A podcast that tells the story of successful people in the world of media, and their route to the very top.
Episode 09: Des Kelly
In this episode, we welcome along the one-and-only Des Kelly, Chief Reporter and interviewer for BT Sport.
Award-winning columnist; national newspaper editor; radio presenter; TV presenter - it’s fair to say that Des has had one hell of a career. As we’ll hear, Des’ stellar career in the media wasn’t a given - growing up in south London, he originally thought that he would become a teacher.
But after an introduction to a local newspaper when at University, Des soon realised that journalism was to be his true calling in life. Des’ career has gone from strength to strength and he freely admits that he never had a plan. He just said yes to opportunities that excited him.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
My thoughts on the episode
1. Whilst in school, Des said he had a few ideas that interested him like music and possibly teaching but for while he no idea what he wanted to do. I am glad he brought this up because I think this something that many of us will find relatable. Sometimes it just takes time to figure out what you enjoy and that’s OK.
2. When Des went to university in the 80s there wasn’t media studies or broadcasting degrees like there are now. Instead, Des studied English as a degree. This shows how courses and degrees for media careers have changed and developed through the decades and how media careers have grown and developed through the courses available.
3. One thing I really liked that Des said was all the jobs he had linked to sports from working for a newspaper to radio, and TV, he said, was his “dream job”. I thought this showed how much of a passion he had for sports journalism and he also expressed how grateful and thankful he was for all the opportunities he had. This shows a great deal of humility but also gratitude for his career. Celebrating your career no matter where your career goes is important because sometimes we get so busy working we can sometimes forgot to do this.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Des Kelly is an award winning journalist and sports broadcaster and currently works for BT Sport. Des did a degree linked to English not media. Within the episode itself he went on to explain how he branched into journalism. The opportunity for him to gain experience whilst in the third year of his degree allowed him to be offered a job role at a local newspaper which he later took up after his degree. From there he went into Sports Journalism writing for The Sunday Express and later for The Daily Mail as well as being a sports editor for Daily Mirror. Des then went on to have a career in radio where he worked for TalkSport, as well as shows like the BBC Radio show “fighting talk” and on TV for Inside Sport.
If you are interested in a career like Des, a degree in Media could help with this or journalism. If you want to concentrate solely on sports journalism you can even do a specific degree just about this below.
See some examples of degree formats linked to this episode can be seen below.
1. Sports journalism degree examples. University of Lincoln - link here.
Another example for a BA Degree in sports journalism is a Leeds Trinity university you can find out more about this here.
2. There are also a lot of different types of careers linked to careers broadcasting and so if you wanted to find out more about these careers link sound technician, research etc. The University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) has a great link here with more information about this here.
3. You can also explore an array of information about the UCFB here especially if you are interested in Football and Sports Journalism in general here - https://www.ucfb.ac.uk/
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness Podcast. I have over 170 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links
Apple podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-career-happiness-podcast/id1450116167
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/536VSCYGO0mFQxDofZFVQz?si=11395d58344c41f5
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Des that could help you are:
1. Episode 59 – What is your definition of success?
2. Episode 98 – Why Careers advice is important in schools?
3. Episode 165- Does my child need to see a careers adviser?
Episode 08: Iyare Igiehon
In this episode, we welcome along Iyare Igiehon, an experienced broadcaster at the BBC with a load more experience under his belt to boot. We had a fascinating chat and it shows that behind all that success, often comes a hell of alot of grind.
Talking to Iyare, it’s obvious that music is his first love, and this passion has propelled him in his career from day 1. Long before hitting the heights of presenting early breakfast on national radio, Iyare cut his teeth as a music student in Yorkshire, before coming back to London and getting his hands dirty working for various music start-ups who were looking to make a profit in an ever-changing industry landscape.
As we’ll hear, Iyare spotted an opportunity as someone who could bring his love of music to the masses, and with a lot of hard work, hustle, and talent, eventually becoming one of the main voices on the then brand new radio station, BBC 1Xtra. He took another opportunity, setting up a radio production company, before presenting the weekend breakfast shows on BBC 6 Music, and becoming an invaluable member of another institution, the BFI.
