Hi, I'm Jolly Zhou. I'm a job interviews expert with a human-centered approach. She has lived and worked in the US, UK and Australia. I was crushed. Nope. At J.P.
I train students from around the world on how to get a real advantage in today's crazy-competitive job market without fear, doubt or sounding like a robot. Jolly has helped people earn their place in top firms such as Eaton, SAP, Apple and Uber. She holds a business degree from New York University.
Born in China and growing up in the U.S., I focused mostly on academics: studying, doing homework and testing well (perfect scores, etc.). Now I realize this was a BIG mistake. In high school, I started to interview for colleges. My first college interview ever was a DISASTER. The alumnus interviewing me didn't give me any hard questions, yet I managed to sound very nervous and was not prepared at all. So, despite my wonderful academic and testing scores, I did not get into this university. I quickly began to see that in the Western world, academic success is not enough. It may open doors, but it doesn't leave them open. Social skills and cultural fluency were not just important, they were critical. So much depended on how a) you present yourself and b) communicate with others. In high school, no one taught me this -- not parents, not teachers, and I learned the hard way. Thankfully, I was still early in life when I realized this. Later, I studied as an Honors student at New York University's business school. But out of all the classes I took, the one I truly believe contributed the most to my earning power later was NOT finance, accounting or marketing. It was a class called Organization Communications (we called it "org com") -- literally it was about how to speak, present, listen and write well in business. (Thanks Professor Schenkler!)
To this day, I still refer back to this class as the single most important class for my career. After several internships, I started my full-time career in J.P. Morgan’s New York office where I worked directly with bankers, HR/recruiting, communications and marketing teams. Morgan, I was promoted twice within 7 years, and my last role there was Vice President in marketing for the corporate bank. I had a global role and worked from London. In 2013 I changed careers into UX (user experience) design and started my own consulting business for international tech startups based in Berlin, London and New York. I didn't have a lot of industry knowledge, but I had other skills. Namely: soft skills. Isn't it funny that "soft skills" are those that bring in HARD cash? Hmm...
Anyway, at that time, I had limited experience in UX, but how I marketed myself often made me more attractive to clients than people with more experience on their resumes. Today, my home is in Sydney, Australia, where I recently worked as a service designer at AMP, one of Australia’s leading financial services firms. When I interview, I win. In my life, I've progressed after each job interview (moving to the next round or securing the offer) except for two (I am honest!) A lot of it was social observation, doing actual scientific research...and practice, practice, practice. My personal, real-life lessons on how the system works led to founding A+ Interviews. I know from first-hand experience that emotional intelligence and communication skills at work contributes 100% to your earning potential and simply gives you more options in life. More fulfilling jobs, better salaries, stronger relationships, better lifestyle, you name it. When a friend whom I had coached received her latest job offer from a major tech company (with a nice salary bump), she suggested I do this for more people. I decided it was a great idea, and that’s how A+ Interviews was born and continues to grow every day.
