Connecting students with alumni: A career story with Penny Zhan

Alumna, Penny (Peici) Zhan (International Business and Marketing, 2020) returned to the Business School this week to share her career journey with students.

Penny sat down with students over pizza to chat about her time at Leeds, her career journey to date, and setting up her current business. Penny has worked in multiple fields such as higher education, cosmetics, real estate and hospitality with international clients and has now started her own business, C Opportunity, helping brands to reach more customers through Chinese social media marketing.

Penny offered advice on improving your CV, interviewing performance, building connections, starting your own business, becoming a blogger, and building confidence. One of Penny’s biggest recommendations was for students to make use of their time at Leeds by getting involved with societies to develop their skills and push themselves out of their comfort zone.

Penny had some pivotal advice for students based on her experiences:

If you know you aren’t good at something, go master it.
If you’re not sure about something that you’re interested in, go try it.
If you don’t think you can do something, take a baby-step towards it.

The discussion was part of the Business School’s ‘Lunch with alumni’ event series which sees graduates and students coming together to discuss career paths, the road to employment and development in industry. 

If you are interested in getting involved with future events, please get in touch at alumni@lubs.leeds.ac.uk.