Alumni Story | Mengda Zhou: Choosing his path in life and exploring it deeper

After this internship,?Mengda realised his shortcomings and wanted to improve his skills.?With his subsequent internship at Deloitte, he was able to?greatly improve while working on?projects with real-world impact. He also clearly?understood?how a firm like Deloitte?operates,?with their success?rooted in?developing?professional workplace awareness and?the?control of detail?and?processes.

What?Mengda?wanted was to be clear about the direction he was going to take to go deeper, not only in terms of recognising what the job entailed,?but also in terms of?evaluating how each?job would fit into a wider lifelong career.?¡°Your focus should never be solely on work,?rather you need to also look at your career and the bigger picture,¡± he said.

¡°I have seen so many build their careers in this area based purely on the passion their have for their work, the people and the products. So many who are driven to continuously enhance the knowledge and abilities required to thrive in this fast-paced industry.¡±

Mengda¡¯s current?data marketing?work?at Unilever?is not limited?to?online or offline channels.?For success in FMCG he recommends developing a deeper awareness of the industry as a whole, and using this?awareness?as a foundation for further improvement.

¡°When going to an offline supermarket, for example, people in the FMCG industry will notice things differently than others when they remove themselves from?the ¡°shopping?experience¡±. We?look at whether the product is displayed in?an easy to reach location for?consumers,?observe?consumers¡¯?behaviours?and product interactions,?and consider?product distribution?and?consumption rates. When shopping online, we open the interface of platforms like Taobao and subconsciously browse which brands?feature prominently?in?ads.¡±

When answering the question of?¡°What kind of people are?well-suited?for work in?FMCG,?particularly?students?¡±,?Mengda feels that?suitability is not the issue, and said that?there exists only the question of whether you are interested in delving deeper. He strongly recommends carefully choosing each step in your career, regardless of industry,?and never losing sight of your enthusiasm for the work you do.?This is the?philosophy?Mengda?will continue to cultivate?moving forward.