Iyare’s journey has gone full circle. He’s now back at the BBC but this time, his role encompasses his talent for inclusion.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
Iyare is a diversity and inclusion chair for the BBC. He gave some interesting insights in the episode that I feel listener would benefit from.
1. Money vs Passion – There were some ups and downs throughout Iyare’s career journey. In the they type of career he has pursued he has had passion for it. However there were times that money was sparse or came more at certain times. So it was interesting to hear the whole money vs passion debate in the episode. As this something that can come in creative careers.
2. Portfolio working – Iyare spoke about how he worked in retail whilst still working in media and in some ways this portfolio career helped him have a steady income and pay his mortgage and bills. This is a very realistic way of approaching a career you want whilst being financial stable.
3. Trying different things – From trying a career within music to radio and later on working with diversity and inclusion. Iyare has not been afraid to try different things in his media career and that means he has kept learning. As well as have a career that’s developed into something else.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Iyare went to college and did a degree in pop music at Bretton Hall College which is also affiliated to Leeds University. Iyare gained a 1st in his degree and has worked within music, radio, film and now at the BBC.
Iyare hasn’t been afraid to try different things and has created a career around his love of music into radio presenting and now Diversity and inclusion. The key value he spoke about on podcast was helping people. This is something very important to him but he feels he has inherited this from his parents.
Iyare spoke about the realism of his media career journey and how he has worked in more than one job at a time and also said yes to opportunities that he felt aligned to his passion surrounding film and music.
Iyare mentioned he hasn’t got a qualification linked to Diversity and inclusion but his experience and working to support filmmakers at the BFI helped him to get work linked to this which helped lead to his later role at BFI and then at the BBC as a D+I partner.
In you are interested in the kind of career Iyare has you could do the following:
1. A degree in music or radio presenting at university or a degree linked to D+I (diversity and inclusion)
2. An apprenticeship linked to music or Radio
3. Gain work experience y doing placements
Some of the degree courses that may be useful are as follows
Music degree information please see links here:
1. https://www.ucas.com/explore/subjects/music
2. https://www.lccm.org.uk/courses/
3. https://www.rncm.ac.uk/study-here/what-you-can-study/undergraduate/bachelor-of-music-popular-music/
If you are interested in finding out more about careers linked to music see link here.
Radio presenting courses and information about how to train:
1. https://www.beds.ac.uk/howtoapply/courses/undergraduate/next-year/radio-and-audio/
2. https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/broadcast-presenter
Diversity and inclusion courses
1. You can do a degree course in a subject like Law, Business or Psychology and then a masters in diversity and inclusion some examples of see this below:
Apprenticeships
If you are interested in a career in radio and want to do an apprenticeship linked to this you may find this link useful - https://www.bestapprenticeships.com/radio-apprenticeships/
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness Podcast. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links
Apple podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-career-happiness-podcast/id1450116167
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/536VSCYGO0mFQxDofZFVQz?si=11395d58344c41f5
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Iyare that could help you are:
1. Episode 12 - Why it's never too late to find a career you love (Interview with Sonal Dave)
2. Episode 39 - How to talk about diversity and inclusion in the workplace (Interview with Oris Ikomi)
3. Episode 49 - How to recover from redundancy and move on
4. Episode 69 - Why Failure can help motivate you with your career
5. Episode 154 - Is having a career in Performing Arts realistic
Episode 07: Jess Rudkin
In this episode, we welcome the editor of BBC Radio Bristol, Jess Rudkin and we talk about how her rise to managing one the UK’s biggest regional radio stations wasn’t exactly written in the stars.
Local radio - especially local BBC Radio - is often seen as a bastion of quality journalism, providing a service essential to millions across the country. Jess Rudkin has been responsible for shaping that reputation, not only in Bristol, but in several local BBC stations across the country.
As we’ll hear, Jess was spotted as a natural leader from early on, and despite initially setting her sights on written journalism, went on to become an outstanding journalist on the airwaves, before shaping radio programmes as a producer, and ultimately, going on to become a station editor.
Jess is a prime example of an entrepreneur who gets her ideas heard within the BBC, which isn’t always easy to do. Her innovation, management skills, and clarity of thought have all contributed to her success, and will no doubt continue to help her within the BBC and beyond.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
1. Jess had a clear vision for her future career of journalism but learnt that radio is what she really wanted to do whilst doing her postgrad, which shows how things can change as you learn more about an area you want to work in and learn about yourself.
