If you are interested in pursuing a career in public relations, you will most likely be contacting people working in various forms of media and communications. You will be approaching the local news for all the cities that pertain to your client, as well as radio stations, print, and online media. You will be contacting them via phone and email and will need to have great communication skills on all levels. You will need to know how to approach these people with professionalism and political correctness.
In order to get into this field, you need at least a bachelor’s degree in communications or some other related field. You will most likely need to do well in school and graduate at the top of your class. You will also need experience in the field as an intern or lower-level position such as PR assistant. If you can gain some hands-on experience in the field, you will get a much better idea of how to handle the press and how to present a product the best light. These things are all imperative if you are to represent a client or company to the public. You need to know how to talk to business CEOs or other high profile clients and alert them to any possible public crisis should they say or do something wrong. You should be able to advise them on their public affairs before they launch a new product to the public. These are all part of your job description.
Salaries in this field also range depending on your experience. If you are just starting out you can expect to make anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 in your first year. If you have a little more experience or perhaps were trained by the best, you might start out with a higher salary than this. It all depends on how much experience you have and how impressive your resume and letter of recommendation are. Some people have been known to begin their PR work for $75,000 a year, but they were top of their class and had the best internships available. These are all people at the top of their game.
In short, if you are interested in public relations, you should get very familiar with all forms of the media. You should learn to communicate well and deal with them well so you can develop great relationships with others in the media circles. This will help you establish yourself in this industry. Once you have learned the field of communications and have developed great relationships with others in it, you can begin a strongpersonal career in the PR industry.
