Despite employers' concerns, Chih said every year OOCL still hires about 50-60 percent of its IT staff locally. The company mainly hires staff straight from university and "we have a vigorous recruitment process with a 3-month probation."

"There's no single solution for employers to deal with these problems," said Lee. "At Towngas, we try to hire very carefully."

Assessment of a candidate is based on the four elements: skills, experience, professionalism and attitude, which Lee calls "SEPA." Meanwhile, reference-checking, testing and professional qualifications are often good practices.

For smaller IT operations like Stagg's IT consulting firm: "the one overriding criteria that I'm looking for from the candidate is being able to find things themselves and the ability to realize you have to do it."

He reminded students not to rely on university education for the necessary skills to develop a career within the industry.