The University of Hong Kong

Careers Education and Placement Centre

Where did the 1996 B.Eng. - Mechanical graduates go?

I. Introduction

The information contained in this paper is extracted from the Graduate Employment Survey of 1996 to answer the following questions about Mechanical Engineering graduates : -

• How were they employed six months after graduation ?
• Of those who pursued further studies, what programmes did they follow ?
• Of those who were employed full-time, how long did it take them to secure their first job offer ?
• In which sectors were they employed ?
• How much did they receive in salary ?
• How many job offers did they receive ?
• Who were their employers and what were their job titles ?

II. Employment Situation in 1996

	Mechanical												HKU Overall *
	Total				Male				Female
	'96		'95		'96		'95		'96		'95		'96		'95
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
No. of respondents	98	100	80	100	89	100	75	100	9	100	5	100	2139	100	2068	100
F/T employed	87	88.8	77	96.3	80	89.9	73	97.3	7	77.8	4	80	1743	81.5	1726	83.5
P/T employed seeking F/T job	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	34	1.6	18	0.9
Unemployed seeking F/T job	2	2.0	0	0	2	2.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	34	1.6	36	1.7
Further studies	9	9.2	3	3.8	7	7.9	2	2.7	2	22.2	1	20	314	14.7	281	13.6
Emigration/home country	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0.28	1	0.1
Not seeking F/T job	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	0.4	6	0.3

Table 1. Employment situation

* HKU overall refers to the figure for the total HKU population and includes M.B.,B.S. and B.D.S. graduates.

III. Further Studies

Source of Finance	No. of Graduates
Own Fund	1
Teaching Assistantship/Studentship	8

Table 3. Source of finance for further studies

IV. Time Taken to Secure Employment

Among those graduates who were in full-time employment, 99% secured their first job offer before the end of September. The figure reached 100% by the end of October. Compared with their predecessors in 1995, the 1996 graduates, on average, took shorter time to secure employment.(Figure 1)

Figure 1. Time taken to secure employment

V. Employment Sectors

94% of the Mechanical Engineering graduates were employed in commerce and industry, followed by 6% in civil service (Figure2)(Figure3).

Figure 2. Employment sectors

Figure 3. Employment sectors by sex

VI. Basic Salary and Gross Income

	Basic Salary				Gross Income
	Mechanical		HKU Average *		Mechanical		HKU Average *
	'96	'95*	'96	'95	'96	'95	'96	'95
Mean	$11,516	$11,456	$14,457	$14,204	$12,918	$13,068	$15,902	$15,662
Median	$10,890	$10,200	$12,000	$12,000	$11,917	$12,133	$13,542	$13,230
Minimum	$6,000	$6,500	$3,000	$2,000	$8,000	$9,000	$5,500	$3,792
Maximum	$18,415	$25,000	$55,000	$60,000	$19,917	$25,000	$60,000	$60,000

Table 4. Basic salary and gross income

* HKU average refers to the figure for the total HKU population and includes M.B.,B.S. and B.D.S. graduates.

VII. Number of Full-Time Job Offers

71% of the graduates in full-time employment had more than one job offer. 44% reported having received three or more job offers (Figure 4). On average, each graduate received 2.7 job offers, compared with 2.3 last year.

Figure 4. No. of full-time job offers

VIII. Names of employers and job titles

Table 5. List of employers and job titles

* Business professionals include the following occupations : marketing / sales executives, shipping / airline / transport executives, trading executives / merchandisers / buyers and purchasing agents, travel executives, personnel / administrative / management executives, management consultants, investment consultants, bank executives, finance executives, organization and method officers, estate development / management officers, etc.

Note : Some alumni have indicated willingness to talk to individual students about their work. Their contact telephone number can be obtained from counsellors at CEPC.

IX.

Margaret Lee
Nelson Yip

August, 1997

The analysis is based on information provided by the respondents, and the Careers Education & Placement Centre should not be held responsible for any errors arising therefrom.

No part of this report may be reproduced in any form or by whatever means,
without written permission from the Director of the Careers Education and Placement Centre,
The University of Hong Kong