Sally studied Marketing & Advertising Communications in 2017 and has since moved to Joburg, working as a mid-level Strategist at an agency called JAW Design. Read about her Red & Yellow experience and her career journey since graduating.

I’m Sally Lynne Oosthuyse; a young, inspired, ready to rumble kinda gal. I graduated from Red & Yellow’s MAC course in 2017.

I now work as a mid-level Strategist at an agency called JAW Design in Johannesburg.
For the most part, advertising has a bad rep, this is due to “R99.99” and “buy-one-get-one-free” approaches. I remind myself every day, that that’s not what I do.

I chose to go into this industry because I believe that the ability for us to communicate en masse is the only way we can change human behaviour for the better.

Getting to where I am didn’t come easy, like most, I didn’t have someone on the inside that could put in a good word for me. So, to pay the bills, I took a position as a Sales Consultant for a company called Workforce Healthcare. Initially, I was devastated that I was not doing what I was “trained” to do, but slowly, I learnt that every so-called “bad” decision had its upside. Through Workforce, I learnt skills that I didn’t realise I needed, like casual client conversation and relationship building, budgeting, conflict management and time planning. As I was client facing, I ended up meeting tons of incredible people, and through that, got to know the “right people”, and finally I was able to get back into strategy.

My year at Red & Yellow was the best of my 4 years of being a student. Anyone can read a book and memorise the theory, but Red & Yellow gives you experience and when you get into the big bad world, the deep end suddenly isn’t that deep.

Some advice I would give to those who are studying this year or close to graduating:

  1. Everything that happens has a lesson, make sure to learn it.
  2. Some pain is worth enduring, just because you’re a little unhappy now, doesn’t mean you always will be. Perseverance is an admirable quality.
  3. Just because you are a junior, doesn’t mean your ideas don’t have power. Don’t sit back if you believe there is a better way forward- be brave, use your voice!
  4. And most importantly, be kind. There are enough f#ck heads in this world.