Bruce Cheng

Country of origin: Hong Kong

Placement: The Hong Kong Cricket Club

I chose to take a placement year as it was important to me to gain the experience of a full time employee before graduation. I hoped that the placement would allow me to learn more about myself, both my strengths and weaknesses, and that it would clarify in my mind the career path I wished to pursue post graduation.

In my role at Hong Kong Cricket Club I conducted most of the daily operations of a human resources officer including; applications of sick leave, employee compensation and the organisation of full staff events including the annual party and staff outings. I was also responsible for drafting staff memos and translating text from English to Chinese.

The placement experience has given me the opportunity to learn things that you cannot learn from a textbook or at school. Life experience such as day to day communication with my colleagues, office politics or even just typing a formal email were all very useful. People often lose sight of these basic skills but my placement reminded me that the fundamental techniques are the key of success.

I made a lot of new friends while on my placement year, not only people who are of a similar age to me but also those who are older and more  experienced than me. I really participating in conversations with these more senior colleagues as they were always happy to share their own experiences and provide advice on what I could learn and develop.

When I started this placement I never expected that Human Resources would be an area which I would live to pursue a graduate career, however, now I have completed the placement I realised that this is an area that I am very interested in and I would like to re-join HR once I graduate. The most important thing when looking for a job role in HR is experience and now the skills and knowledge I have gained through the placement year have provided me with this essential experience. I am now also able to answer the question “What is Human Resources?” which was something that did previously confuse me.