A Guide to PR Careers

PR careers are based on the management of a client’s reputation. As well as this, media PR jobs must ensure that they can influence the opinions of the public regarding their clients.

Public Relations Officer

PR officers utilise a number of different media and communications to develop and maintain an organisation’s reputation. These organisations can range from large businesses to public bodies, to voluntary organisations. By going through third parties, the PR officer will be able to target specific audiences to communicate messages to the public for the client. In addition to this, PR officers will be in charge of publicity as well as carrying out research to build a picture of what the stakeholders in an organisation are expecting or concerned about. Management of the organisation is then reported to with these findings.

Media PR Jobs will normally entail a selection of different duties, but in general, they can expect to include the following activities:

• Creating PR strategies from planning stages to implementation
• Liaising with the media and other organisations (including answering their queries)
• Creating press releases for certain media and distributing them
• Writing in-house publications such as magazines
• Creating brochures, leaflets, videos, photos, films for publicity
• Organising events such as press conferences, press tours and exhibitions
• Finding sponsorship opportunities
• Organising market research
• Managing the PR if your client goes through a public crisis

Graduate PR jobs such as this one do not necessarily require set qualifications. However, a degree or HND are typically successful. To land graduate PR jobs, it is normally helpful to have a degree that is relevant such as Media Studies, Marketing, Communications, or English. Other disciplines can be accepted too when looking for graduate PR jobs.

Public Relations Account Executive

Also under the PR careers umbrella is the title of PR Account Executive. This role is responsible for an account’s reputation and more specifically, the development of positive publicity for the client, without the use of paid advertising. PR executives use all forms of media to create opportunities where their client can be presented in a good light without having to pay for advertising space.  Product placement is a key way of achieving this. This role is similar to media PR jobs mentioned above. Many companies will title their positions in different ways, but essentially they can be the same job. Entry into this role does not need any particular qualification, but a degree in relevant disciplines is expected.

PR careers start at this level and then through progress and experience, it is possible to rise up within a PR team to more managerial levels.