1
O nce someone is successful it’s easy to think that they always were. But everybody starts off somewhere and falling down then getting back up again is part of any ambitious career path says Oliver Jelley, the head of a successful communications firm in the Midlands. “The biggest skill you can have is being able to take the knock-backs, because you will get loads of them. People won’t email you back or you’ll have a bad work experience week. Or you go for an interview and you don’t get the job. Or you’ll have a set back and somebody will tell you that you’re never going to make it. I’ve had thousands of them,” says Oliver as he begins to explain how he got to where he is today. Oliver’s professional journey started out at a local paper, following a Postgraduate course in Journalism in Edinburgh. From the beginning things did not run as smoothly as he would have liked – when looking for his first break as a reporter it turned out the postgraduate qualification Oliver had was not the one that employers were after: “My career start wasn’t the easiest because I went on the wrong course. Any newspaper worth their salt wants the right qualifications. That was a massive hindrance for me in the early days because I wasn’t getting jobs that other people at my level were.” But rather than give up he moved back home with his parents and started applying for work experience at every local paper he could. In 2004 the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph took him on for a week of work experience, and he ended up staying there for much longer than that. “I just did work experience and work experience until I got my break because my view was I was living from home so I could afford to work for free. “I just carried on going, I had to carry on going because I knew where I wanted to go. Eventually I got my first break when the editor offered me £150 a week to work for the paper and then I worked towards getting the qualifications I needed.” Oliver wanted to master his trade by working as a reporter, move into public relations to develop his expertise further and then he wanted to start his own business – and that’s exactly what he did. He worked at the Evening Telegraph for four years between 2004 and 2008, beginning as a Trainee Reporter and working his way up to a senior reporting role. Following this he made the move into communications where he worked for five years; working for NHS diabetes at first as a Communications Officer and eventually becoming a manager. Then following a brief stint with a London based public relations firm Oliver decided to bite the bullet and started up Orange Juice Communications, which he has run successfully ever since. Now he is joined by his business partner Daniel Owens, a former Newspaper Editor turned communications professional, and manages public relations and marketing strategies for multiple clients all over the UK. How I became a PR mastermind A career in public relations is becoming more and more desirable, Oliver Jelley told Jacob Jarvis how he got into the industry “The biggest skill you can have is being able to take the knock-backs.” Careers / 7 6 / Careers But although it appears Oliver’s career has constantly been on an upwards trajectory, as he mentioned previously he’s had to do his fair share of hard work along the way. Overcoming setbacks is never easy, but Oliver says he did this by always having a long term plan, rather than measuring his success day to day: “Always have that medium to long term view in your mind. I remember one of my friends who didn’t do any further education was telling me once that he was going to be a plasterer, no offence to any plasterers, but he was telling me that he would be earning 200 quid a week which when I was 16 sounded like a hell of a lot of money. Then there’s me stacking shelves at the local shop for £2.21 an hour and having to cycle half an hour for the privilege of earning that small amount. But I always had 20 years in my head. I’ve always thought like that and you need to think ahead with all of your career choices.” Having a plan allows you to look at the bigger picture, keeps you focussed in the long term and allows you to put things into perspective. A failure might seem like the end of the world, but it rarely is. The hard part about having long-term plans is sticking to them. It’s not just that it’s difficult, it’s scary too. You’ve got to have faith in yourself as well as in your plans: “You’ve got to be confident in what you want to do – not necessarily in your own ability, because sometimes you’re not quite right and you need chiselling. So if you go in and think you’re the best then that might not be the right attitude, because if you’re not quite honed enough with your skills you’re going to look arrogant and incompetent. But for me it’s about being confident in your ability to succeed rather than your skills,” Oliver says. This self-confidence certainly made him keep on track to achieving his goals. Ability is something that you can develop over time, a master doesn’t create a masterpiece on their first try. The things Oliver believes are most important aren’t job specific skills that you can pick up along the way, he says it’s your attitude that you really need to focus on: “A thick skin, willingness to learn and confidence in your ability – those three things for me are the recipe for success.” “You’ve got to be confident in what you want to do.” Oliver Jelley (right) with his business partner Daniel Owens Photo by Andrew Carpenter Oliver’s top tips for aspiring public relations pros Be creative, you’ll need tonnes of ideas Write sharply, cleanly and accurately Understand what makes a good story . .