2. A few times in the episode, Jess mentioned the theme of having a good work and life attitude and why it’s so important in your career and whilst applying to jobs. I definitely think this a key thing to remember but also having an good attitude at work can help your career later on too.
3. Jess has taken some risks in her career but she feels these risks have challenged her and sometimes some risks can pay off. This was evident whilst she talked about BBC upload and how it panned out.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Jess went to Bristol University where she studied English and Philosophy. Jess was always interested in journalism from a young age and knew after a degree that she wanted to do a postgraduate in Journalism. Jess did her postgrad diploma at Cardiff University. It was during her postgrad she realised that she was interested in Radio. After the postgrad she went on to work at BBC Radio Somerset and worked her way up within this role. As well as working at BBC Radio Bristol where she become an executive editor there.
Jess knew what she wanted from a young age but actually made sure she was practical about her career journey. Picking a degree and postgrad course she knew she wanted to do. Whilst doing her degree she worked for the school newspaper and was the editor there.
Jess also took two gap years: one before her degree and one after her degree. It’s said that gap years are great learning opportunities and this is something that no doubt although not linked to her career in journalism can be helpful for learning about yourself and communicating with others.
If you are interested in a career within Broadcast Journalism like Jess, there a few things you can do:
1. Do a degree in a course, like Jess did. Sometimes some universities and schemes do prefer degrees in the following subjects: Business, Economics, Journalism, Politics etc.
2. Then apply for a postgraduate or masters degree course in Journalism - there are now specialised journalism courses in sports and investigate reporting.
If you are interested in the course that Jess did at Cardiff you can look at the degree page, however they now only offer this as a MA course now see the link here.
If you want to look at other postgraduate courses in broadcast journalism you can see this link here as an alternative example - this course is actually a combination of a postgrad and a MA.
Jess did mention the differences between the Postgrad route vs Masters route briefly in this episode. If you want to find out more about the differences see links here for further reference
Masters degree - link here.
Postgraduate degree - link here.
The main difference between a Masters degree and postgrad is that a Master’s degree tends to be more theory based whilst a postgrad is theory and practical based and includes placements and training. A postgraduate course also prepares you for a particular vocation and helps you be more employable and job ready.
If you want to find some other examples of postgraduate courses see link here for some further examples.
You can also apply for journalism graduate schemes after your degree if you would prefer to not do a postgraduate or masters course please see link here for further information.
The BBC also has apprenticeships in journalism that you can apply for see link here for further information.
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness Podcast. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links:
Apple podcasts - link here.
Spotify - link here.
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Jess that could help you are:
1. Episode 85 - What makes a good manager vs a good leader and how this links in with career happiness
2. Episode 97 Should I go to university or not?
3. Episode 112 - Being liked vs being respected in the workplace
4. Episode 128 - How to be Agile in your career with Marti Konstant
5. Episode 158 - Career confusion in your 20s and 30s and how to tackle this with Alana Kilmartin
Episode 06: James Longman
In this episode, we welcome a superstar in the world of television, James Longman, who until recently, guided the Late Late Show with James Cordon to become one of the most popular TV shows on the planet.
We’ve all heard of CarPool Kareoke, right? It’s an amazing format where James Cordon interviews stars - usually pop stars - in his car under the premise that he’s driving them to work and they sing along. Really fun. But that format came out of the brain of the producers of The Late Late Show with James Cordon, in which James Longman played a significant role.
As you’ll hear, long before James set out his stall in LA exec producing global superstars, like Tom Cruise, Kerry Washington, Natalie Portman, John Legend, Paul McCartney - the list goes on and on and on and on - James followed his passion for old films and media, beginning his career as a runner on a show called the Ozone after finishing a media course at Sunderland University.
James then went on to work at MTV, working his way up from work experience to leading large productions with some of the biggest presenters and bands in the world. As the years progressed, James realised that he thrived working in comedy based shows, and his road to the heights of The Late Late Show was set.
