Career Prospects

Career Prospects

Hong Kong, as a knowledge-based economy, has a great demand for workers with broad analytical skills and a capacity for conceptualization and logical thinking. Sociology, as a liberal arts discipline, places great emphasis on the critical acquisition and application of such transferrable skills as problem identification, argument formulation, evidence gathering, analytical logic, teamwork, and communication ability.

Graduates in Sociology will also acquire sociological insights into the structures and functions of society at the macro level, and the interpersonal relations in social institutions and groups at the micro level. These skills make our graduates uniquely suited for a wide variety of professional careers in commerce/business, education, and community/social services (Figure 1 below). The job nature of our graduates' employment shows great diversity, ranging from scientific and research work to merchandising and purchasing (Figure 2 below).

Particularly, the intensive training in analytical thinking, critical understanding of human behavior, and practical research skills has made our graduates favorable candidates for jobs related to administration/management and marketing/sales. Our graduates of the China Studies (Sociology Option) program also have a competitive edge in jobs related to the Chinese Mainland because of their fluency in Putonghua and first-hand experience with the Chinese Mainland (partly through the summer sojourn and honors project).

Further Study

The intensive training in theoretical knowledge and practical research skills offered by our Department has made our graduates favorable recruits to postgraduate programs of both local and overseas universities. In the past few years, our graduates, when they proceeded to further studies, mostly chose to purse a higher degree in sociology or related disciplines, such as public administration and psychology, or certificate programs in education which provide teachers' training in liberal studies.