The first half of 2016 has witnessed the successful launch of the Law Faculty’s Alumni Website and linked E-mentoring scheme. In the days immediately following the launch at the end of January more than 50 mentors signed up, many of whom now mentees assigned up to them and the numbers continue to grow.
The Faculty would like to say a big “thank you” to those who have signed up so far. Our staff continuously monitor the functioning of the system which seems to be working efficiently but please do not hesitate to get in touch with us (law.alumni@cuhk.edu.hk) if any issues do arise. The Faculty is keen to continue developing the programme, and alumni who have not yet done so are encouraged to register with us now by following the link to the e-mentoring page at https://alumni.law.cuhk.edu.hk in order to provide the necessary information for participation in the scheme and thereby providing the help and guidance that are required by our students in today’s highly-competitive jobs market.
During the forthcoming academic year a number of extensions are being introduced to the overall careers programme, include a link-up with the Hong Kong Corporate Counsel Association with a view to assisting those who are looking for internships or employment in-house. Also working with the Law Society to promote student membership and enable representatives of some of Hong Kong’s smaller law firms to give a presentation on practice areas such as employment law, matrimonial and crime. Additionally, increasing communication with law firms, barristers’ chambers and others such as the DOJ in order to ensure our students are at the forefront in seeking internship and training contract opportunities. We are also extending our outreach to cover new areas such as job opportunities in regulatory compliance. Finally, the Office is working on a number of further enhancements to the functionality of the Virtual Careers Resource Centre (VCRC) by, for example, sending out prompts by email of impending deadlines for submitting applications to individual law firms, barristers’ chambers and other employers during the course of the annual “recruitment round”.
As ever, the biggest challenge lies in persuading our students to take steps to enhance their CV whilst there is still time by taking on memberships and other roles and participating in activities outside the academic curriculum and then in taking the further steps that are necessary in career planning in good time to meet the challenging demands of many of the law firms and chambers in their fight to identify and secure the best candidates.
Hopefully, those of you who have not yet done so will assist that process through our e-mentoring programme. To encourage you to do so we have once again included your alumni ID in the covering email for this newsletter.
Paul Mitchard
Faculty of Law Careers Director