James admits that he’s most comfortable behind the camera and a lot of his early success was down to luck because he lived in London.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
James’s career as a producer started in British UK shows like the Extra Factor, Friday Night Project and now more recently in the US, The Late Late show with James Cordon. James is a Bafta and Emmy award-winning TV Producer and has worked in TV since the late 1990s and has over 20 years of experience working in the TV and media industry.
There were some really humbling and wise things that James shared in his great conversation with David.
These are some key things he said that will inspire the Something in media podcast listeners:
1. Working hard and showing real passion for what you do. Hard work seems to be a huge motivation for James and this is properly something that’s helped him in the long run later on. James had an avid passion for TV and working on comedy shows and was willing to take risks. When he spoke about moving to LA and trying different things, he knew this risk would change his career for the long run as he would get a chance to work on American television.
2. Being a self-starter and learning different skills whilst on the job. When James worked at MTV, he continued to have a can-do attitude and if you want a practical career like he has this is really important. There were times in this role he needed to juggle lots of plates. If you want a career in TV this could help you be seen and not just heard.
3. James said he properly has some level of Imposter syndrome even though he has achieved so much it was interesting to hear how humble he was. This is really eye opening because imposter syndrome can affect anyone, even award-winning and successful people. So no matter what you can achieve you still may feel it and I think this showed his humility as a person.
4. Making mistakes teaches you important career lessons. James spoke about this when referring to making certain shows that didn’t align with his value set and he didn’t enjoy working on as much. This helped him realise he preferred producing shows that were funny and showcased comedy, entertainment and making people laugh, etc.
Careers advice that could help listeners
James went to Sunderland University and did a degree in Media and Communications. James used his experience at university to apply for roles in TV after his degree. James got a lot of work experience working for the BBC and being an intern for MTV. Where he shortly got a role as researcher. James later started working as producer for shows that were on ITV and Channel 4.
James worked hard and worked his way up as well as asking for opportunities and showcasing his abilities. One thing he said in the podcast is that listeners could benefit from is “being a one man band”. This shows that he learnt on the job rather than waiting for someone to teach him everything. This is an important skill and shows tenacity which properly facilitated him to get the opportunities he did later on.
The degree James did in Media and communications at Sunderland is now called a Media, Culture and Communication degree (see link here to find out more).
If you want to get more practical hands on experience after doing a degree related to media you could also consider doing a postgraduate masters in media production see link here for more information about this course (see link here). The advantage of doing a course like this means you get on hands on experience and are also able to create your own tv and film projects with industry experts. These courses are structured to make you more employer ready too.
Work experience is vital so if you want the practical experience which is really crucial in working in TV apply for as many opportunities as you can. Do this by emailing TV studios and applying for TV and Media related internships. See link here from the University of Sussex who have put together some places where you can apply for such opportunities.
TV study courses vs learning on the job – although James did a media related degree, and this is important, he did mention that him learning on the job organically was crucial to him learning about the industry. If you are practical person who wants hands on experience an apprenticeship or getting work experience is vital. Being in the TV industry and becoming a producer, James described himself as a “problem solver”, especially on the Late Late show.
Leadership skills are also needed as executive producer and it appears like James adapted his communication style whilst dealing with celebrities and others he worked with. This is a key skill that he learnt before he became an executive producer. In fact, he explained how, when he was a series producer, he learnt to be a comfort blanket who was also a soundboard any problems and tried to resolve them calmly.
TV production is also a very vast area. James’s experience as TV producer has been really varied he mentions he was a series producer and later executive producer there are some differences. I also found some great careers advice links and go into some more detail about this see links below.
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/what-does-television-producer-do
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-become-a-producer
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-become-an-executive-producer
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/executive-producer-vs-producer
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness Podcast. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links
Apple Podcasts link here
Spotify link here
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with James that could help you are:
1. Episode 55 – 3 ways to communicate better with your colleagues
2. Episode 60 – Why we need to find work we love and figure out what it means to us (interview with Tom Morin)
3. Episode 85 – What makes a good manager vs a good leader and how this links with carer happiness
4. Episode 103 - Working hard vs working smart what's real answer to working culture
5. Episode 112 – Being liked vs being respected in the workplace
Episode 05: Dave Vitty
In this episode, we welcome a legendary figure in British radio history, Dave Vitty aka Comedy Dave, as we talk about how his determination got him to the very epicentre of the British entertainment industry.
