| Advice for the newly looking Economist
Good day,
I'll try to not repeat the same questions that are posted over and over and over again on here, but even after reading what has been posted, I fear I will repeat some of the same things others have said - for that, I apologize.
I'm about to graduate from a U.S. university - degree in Economics. To give you some background on myself. I was an older student (28 as of last bday). Early on in my college career, I had to stop and work for a while - at which time I worked for a investment firm (it was an offshoot of MetLife, but it was investment side, not insurance) as basically a regional desk and also as the office's computer administrator. They basically paid me for one position and I did the other because I chose to, so they were thrilled not to have to pay two people, and I was estatic to make myself invaluable to the company. As a result, I got about 4 years of experience in those roles. I went back to school to finish an Economics degree.
One of the reasons I did so was to go overseas to Asia, namely China, to gain as much knowledge in the area. I've studied China and the Chinese economy and business areas, but there is no substiture for first-hand knowledge as many of you well know.
So I'm starting a comprehensive search. I'll be honest, HK wasn't one of my first thoughts, but my economics dept. head mentioned that she had contacts in Hong Kong who could give me advice based on what I knew and where I wanted to go (he is the head of a fairly major company in HK) I contacted him, and he did a lot of convincing that I should be looking at Hong Kong (I asked about Shanghai, and he did say that it will be an area of interest in time, but HK is still a major center of financial jobs).
I'm looking here for advice, to try and figure out how impossible or not my task is.
I have several things that may or may not work in my favor -
1) I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. I have studied some Mandarin, but I would not want to even try to claim any type of fluency. The guy I talked to said that he didn't think this would be a huge hinderance in Hong Kong. He said the fact that I've been trying to learn would be looked upon favorably.
2) My experience with Met - the guy said he thought that would be a selling asset for myself.
3) I was an older student, so I'm not a 22 year old grad. I'll be a 28 coming up on 29 year old grad. Don't get me wrong, I feel better about myself for having finished my degree, because it opens a numbers of doors. This is more a thing for me, because I often feel pulled in two directions - one to do this because its what I *really* want, and one to just give up and disregard the uphill battle. And I don't know how companies will look at that aspect of me.
My thoughts are to try and offer myself as a confluence of economics (school), business (work experience), and computers (I'm very knowledgable there because at one time, I was in CS, and while I'm not as solid a programmer as a veteran is, I'm probably towards the upper end of an IT person, including system admin and complete hardware support).
This guy tells me he thinks I can do it. He recommended several things
1) He said Visa laws in HK are about to change this year around July and that will make my task easier. Not sure what he means, but he said to tell companies I'd be willing to make my own way over to start out
2) He said look at places like HSBC, Standard Charter, and places like Citibank (although he said Citibank would be far and away one of the last places he would look)
3) He said also to mention I was considering furthering my education while here towards a masters.
I'd like some thoughts, ideas, etc, even if they're just to say "You have no realistic chance." I want honesty. I'm still emailing and calling this guy back and forth to see what he says, so I can toss ideas I get from you all.
Thanks and hope to see some of you someday in HK...  | 
