SOWK 0060
Career Skills Training
Final Presentation
Self-recommendation
By Chan Wing Han, Lee Oi Man
Wu Wai Chi, Wong Suet Yin
Why we choose this topic?
Common attitude towards job hunting
Too passive
Feel helpless to get dream job/ get in dream
company
Unaware of another fruitful way
Doubt the effectiveness of self-recommendation
Survey – subjects
64 Undergraduate students
Gender:
M: 28
F: 36
Age:
18 or below: 0
19: 4
20: 12
21: 27
22 or above: 21
Survey – subjects
Curriculum
Arts: 18
Social Sciences: 28
Business: 14
Education: 3
Engineering: 1
Survey – results
Ways of Job Hunting
Internet: 35
Newspaper: 59
Self-recommendation: 3
Others: 26
Survey – results
 Have you tried self-recommendation?
Yes: 3
No: 61
 Was it successful?
Yes: 2
No: 1
 Try self-recommendation (if learnt the technique)?
Yes: 46
No: 15
Why self- recommendation is fruitful?
Employers …
Appreciate!! (the most important of all!)
Have good impression on you
Keep you in record
You…
Have a chance to get what you want
(Job or company!)
Have nothing to lose!!!
About self recommendation
When to do?
Job vacancy is not available in the target field
Dream job application
Dream employer
What to do?
Show your eagerness and confidence
Cover letter should be more then ordinary
Portfolio is usually required
To illustrate…
3 jobs are chosen
Public relations officer
Journalist
Designer
Why we chose these 3?
Most wanted jobs
Self-recommendation is common
Good illustration about how to self
recommend
Public Relations Officer
 Job nature
Categories
Corporate PR
Agency PR
 Event PR
Finance PR
Marketing PR
Public Affairs PR…
PR – Job Duties
Corp. Comm. Assistant: deals with the
image of
the company itself, usually a big enterprise
Agency PR works for the clients, to meet
their
demands, e.g. organizing various events
for them
PR – Basic Qualifications/ Skills
High proficiency in
written English and Chinese
spoken languages on English and
Mandarin
PR – Personal attributes required
promptly reacted
smart and outgoing
inspiring ideas/ plans to help the
enterprise
PR – How to win the job
with self recommendation?
Cover letter and resume
Show your experiences
Employers assess your language skills from CV
Portfolio
Bored of only traditional cover letter and
resume
Show your talent and strengths
Make your portfolio interesting with new ideas
PR – portfolio demonstration
Company:
MediAdvertising Limited
Company nature:
 Organizing movie events
Background
Interest in the company
Application without vacancies publicly
announced
Working as summer job before
Journalist
Job nature
Categories
Different media: broadcast and print
May focus on specific field e.g. Local news, politics,
China news
Job duties
Depend on the field
General tasks: Interviewing, doing researches,
digging out topics, writing, reporting
Journalist – basic qualifications /skills
 Writing skills
(Distinguish candidates at early stage)
Journalist – Personal attributes required
Curiosity
Sensitivity
Flexibility
Willingness to take initiative
Journalist – How to win the job
with self-recommendation?
Cover letter
First stage of showing language skills
 Show relevant experiences
Show why you are especially interested in the
organization
Keep it precise and informative
Journalist – Portfolio
To tell ‘who you are’
To prove your ability
To show what make you special & different
To impress potential employers
Journalist – portfolio
 Be brave
 Aim at impressing your potential employers
 Be confident
 No absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ writing
 Be yourself
 Fully understand strengths & weaknesses
 No pretence but showing proof
‘Don’t just tell us you “wanna-be” a journalist or how you
love writing, it means nothing! Show us!’Joani Tang,
Marketing Manager of Discover China Production Ltd.
Journalist – portfolio
 What to be included?
Writing of own topics
Comments on current affairs / social issues / global
affairs…
Give personal insights
Comments on the work of the targeted company
Video production
EVERYTHING YOU THINK OF!!!
Journalist – portfolio demonstration
Organization:
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)
Department interested:
Department of public & current affairs (TV)
Department nature:
producing PCA TV programmes such as HK
Connection 鏗鏘集 and Legco Review 議事論事
Background:
Interested in the RTHK and its TV programme
HK Connection
Apply without open recruitment
foresaw difficulty: RTHK is a governmental
organisation  will not hire self-recommended
people easily.
Designer
Job nature
Categories
Product design
 Environmental design (exterior / interior)
 Fashion design
Transportation design
Graphic design (Poster, advertisement…)
Designer – Job duties
Junior: Copy, complete & organize design
work
 Designing
 Doing researches
 Creative work
 May involve some administrative and PR
work
Designer – Personal Attributes Required
 Flexibility
 Creativity
Passion (The most important!)
‘What a designer needs is passion! With passion,
you’ll be confident to get the job, you’ll step
forward and love your job!’ Eddie Wong, Chief
Designer of SphereOne Limited
Designer – How to win the job
with self-recommendation?
 Be creative and special for CV and portfolio!
 Make use of visual aids instead of only words
‘I expect to feel the creativity everywhere even in papers of
CV. It’ll be a good portfolio once it lets me say “WOW”.’
Eddie Wong, Chief Designer of SphereOne Limited
Designer – Cover letter
Be special!!!
(Make standard things extraordinary)
Make use of fonts
Make use of visualization
State relevant experiences and skills
Designer – Portfolio
 It assembles YOU, yourself!
 To show your way of life
 To be brave and confident
 To distinguish yourself from others
 To visualize your ideas and attributes
(Maybe 20% words, 80% visual aids)
REMEMBER TO AMAZE THE EMPLOYERS!
Designer – portfolio
Content depending on the target field
Original and creative ideas
Previous work (assignment / work for
portfolio) e.g. poster, model, sketch, video,
photo …
Visual diary
With essence but not a pile of work record
Designer – portfolio demonstartion
 Owner: Final Year Design student @ Poly U
(Visual Communication branch)
 Record of uses: Summer internship, freelance
job & full-time job
 Eddie’s comments: *Show experiences and
skills
 Not that creative
 Enough for job application, but not selfrecommendation
Concluding remarks
Dos and Don’ts for self recommendation
Dos
Know more about the company and the field before
doing self recommendation
Understand yourself
Be confident, be yourself
Double check the portfolio to make it error free
Don’ts
Don’t use other’s portfolio
Don’t borrow other’s idea
Don’t give up towards failure
Never wait for opportunities!
Create them!
Go and hunt you job!
Thank You!