As you’ll hear, Dave didn’t exactly have a burning desire to be on the radio, but he knew that he wanted to pursue something in an industry that he enjoyed, and for him, that was in radio. Working hard, he eventually found himself with a foot in the door at the BBC and a chance encounter with an up-and-coming presenter called Chris Moyles led to national fame and place in radio infamy being on-mic to millions of listeners every day.
Since those hedonistic days, Dave has since gone back behind the mic and is maintaining his creativity carving out opportunities for others.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
Dave’s has previously worked for BBC Radio 1 for the Chris Moyles radio show. Also known as “Comedy Dave”. Dave is now in Podcast production for Content Works and also worked as a celebrity talent consultant.
The main things that really caught my attention from this conversation were:
1. Work ethic and realism when it comes to working in radio. The working hours in radio are not like a conventical 9-5 job. In radio you need to work different shifts like very early in the morning 3am etc or late at night. So if you interested in a career like this is important to think about.
2. Rejection and dealing with this in a career in radio is something which happened right at the beginning of Dave’s career this taught him a lot and he said. “It keeps you grounded and you appreciate what you have got”. This is a really great attitude and something where resilience plays a part in a media and radio career. I think this will also help listeners who are interested in this career realise that even people who do great work have faced this too.
3. Dave was influenced by a lot of BBC radio presenters like Simon Mayo, Steve Wright, Chris Evans etc. This shows that’s his avid interest in radio and later wanting to specialise in it in the 2nd year of his degree meant he developed his career into what he was interested in. A key theme of this podcast from all guests so far is many of are doing what they enjoy and love to do.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Dave did want to study media at university and did apply for courses at Nottingham, Manchester, Bradford etc but wasn’t accepted there. This didn’t stop him from pursuing studying media though. Dave did his degree at college and not at university this is something some colleges can still offer today and is definitely worth considering if you still want to do a degree later on but don’t get the grades straight away so don’t dismiss this.
Also the college he went to, North Cheshire, was affiliated with Manchester University. You can find out more about this at this link as it encourages Higher education students to look beyond this (link here).
There are less colleges that offer this now and it’s advisable if you go to college you do a level 3 course and apply for a local university if you want to stay nearby as not all colleges provide this nowadays.
Dave did a BA in Media studies and Business management course and you could do this after a Level 3 course in media production (see example here).
Or if you don’t have the any qualifications after you leave school you can do and access course (see example here).
An example of a similar degree course to the one Dave did, if you are interested in his course - here is one I found at Keele University (link here).
You can also look at media apprenticeships if you don’t want to go to university after college or school (such as the Global Academy, link here).
Dave networked and forged relationships at the BBC radio and this helped him be seen and known by others. Dave had a key contact that helped and encouraged him to apply for a role which he didn’t get but after that he did a role later for tech operations at BBC Radio. Building key relationships to have a thriving career in media is a key theme that has also come out of other episodes too.
So if you really want a career like this work on building key relationships and network.
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast, The Career Happiness Podcast. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links
Apple podcasts (link here)
Spotify (link here)
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Dave that could help you are:
1. Episode 63 – Why resilience is important in your career
2. Episode 69 – Why failure can help motivate your career
3. Episode 118 – Why being ambitious isn’t a bad thing
4. Episode 141 - Why college is still an option that many are still not considering enough?
5. Episode 162 - What is a degree and how does it compare to an degree apprenticeship?
Episode 04: Jamie Morton
In this episode, we welcome writer and podcast sensation Jamie Morton onto the show, as we talk about how he turned his love of performance into his super-power, and how creating the world’s most successful podcast is only the start.
As you’ll hear, Jamie didn’t listen much to the naysayers at school, and he found his passion for storytelling early on. Encouraged by his parents, Jamie cut his teeth creating student television at Leeds University, before hitting some bumps in the road, facing the realities of a life lived in London, working for an internet TV series, that was way before its time, and being sent on jobs that were barely paying him enough to survive.
