Alyssa Zhu

I would say my husband. We met very early on in college, and we grew together, and I found someone who basically will challenge me to always kind of dream bigger and think beyond just the immediate picture. I think that something that, you know, each step or each thing I've done really has kind of shaped how I view things and kind of led my ambition as well.

I would say maybe the best career advice I received was, I'm naturally pretty introverted, and I think I come into new situations not feeling super confident. And so one of my managers said to me, you know, we need to hear you speak up more. ... I started observing how other people, especially at like executive level, insert themselves into conversations, and make me kind of realize that, I think the best thing is, like, I need to know myself, my strengths, and feel super confident in what I uniquely bring to the table.

Take some time, always, to reflect on what you want to do and where you want to go. Because I think it's very easy, especially once you start working, to get lost in the day-to-day... I think being able to remember to take a step back and reflect is this where I want to be? Is this what I want to do? Like, where am I trying to get to? I think that kind of reflection is not always forgotten, but it's super important in developing and shaping your career to what you want it to be.

For me personally, like, in the specific role I'm in, TRIP is a very unique challenge, because it's a very global brand, but we're actually super small and not really known in our North America markets... Trying to figure out how do we break into a very mature industry where there's very high customer expectations... And then you add on to that, obviously, AI and how that is changing everything, whether it's the customer journey... figuring out things as things are changing, in an already very complicated environment, which is challenging, but a very kind of exciting place to be in.

I think for me, like, in my career, what I've been kind of chasing something that kind of what I mentioned, like, during my achievement is, like, sometimes it feels I feel personally invested. Like, a career that I feel not just career, anything I do, it feels personally invested in, can feel a lot of ownership of, and something that excites me to do. ... every kind of company move I've made, or every role switch role change I've kind of done is really trying to get to and figure out, like, what excites me every day, and how can I, like, leverage my strengths to make a difference.