[JonnyC]

Originally Posted by tsuiwah

freeier gets what I was saying

Every job applicant needs an angle relative to the local market. While a lot of folks on geoexpat may not speak Mandarin, there are many returnees and locals who do, so while Mandarin is required for many jobs it isn't necessarily a barrier. Korean and Hindi offer an angle. And, yes, enough investment banks cover their Indian deals out of HKG that having a Hindi speaker on the team is an advantage.

even if Hindi wasn't huge, why not ignore it and offer the OP some other helpful advice?

Of course everyone needs an angle, and being able to speak Hindi would of course not be a disadavantage. But in this post

"As for finding a finance job in HK, I think it all depends on your experience, connections, and how fluent your Mandarin/Hindi/Korean is. These are the hot languages these days."

you didn't simply say "if you speak hindi it might help" but you made out Hindi was a hot language being sought by employers and implied that the OP's overall chances of a job would depend on his hindi ability. IMO this is not the case and mandarin or cantonese are far more important. That's all. It's like saying if you move to London you should speak French because there might be the odd French bank recruiting

[billmj]

I appreciate all the help I am getting from everyone. I felt I should establish that my language skills in any language other than English is downright terrible. For me to learn Mandarin or Cantonese or for that matter even Hindi would be a task harder than going for the CFA. With that disadvantage, would it really be all that hard? And while at the present moment I am working for a petroleum company, I have also worked for Cartier and the Richemont group and even put in 3 years in a bank as a loan advisor. So all aspects of finance are acceptable, inluding relationship banking. I guess my main question is, how easy is it to get a finance job for a US degree holder graduating with a magna cum laude with a double degree in marketing and finance, but having concentrated mainly in finance workwise(a chosen option, but not a limiting one). Thanks once again.

[tsuiwah]

billmj, yes, you can work more easily in HK if your wife is a PR.

As for what the recruiters are saying, what exactly makes you a "qualified professional"? Not to discourage you, but a degree in Finance and Marketing is a dime a dozen here. Greater China is the biggest growth area for the CFA exam, so even that carries only limited benefit here. And as you read in the other "unemployed" thread, there are a lot of qualified people here. Your benefit is that you are not very senior so it should be easier.

You need to figure out what you are good at and target positions accordingly. Stop talking to the recruiters because they can't help you until you get here. Check out the SCMP classifieds site as well as www.jobsdb.com and monster.com.hk to get a sense of what the market looks like.

And, take my advice, find a way to leverage your background in petroleum. Be creative. You should also try to talk to Middle East-based companies that may to expand in the region.

[nation]

That and it depends on which area of finance. IBs to a lesser extent but there certainly are plenty of Hedge Funds and VCs based in HK for ease of setup and investor purposes which focus on India. Not speaking hindi wouldn't be a deal breaker or maker given the prevalence of English in India but it'd be valuable to have from a relationships stand point.

To the OP don't believe the HK govt's hype about a knowledge based economy and the skilled worker. Being a qualified professional doesn't necessarily mean your job hunt will be easier here. You're right about the energy sector - it's non existant in HK. Given your CFA, your best bet is to look to the IBs in their Asian regional energy sector research/trading groups.

[JonnyC]

Give jobserve.com a try too, that is where I got my job in HK from. It's primarily a british site but it has a few HK positions and you might just get lucky (I did!)

[JonnyC]

Also try

www.robertwalters.com
www.talent2.com.hk

These agents are more specialised towards getting jobs for westerners in Asia who don't necessarily have Asian language skills. If you already have the right to work in HK because of your wife then they should be able to help you

[tsuiwah]

Originally Posted by nation

That and it depends on which area of finance. IBs to a lesser extent but there certainly are plenty of Hedge Funds and VCs based in HK for ease of setup and investor purposes which focus on India. Not speaking hindi wouldn't be a deal breaker or maker given the prevalence of English in India but it'd be valuable to have from a relationships stand point.

Bingo, we have another winner!