However, despite those years of hardship, Jamie persisted and created a hit podcast with many millions of listeners around the world. According to Jamie, it’s all about timing, and there’s plenty more projects in the pipeline.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
Jamie has had a really interesting and unique career linked to Media. Widely being known for this award winning and popular podcast “My Dad Wrote a Porno”. As well as being a producer and writer.
Some of the key things that came up during this episode that were really insightful were:
1. Creating an Unorthodox career and not being afraid to create and try different things so you can have the type of career or freelance job you really want.
2. Having a creative outlet can help your career later on especially early on when you are in school or an college, university etc.
3. Understanding that any hurdles that you have are part of your career journey and can actually help you to create the career you are really striving for.
4. Being happy for others including friends in the industry and celebrating their success along with yours rather than competing with them. Something that can happen a lot in any industry.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Jamie went to university and choose a degree based on the key element of the degree offering him access to a university TV station something that really gauged his interest. The degree he studied was Photography and Cinema. Jamie was encouraged by his family to do things differently and this is a really great way of allowing someone to explore their career rather then be rigid with their career options.
Jamie used his experiences of working in different roles and also being a freelancer to help him realise he should create the type of work he really wanted to do. Including creating a podcast that helped his career in different ways. Jamie has a portfolio career where he does a number of different things.
Jamie did things in his own way and thus the careers advice I give here will be a bit different to other episodes. Because I feel it’s important that when you listen to this episode you can create a career on your terms like he has.
1. Explore your creative outlet and think about what it is. Make sure you have something for yourself that’s not just about your future career. For example going to an acting class, playing sports anything that will help you switch off. By Jamie working in theatres at a young age he worked on his creativity and this helped him understand he wanted to tell stories. For example, if you enjoy cooking in your spare time think about going to cookery classes or doing a short course etc. Take time to reflect on what your enjoy and think about how it can relate to creative career or career in media if this something you are interested in.
2. I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all approach to Jamie’s type of career. He studied Photography and Cinema degree this is now known as Film, cinematics, and photography and there are many courses linked to this.
If you want to find out more about this are go to the link here.
For courses and universities offering this go to the link here.
If you want to find out some of key components of a course like this see link to Wrexham Glyndwr University who have a great course and break down what you study over the 3 years - link here.
You can also study other courses like creative writing or film and tv production etc. see examples of some of these degree course here.
Creative writing degree example - link
Film and TV production degree example - link
3. A portfolio career and freelancer career. If you are interested in a career in Media. Like Jamie mentioned in this episode you may need to make a decision between being self employed vs working for a company. If you work for companies you can then work freelance and establish yourself and do a variety of things over time. This only comes with time, hard work and some career setbacks and lessons like Jamie mentioned that actually helped nurture his career.
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness Podcast. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links
Apple podcasts // link //
Spotify // link //
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Jamie that could help you are:
1. Episode 16 – How to build a portfolio career (interview with Nicky Raby)
2. Episode 21 – Should you have a portfolio career
3. Episode 47 – How to deal with career setbacks
4. Episode 89 – Why career happiness is a journey
5. Episode 91 – Why being different in your career is your superpower
Episode 03: Paul Taylor
In this episode, how film and TV director Paul Taylor went from persuading his mum to take him to commercial shoots in the countryside in northern England, to a script writer who had Hollywood knocking at the door.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
Paul’s career is based around his interest in Media and Film. Working as a TV runner to being a TV director and also directing. As well as producing and writing his own films of which have earned him praise as a Bafta nominated director.
Some the key things Paul talked about that were interesting, linked to his career were:
1. Getting key experience in the Media industry because he knew he wanted a career in this industry.
2. Building key relationships with people and building his work credibility this helped him get noticed and be recommended for other jobs and develop in his career.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Paul didn’t choose to go to university just because his friend and peers were. This is a key thing when thinking about your career planning, because if you know a degree isn’t for you don’t go. Paul leveraged his interest in a creative career instead working within Media because that’s the space he knew he really wanted to be in. Paul gained practical experience working within Media and Television and developed this over time.
