Software Developer Career path

in Hong Kong and Overseas

By Sam Lam
Who is Sam?
Who is Sam?

2006 2011 2013 2019

Graduated from BEng Analyst Programmer System Architect Software Development
Computer Engineering, (Automated System (Bid in One Ltd.) Engineer II
CityU Limited) (Amazon Vancouver)

2017
2006 2008 2012
T-Contract Analyst Programmer / System
Programmer Programmer / Software Developer
Analyst
(G4 System Analyst Programmer (Practical Visionary)
(Electrical and Mechanical Services
Ltd.) (Hsin Chong
Department, HKSAR Government)
Construction)

Sam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sampable/

What will this talk cover?
What will this talk cover?

● Software developer career paths in Hong Kong

● Sam’s experience of finding overseas opportunities
● Some career advice for early stage (first 10 years) of your career
● Chance of connections with other CityU EE Department
alumni
Why Sam would like to give this
talk?
Why Sam would like to give this talk?

● Experience the same pain point of all computer related degree fresh
graduates: Don’t know what career options I could have in the
market
● Don’t want you to make the same mistake that we’ve made
If I want to be a
programmer/software developer,
what kind of job opportunities I’ll
have in Hong Kong?
Software Development Job opportunities in
Hong Kong
● Software Vendor
● Inhouse development team of big companies
● Inhouse IT in small non-IT companies
● T-Contract
● OGCIO
● Startup
● Investment Bank
Software Vendor

● E.g. PCCW, Automated System Ltd (ASL)

● Pros:
○ Lots of projects, i.e. job opportunities
○ Chance to work on systems that you could use in your daily live, e.g. ordering app
of genki sushi, e-Channel in airport
● Cons:
○ Lots of OT before deadline
○ Need to handle unreasonable requirements from customers
○ Limited chance of getting promoted/salary-increase
○ Almost no best practice at all
Inhouse development team of big companies

● E.g. Jockey Club, HSBC

● Pros:
○ Get large scale system development experience
○ Learn good system architecture
○ Salary not bad
● Cons:
○ Office politics
○ Communication is hard
Inhouse IT in small non-IT companies

e.g. I.T. guy in advertising company

Pros:
●No pros at all (only accept the offer if you couldn’t find another one)

Cons:
●Learn nothing
●You have to do everything that have power plug, e.g. printer
T-Contracts
● Flexible developer headcount across all government department
● Agency company hire you and send you to a government department,
e.g. Housing Authority, Electrical and Mechanical Department, as
providing HR service
● Pros
○ High Salary
○ (Could be) low workload
○ Lots of opportunities across all government departments
● Cons
○ Always use legacy technologies
○ Easily lost your competitive edge
○ (Sometimes) your boss or other direct contract will not treat you as part of the team
○ Difficult to find a job outside government
OGCIO (Office of the Government Chief
Information Officer)
● Only civil servant job for software developer
● Pros:
○ Stable
○ (Could be) low workload
○ High Salary (I believe)
● Cons:
○ Can only be promoted when someone left/promoted/retried
○ Might use legacy technologies
○ Difficult to find a job outside government
Startup

● E.g. Lalamove, WeLab, Mindlayer Ltd (found by EE Department

Alumni)
● Pros
○ Flat management structure
○ High respect on software developer
○ Can learn new technologies and software engineering best practice
● Cons
○ Not stable
○ Everyone have multiple roles in early stage
Investment Bank

● Highest paid software development job in Hong Kong (from what

I’ve heard)
● Pros
○ High salary
○ Work with smartest people
● Cons
○ Brutal layoff
How about overseas
opportunity?
FAANG

● i.e. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google

● People now added Microsoft to it, and Facebook change the name to
Meta, become MAANMG
● Pros
○ Use cutting edge technologies
○ Get experience on large scale software development (largest in the world)
○ Work with best software engineers all over the world
○ Learn all the best practices
○ Make your CV shine even you left the company (you entered the talent pool of
best software engineers)
● Cons
○ High expectation on you, therefore could be high stress
FAANG

● How to apply for a job?

○ Apply directly through company website
○ Hiring event in Hong Kong
■ No longer exists under current economy situation
○ Go to US/Canada to get a master degree (recommended)
● What could help when applying for tech giant jobs?
○ Contribute to open source projects
○ Pay someone for editing your CV
○ Coding test preparation, read “Cracking the Coding Interviews”, practice on
leetcode.com
○ Try multiple times
Through LinkedIn

● Setup jobs alert base on job location

● Search jobs with keywords “Software Engineer”, “Relocation”
Other overseas opportunities

● Japan
○ Google “ 外國人求職網” , " 日本 ", “Programmer”
○ Easiest way: go to Japanese Language School
● Taiwan
○ Sometimes they hire software from Hong Kong, through agency and JobsDB
● Mainland (BAT)
○ Apply directly through company website
● Macau
○ Always hire people from Hong Kong (jobs are most like is casino related)
Some career advice from
Sam
 Why should I
listen to Sam? You don’t have to!
First thing first
Mentoring is important, because …

● There are lots of blind spot in your career

● Help you avoid lots of mistake
● Greatly improve your chance of being success
● But make sure your mentor is who you want to be
● You can have more than one mentor

● Sam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sampable/

What mistakes Sam and other
alumni have made in past 15
years?
You need Large
Scale System ● Engineer work on small
scale systems will always
Experience work on small systems
even they become
Sam Lam
manager
Don’t work for
small, non-IT
● Learn nothing from it
company ● A waste of time, unless you
couldn’t get any other job
Mr. K offer
Work for both
Big and Small ● Small companies force you
to better understand full
Companies picture of the industry
● Big companies teach you
Miss W. best practice and right
process
Don’t afraid of
showing your ● Working silently won’t help
you promote

capability ● Completely rely on

manager for getting
promotion or fighting for
Mr. A
salary increase is not
reliable
Work for big
company ● As software engineer, you’ll
learn good system
architecture
Mr. A
Manage your
emotion ● Be cool and calm is
important
Mr. S
 ● Don’t judge the book by its
Be open-mind cover
● Dive deep and verify
Mr. C everything
Be expert of ● Easier to get better job if
you’re expert in some
one area domain/tools
● But doesn’t mean you don’t
Mr. F learn anything outside your
expertise
Certificates ● 99% of certificates are not

are useless useful for finding jobs

● Software industry:
everyone do it in their own
Mr. F
way
Delivery speed
matters, but
don’t
completely give
up quality ● You need both deliver
quickly and with high
quality code
Mr. F
 Find a T-
Contract AP job
after you have
3 years
experiences ● Salary gap between
software vendor and T-
Contract is pretty big
Mr K.
Things you should pay attention
to in your early career (first 10
years)
 How often
should I change ● Junior Software Engineer,
Programmer (probably 1st

jobs 10 years), change jobs

every 1 to 2 years
● Senior Software Engineer,
System Analyst (become a
team leader), 3 to 5 years
What should be
included in my ● Include your achievement
not only job responsibilities

CV? ● Try to provide numbers in

your achievement, e.g.
your project reduce X%
amount of work every week
for your customers
Why I need
connections
after
● Get salary information
guradated? ● Know better about
company culture before
you join/apply for a job
Last by not the least…
I offer you
myself! ● Sam’s Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in
/sampable/
The End
Any questions?