Amy Zhu rising star at Jetstar

Amy Zhu’s flight path to success began with an internship at Jetstar as part of her MBA studies. Her work, which included identifying opportunities to boost passenger numbers on short holiday periods like the Queen’s Birthday and Melbourne Cup, clearly impressed. She’s now the low-cost airline’s Product Manager for Packaged Holidays.

“It’s a very exciting position in a brand new team in the company,” Amy says.

“For an airline to sell packaged holidays is very new in the market, but Jetstar has the advantage of offering the best deals on flights and connections with thousands of hotels. We need to build a platform that offers a pleasant booking experience and outstanding services from end to end.”

Amy is a truly global citizen. She first left China to complete high school in the UK and later gained a Master’s in international fashion retailing from Manchester University before joining the graduate program of major supermarket chain Tesco, who moved her back to China, where it has more than 100 stores.

After six years with Tesco, Amy jumped at the chance to join Nespresso China in 2014 because she couldn’t resist the challenge of launching a new product in a market growing at hypersonic speed.

“I could see that the growth opportunity was tremendous at Nespresso. It was such a young brand in the market and, I was reporting directly to the country manager, which gave me great autonomy to put my ideas forward and lead my department.”

Amy managed to double sales in around six months but began looking for a suitable MBA degree to challenge herself further and improve her management and leadership skills.

“I had lived in the UK and travelled around Europe but wanted to build connections in a different market. I knew Melbourne Business School is the best business school in Australia, and I wanted to go to the best. And the reputation of the faculty is outstanding,” she says.

Amy’s MBA experience “far exceeded” her expectations, she says, and her Jetstar internship was one of the highlights.

“It gave me an opportunity to apply what I had learnt in class to a real business and opened up a whole new horizon for me. I am very excited about transitioning my career from retail to aviation.”

Amy says the support of the Career Management Centre at MBS and its industry connections were “critical” in helping her get into Jetstar. But once there, she never looked back.

“When I was interviewed for my internship, I told them that I was looking for long-term career opportunities, and, I think, I proved what I could do through my project work. That gave me great references within the organisation when the job opportunity came up.”

And Jetstar couldn’t be happier. Gregorio Manzanera, Jetstar’s Cost Transformation Program Director, says Amy is an asset to the team.

“Amy is a quick learner, with excellent problem-solving skills. She worked on several important projects, in addition to helping us build short-holiday period capacity, such as the revamp of our Club Jetstar program,” Gregorio says.

“She’s an asset for Jetstar, and I know she will do well in her new role. Amy is a great ambassador for Melbourne Business School and the value the internship program can give an organisation.”

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