Anyone interested in the work he does could investigate doing an BTEC level 2/3 in media and building their own experience through that too. To find out more about this please see links here for a level 2 course https://www.westking.ac.uk/course-detail/creative-media-production-level-2-diploma/11001/ and level 3 here - https://www.candi.ac.uk/course-detail/creative-media-production-level-3-extended-diploma/10714/
Of course you can also do a degree related to this too or a degree apprenticeship. See some links here for further information and example as there are a variety of courses: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/ug-film-and-screen-studies-media-communications/
For more information about degree apprenticeships:
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice, please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness Podcast. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links
Apple podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-career-happiness-podcast/id1450116167
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/536VSCYGO0mFQxDofZFVQz?si=11395d58344c41f5
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Paul that could help you are:
1. Episode 97 Should I go to university or not?
2. Episode 154 - Is having a career in Performing Arts realistic.
Episode 02: Michelle Ackerely
In this episode, we welcome presenter Michelle Ackereley as we talk about her journey growing up in the northwest of England and fighting stereotypes, to fronting some of the nation’s most loved television and radio programmes.
As you’ll hear, Michelle is one determined person, and from an early age, Michelle didn’t have the easiest of rides, fighting off some major insecurities and unsettled family life. But she knew what she wanted to do and she achieved her ambitions to eventually flourish in front of the camera and become one of the UK’s best known television presenters.
Today, Michelle is a well-known television and radio star, and in the episode, you’ll hear that’s all down to her hard work, perseverance and shining personality. Naturally, she had to start somewhere. And for Michelle, that was in Manchester.
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
I loved how honest and humble Michelle was about her career and how it panned out. Michelle has a degree in Psychology and went on to work in media which shows how diverse this degree can be. Michelle got her start by getting work experience at BBC Manchester whilst at Manchester University and doing a work placement there. This was 4 week unpaid placement. Whilst in her 3rd year of her degree. Michelle worked as a runner and in production before she became a presenter. Firstly working in Children’s TV to presenting on the One Show, Panaroma, Crimewatch etc.
Some of the great bits of advice she gave were:
1. Understanding the media industry and TV industry so that you can be specific about what you want to do.
2. The highs and lows in a media career and talking about resilience of being rejected but not letting this hold you back.
3. Being open to emailing and contacting people in senior positions and getting the work experience that you want.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Michelle went to university and although a Psychology degree may not seem like an obvious choice for the career she is in. It seems like the skills from her degree helped her to know that she wanted to work with people, and the experience she gained along the way helped her develop and have a career in broadcasting. Michelle got vital experience and worked behind the scenes in TV and then gained experience as a presenter.
If you are interested in a career in Media and presenting like Michelle has some of the things that could help you are
1. BTEC in media level 2 and 3 - immediately after your GCSEs, you can pursue this route if you don’t want to go to university. To see some examples of what this course looks like see links here for a level 2 example https://www.lsec.ac.uk/courses/art-design/240-level-2/1482-media-level-2-extended-certificate and a level 3 example https://www.lsec.ac.uk/courses/art-design/240-level-2/1482-media-level-2-extended-certificate.
If you choose to do this route you can sometimes do an extended diploma in media, however sometimes a level 3 can be enough to help you go to university if you want to go. This qualification can also be a great stepping stone for you to then go and get experience in the industry too.
2. Degree route – If you wanted to do a degree route there are a few degrees that may be helpful to going into media and broadcasting. However, it’s not something that you always need to have. Some examples of this are a BA in Journalism, Television and Radio production, Media production, Media or communications. Some examples of degrees that you may find interesting see links here:
https://www.salford.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/television-and-radio-production
https://www.brighton.ac.uk/courses/study/media-production-ba-hons.aspx
https://www.city.ac.uk/prospective-students/courses/postgraduate/broadcast-journalism
3. Apprenticeships – Apprenticeships are something that you can only apply for at certain times of the year usually at the beginning of the year between January- March. Broadcasters BBC, ITV and Channel 4 etc all have apprenticeships. Found out more here: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/media-and-internet/media-apprenticeships
4. Work experience – Whilst studying and learning getting work experience like Michelle did can also be beneficial. These schemes are something you need to apply for like apprenticeships and can be done over a few weeks. This is a vital part of the getting into a career like this because it’s on the job learning career and very practical. These can be competitive and sometimes hard to find but do look out for them. See link here to find out more - https://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/creative-arts-media-and-design/getting-work-experience-media-and-publishing-industry
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness Podcast on Apple, or Spotify. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more.
