General State of Hiring

First, it was the protests and now it’s the virus that’s dominating the news! We usually get this question: how is the virus affecting our segment of the market, i.e., Technology Recruitment? This is what we have been observing:

1. During Q1 2020, technology hiring was still very much alive and kicking. At the onset of the virus (late January / February 2020), interviews were being delayed as a lot of people were working from home. But, companies were quick to switch to Video Conferencing facilities such as Zoom and the interviews were conducted over VCs. Incidentally, Zoom has added more users this year than all of 2019!

2. With companies being forced to offer work from home options to staff, the demand for tech talent continued to remain strong to enable companies to go digital and allow remote working. This trend looks like it is here to stay, even after the seriousness of the virus abates

3. We noticed the Insurance Sector being particularly active with hiring. Also, there was an increase in Contracting roles which is usually the case when companies expect some sort of a slowdown in the macroeconomy

4. During late March, the panic stock sell-off in the markets made some companies rethink their hiring strategy. We observed some roles beginning to be put on hold. Whether the dark clouds prevailing over the macroeconomy will affect tech recruitment negatively is something we will know in the next couple of weeks or months

Finance Technology / Insurance sector

1. Python/Full Stack Developers were most sought after by the Investment Banks/Hedge funds. There was also some strong demand for C++ Automated Trading Systems developers 

2. We saw a spike in the number of contracting roles with Insurance Companies mainly in the Fullstack and Mobile Development as well as the BA/PM space  

3. Hiring for DevOps candidates has been strong across banks. Citi also plans to hire 2,500 coders this year. (This was before the virus) 

4. Digital Transformation-related hiring has continued to gain steam with a lot of leading Insurance companies looking for all kinds of development/project management related candidates. Interestingly, HK also saw the launch of its first Digital Bank. Grab is also looking at getting a Digital Banking license

High Tech Sector

1. The consultancy firms have been remodelling to embrace tech advisory services. Please see this news about KPMG 

2. According to KPMG, London is now the second biggest tech hub after Singapore. Interestingly, we also want to link to Kevin Ung’s article here on how Hong Kong can do more to foster more successful HK-startups 

Hope you found this information useful. Please do contact us should you need more information.

Best Regards, 

Vince Natteri, Managing Director

(on behalf of the Pinpoint Asia Recruitment Team)