JOBS & CAREERS SPRING 2018 - 302

C O M M U N I CAT I O N S

Communications
director
You'll manage campaigns for large
organisations, with day-to-day duties
encompassing planning and delivering
communications campaigns for clients,
raising awareness of the company
externally and representing them at
conferences, events and in the media.
You'll also have to manage budgets.
What skills and qualifications do I
need? You'll usually need several years'
experience at senior management level
in public relations or marketing. A
background in journalism or broadcasting
could also be useful. A degree,
postgraduate or professional qualification
in PR, communications or marketing
is required for most jobs. You'll also
possess strong writing, editing, public
speaking and leadership skills, along with
the ability to work well with others.
How much can I earn? Salaries
start around £40,000, but those with
a proven track record can expect to
earn anything up to £100,000.

In many firms you
will be asked to
turn your hand
to various tasks,
from tweeting to
handling complaints

"I love
working
in this
industry"
Jackie Lowe, 47, is chief
operating officer at
Teleperformance, an
outsourcing company that
employs 247,000 people
in 74 countries, and has
23 sites in the UK
Teleperformance provides
customer management
solutions for some of
the most well-known
brands across numerous
industry sectors. This
includes contact centres
to deal with customer
enquiries and complaints.
"The brands may
need additional support
because their customer
service operations are so
huge they can't physically
do it all themselves or
they want to outsource to
an expert," says Jackie.
"There's never a dull
moment. It's vibrant, very
colourful and extremely
busy," she adds. "It's

always changing - in fact
we say the only constant
in our business is change."
"We attract people from
all walks of life and all
educational backgrounds.
The key is to have an
absolute passion to serve
others. You have to have a
lot of resilience - we deal
with a lot of people who
are complaining, so it's
important you don't take
that to heart but can still
deal professionally with
whatever the issue is.

Extensive training
"Employees also need
patience and good, raw
intellect," Jackie continues.
"We train extensively, so
you don't have to come
to us as an experienced
customer service person.
It's great if you are, but
if you're not, we will
train you in our way of
providing a service."
The average age
of those working at
Teleperformance is 33,
but that includes a good
mix of older people with a
lot of life experience and
younger people with great
technology skills. "It works
well for us," says Jackie. "It
produces an environment
where there is genuinely
something for everybody."
"I adore the people I
work with and I think that
if you're a people person,
this environment is for
you. It's so rewarding
when you're helping
millions of people every
year. I can't recommend
it highly enough."

Find out more
* Chartered Institute of Public Relations
cipr.co.uk
* Public Relations & Communications Association
prca.org.uk

J O B S & C A R E E R S /// 3 0 1


http://cipr.co.uk http://prca.org.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JOBS & CAREERS SPRING 2018

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