways. However with some new team members, we learnt that people actually need to “learn” how to enjoy the freedom.Actually I think a “sure path” is no longer possible for the younger generation in Hong Kong anymore, Well no one know what the opportunities are, but I think for us, the opportunity cost is really low and maybe making a rich startup community growing is the only opportunity we have to purse a enjoyable, fruitful, and less alienated life.
less alienated life.. haha. before we talk about how to pursue a less alienated life, however, maybe we should discuss how many of us actually think we are leading an alienated life? i very much agree with you. i’ve no idea how many youngsters think that way though.
Wow, interesting comments. I've been in and around HK for about 10 years now, and still learning about this sort of aspect of the culture. Actually, if you don't mind, I would like to understand better what people think they are alienated from?
i cant tell what people think but i may try to tell what i do . i didn’t chat with ben offline on this , but i guess we are on the same page regarding alienation as defined by carl marx . putting it to the current hk ‘s context, i think some people are alienated from their hobbies, their careers (jobs are something else ) and their dreams. some youngsters , as per my subjective observation , become “mature ” by starting to believe they should give up their dreams for reality. this is where i suspect people themselves think it’s an alienation, or just maturity .
"Giving up their dreams for reality" I get that feeling a lot from talking to people here. Perhaps it's the high cost of living (e.g. real estate) in Hong Kong and pressure from family and peers, many people will choose to do something they dislike or are indifferent to in order to avoid "risk".
Thanks kin, confusion cleared.Many youngsters here indeed blame “reality” for making them give up their dreams, but ironically most will be agape with embarrassment when asked “what are you dreaming about?” I think this is more of a, in my biased opinion, deeply-embedded mentality. Even for start-ups, I feel that more of them in the US are truly living their passions, instead of aiming for the “jackpot”.But like Gene said, it’s good that more and more graduates start to shun the old rigid paths.
I don’t think this kind of alienation is necessarily that unique to HK, at least in the respect that people get to a point where they feel that they need to grow up and do something different than they want to do if they will be successful. I think the main difference is like Gene said, that friends and family (especially family) aren’t as supportive of pursuing those dreams. It seems like it is a bit of a vicious cycle, in that respect, that reinforces feelings of embarrassment or shame if you are doing something that doesn’t have a direct benefit for the family. Actually, in this respect, I am running into this aspect with my wife’s family. I’ve been working on Sampi for about two years now with very little consulting work to bring in a bare minimum of income to cover basic expenses. She has no way of explaining the reality of what I’m doing in a way that will make them understand why I’m pursuing this instead of taking on more consulting work, so they are basically in the dark about what is really happening with us. My family in the US, on the other hand, I am up front with them about what I’m doing, and they are supportive and encouraging about it. The ironic thing is that if I am successful, I would more likely be more generous to the people that were able to be more supportive of me.