A) From an Undergraduate to an Entrepreneur

“At the beginning of the world, there were three people, Snow White, Dwarf Happy, and Price Edward. This was what happened when the first three humans ate the first apple. There was an apple on the table. Snow White took a bite of it and was in a coma immediately. Dwarf Happy came home and ate one pack of biscuits. Then he took a bite of the same apple. After 4 hours, he was in a coma. In the end, Prince Edward came and also took a bite of the apple. He felt great that he kissed Snow White who was in a coma. Snow White woke up.”

‘Before I start, I hope you can give me a hypothesis based on this story.’ Dr. Choi Pui Wah is a Biochemistry Ph.D. graduate from CUHK, and she later went for postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in the United States. After returning to Hong Kong, she set up WomenX Biotech Limited, a biotechnological company that mainly uses menstrual blood to explore gynecological diseases, including ovarian cancers. At the same time, Dr. Choi puts great efforts to manufacture a Hong Kong-based sanitary pads production line, La Rosée, to create safe and comfortable feminine products while enhancing overall awareness of women’s health.

From a normal biochemistry undergraduate to an entrepreneur, like all of us, Dr. Choi also has experienced the time with frustration and loss. She keeps asking herself: What kind of person does she want to be? Are there any methods to let her explore herself and know what she wants? The story mentioned above is one of the questions in the WomenX job interview. Dr. Choi initially thought every participant would have similar answers, however, she received several surprising responses. The out-of-the-blue subverted her previous mindset. She realized that thinking and analysis between people and people could be so different, leading to divergent answers based on the same question.

B) Finding Yourself

Dr. Choi also pointed out the highlight of the career talk. ‘Only when you find a job that matches your personality, you can work steadily instead of changing your job at a high frequency. It would be a big problem if your personalities and your job are contradictory.’ She also suggested we make use of online personality tests to figure out who we are and which type of jobs are suitable for us. One of her employees was expected to write a review article for the company within a month but ended up with one and a half years to finish. Despite that employee was hard-working, he didn’t own the characteristics of a scientist or understand the research methodology and concepts. Thus, he spent lots of time doing amendments during that 18-month period. Dr. Choi later found out he actually could have excellent performance when he was told to handle some clinical research work.

Meanwhile, Dr. Choi reminded us that we should never be afraid when we encounter obstacles in our career pathways. ‘It is normal for people to suspect their self-ability after facing failure, but after that, rather than wasting time to blame yourself, you’d better get rid of that vicious cycle and try more new things so you can explore your astonishing talents.’ We should all remember, having a positive attitude is the key to achieving ourselves.

C) Prospects for Biotech in Hong Kong

With the rapid-paced development of science and technology in Hong Kong, Dr. Choi, being a female scientist, believes that there definitely will be more and more working opportunities for science graduates in Hong Kong, especially in the aspect of biotechnology. According to the latest Policy Address, the amount of funding for biotechnology and scientific research would be increased to 6 billion, while that for Artificial Intelligence would be only 3 billion. These numbers indicate the government is supporting biotechnology development to a larger extent than other aspects in Hong Kong, creating the city into a new start-up for biotechnology. 

In addition, there are now more than 250 biotechnology-related companies in Hong Kong, but only around 730 science graduates altogether each year. ‘Obviously, this is the problem of demand and supply. You can imagine, 730 over 250, approximately 3 graduates in each company. The supply is super insufficient so that it would be easier and easier for you to find a job in the future.’

D) Tips for Writing a Resume

1) Study the job advertisement carefully

When you submit your resume, make sure that you are sending something relevant to the job requirement. Some enterprises, especially those that are large-scale would use Artificial Intelligence to check your resume. If there are any relevant points or keywords, your application may have a larger chance to be accepted.

2) Insert a summary to introduce yourself

You can use 5-6 lines to describe your personality and characteristics to show what kind of person you are. Although GPA is important, please always remember having nice mindset is much more important than that.

3) Provide sufficient evidence

When mentioning your past experiences, you should add some evidence to prove that the incidents have happened.

4) Include the name of the supervisor of your final year project

You may think your final year project is a mess, so you do not want to mention the name of supervisors. Instead, the whole industry knows what is happening and they actually do not mind your failure. Including the name of the supervisor shows the employer that you are proofing you did hard work and learned something through the project.

‘Ask yourself: do you really love it? If yes, then stay strong and keep it up.’ Now, it’s time for you to think: Are you doing what you want?