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Michelle that could help you are:
1. Episode 89 - Why Career Happiness is a journey
2. Episode 63 - Why resilience is so important in your career
3. Episode 157 - How can you find your career purpose and 2 ways to do this
Episode 01: Chris Scull
Chris is the epitome of curiosity, and it’s obvious from chatting to him that following his instinct with an open mind has served him well during his career, and continues to do so in life. We’ll hear that it never hurts to ask the question: those who don’t ask, don’t get, and that pursuing a project for enjoyment is the most important thing.
As a young man, Chris cut his teeth teaching himself how to code smart phone applications, which - as we’ll hear - led him to actually getting noticed, and eventually paid for his efforts. From there, he caught the radio bug at University, which would set him up nicely as one of the UK’s foremost podcast creators and media entrepreneurs. His road to success was an incremental one, and rather than ‘arriving’ to the point to where he is today in one giant ‘lucky’ leap, Chris concentrated on doing what he loved, rather than chasing the money.
Today, Chris Scull is the co-creator and owner of one of the world’s best (and funniest in my opinion) 90s-based football podcasts, ‘Quickly Kevin, Will He Score?’ plus he is the CEO of Another Slice - a technology platform that allows you to search, sample and download a host of content from your favourite creators - an app he hopes will take on the likes of Patreon and Substack very soon. You can also find Chris pitchside at most West Ham home games at The London Stadium, microphone in hand, comparing the half-time entertainment.
I met up with Chris in a west-London office… but it was in East London where Chris’ journey begins…
View from an expert: Soma Ghosh
Soma is a qualified careers adviser who is passionate about helping you thrive. She has a PG (dip) in Careers Guidance as well as a Psychology & Criminology degree so she treats each person as a unique individual to help them succeed in their ambitions in a realistic way.
She can provide careers advice and personalised mentoring to professional women to make sure you are happy in life, at work and in your future is a key part of what we do.
With over 12 years of experience working as a careers adviser, she has helped hundreds of pupils in schools with their post 16 options. So, if you are a parent with a teenager aged 13-18 who is year 9 to year 13, she can help with this too.
Her website can be found here. Subscribe to her fantastic podcast here.
Chris followed his passions rather then doing something based on what others expected of him.
The career he has had is varied and shows he used his degree and skills in different ways.
As well as using his interests in radio and his skills in communications to work in variety of places. From working in the Treasury to TV and now being in the digital and podcasting world.
Some of the Key things that Chris talked about that were really interesting were:
1. Sticking to something he really loved doing;
2. Saying yes to opportunities and learning from them;
3. Making sure he implemented what he learned along the way and continuing to learning.
Careers advice that could help listeners
Chris mentioned that he picked his degree based on location and not based on league tables. There is a lot of emphasis on top universities and your degree although this can help it’s also about how you use your degree to leverage your skills. So it shouldn’t matter what university you go to and it should be more about how you use that degree and build your experience. If you look at Chris as an example, he made his own success by being a self-starter and working in variety of places to build a versatile portfolio career.
If you look at his career in this episode he said “yes” to opportunities and changed his degree after the 2nd year. This is something I advise young people to do if they aren’t happy in their degree or University.
Chris studied communications as a degree - this is a great degree if you want to work in Media, Advertising, Journalism, Human Resources, Public relations, Politics etc. It’s a terrific to have a degree like this because it opens doors for many careers especially if you want like working in teams and working with others.
If you are interested in finding out more about Communications as a degree, the University of Exeter has great information about their BA communications course find out more here:
You can also visit this page to find out more about related careers here:
The Career Happiness podcast
If you have liked what I have said here about careers advice please come and also listen to my podcast The Career Happiness podcast. I have over 160 episodes talking about careers advice, workplace culture and so much more. You can listen to the podcast at the following links
Some relevant episodes to the conversation David had with Chris that could help you are:
1. Episode 151 - Does going to a top university really help with career success?
2. Episode 162 - What is a degree and how does it compare to an degree apprenticeship?
Producer note: University of the West of England - UWE Bristol also have excellent media courses. To find out more, click here.