career

Amanda Keller's career advice is throwing everything we thought we knew out the window.

One thing you might now know about Amanda Keller?

She never started off with an ambition to be a presenter. In fact, her background is on the exact opposite side – producing.

It’s certainly been helpful, giving her insight into how everything works behind the scenes on the shows that she now works on, including the award-winning The Living Room as well as morning radio with her co-host Brendan “Jonesy” Jones.

Image: Getty

But there's one other think the 55 year old credits for her success and it sits at odds with most career advice you'll hear women being given.

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"I was never a pushy, ambitious person and so I would never have just turned up and said 'I deserve to be in front of the camera' or demanded 'Give me a go, give me a go'. I was never that person," she told You've Gotta Start Somewhere podcast host (and Mamamia Head of Podcasts) Rachel Corbett.

"So for me to start as a segment producer at the Midday show and it was Ray Martin who said 'Why don't we put you in front of the camera here'. I knew Ray, I knew the show, the cameraman and the sound recordist so all that stuff made that transition for me to do the occasional story much easier than me just turning up out of nowhere saying 'I'd like to be in front of the camera'."

This, bizarrely, was an outfit I chose to wear on tv in the 90s. Imagine the ones I discarded!

A post shared by Amanda Keller (@amandarosekeller) on

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She said she doesn't think she'd "have had the nerves to do it" any other way.

But is it a healthy approach to continue working quietly and wait your turn? (Post continues after audio).

"Sometimes there's a sense that you have to push, push yourself onto things and I think there are plenty of people in the business who do that and I'm the same,"said host Rachel Corbett.

"It's not really the way I am built and things have probably moved a lot slower for me because of it."

While the forceful approach may work for some, it could work against you for others.

Keller says she was always envious of people who were confident enough to stand up and say 'Give me a go'.

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"I didn't know where you got that skill set to put yourself at the front like that so I think you're right, it's a slower burn to come in the other way but you learn that other skill set along the way."

While Keller's turn did come thanks to Martin - after years of proving her talent and working hard and finding someone who saw and recognised that - it's not always guaranteed to be given to you without some action on your part.

But the presenter's story does prove being forceful isn't the only path to success, which is reassuring news if like Keller, that sort of approach doesn't come naturally to you.

"When I look at the industry there's both sorts of people who end up at the end together but one approach doesn't necessarily work for everybody," she said.

What do you think? Do you have to be pushy to get ahead at work?