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Home > Students > Explore Careers & Majors > Career Profiles > Public Relations
Overview
Breaking into Public Relations
Hopkins Alumni in Public Relations
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Public Relations involves working with various forms of media to educate, correct mistakes, and build or improve the image of an organization, person, or product. PR includes publicity, acting as press agents, book publicity, propaganda (for government agencies), corporate communications, crisis management and advertising. Those involved in public relations focus on effective communication for and the representation of their clients. PR professionals also analyze future trends and attitudes so their clients can maintain and win over public perception.
Who They Serve:
Public relations agencies serve a wide range of clients including for-profit companies, government agencies, individuals, hospitals, nonprofits, and foreign businesses and governments. To achieve their goals, these organizations need to develop effective relationships with many different target audiences such as employees, members, customers, local communities, shareholders, other organizations, and society at large.
Services
The services provided by PR agencies to clients may include media relations, crisis management services, lobbying services, event management, and fundraising services. Three-fourths of agencies provide a full-range of these services, while smaller agencies usually specialize in specific areas. Some PR agencies specialize in political lobbying and fundraising for particular causes or issues. These types of agencies differ in that they focus on influencing legislators in favor of clients’ special interests rather, than attempting to secure favorable public opinion about their clients. Lobbyists often work for large businesses, industry trade organizations, unions, or public interest groups.
What They Do:
PR agencies work closely with media outlets and develop relationships with those outlets to provide vehicles for their client's message. The dissemination of information and news via the Internet, the evolution of information sharing and participation in digital communications is changing the traditional role of PR. Rather than just cultivating relationships with media outlets, PR agencies are focusing more attention on new interactive internet forums, i.e. Web 2.0, such as Internet messaging, “blogging," webinars, and social networking sites to communicate client messages directly to target audiences.
The primary purpose of Public Relations agencies is to:
1. Secure favorable public exposure for their clients.
2. Design and evaluate strategies to attain a specific public image for clients.
3. Advise and counsel clients, especially during a sudden public crisis. This involves analyzing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes, and issues that might impact their clients while also interacting with clients and media outlets to communicate their clients’ messages.
Positions in Public Relations involve:
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Establishing relationships with the media
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Writing speeches and coaching clients for interviews
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Writing press releases and stories for print and online media
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Conducting interviews to promote their clients
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Developing opportunities for their clients to speak directly to media channels
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Organizing client-sponsored publicity events, i.e. concerts, exhibits, and charity and sporting events
Areas of Specialization:
Financial /Investor Relations: Communicates with the press, shareholders or organization’s members regarding the organization's financial performance and objectives. Prepares periodic and annual reports, arranges stockholders meetings, and writes press releases on earnings or the financial implications of new product development. Coordinates interviews between organization executives and security analysts. Timing of news releases is critical since it could drastically affect the value of stocks.
Employee Relations: Prepares quarterly and annual reports. Compiles employee publications and newsletters. Organizes internal special events for employees.
Nonprofit Organizations Public Relations: Involves training volunteers, promotional activities, fundraising and grant seeking and designing public relations campaigns. Practitioners often have greater freedom in writing campaigns and creating publicity than in corporate settings. Nonprofit organizations, which include schools and universities, hospitals, and human/social service agencies, use public relations for education/awareness programs, fund-raising programs, staff recruiting, and to increase patronage of their services.
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Health Care Public Relations: Translates medical information to the organization's "publics". A science and marketing background is particularly useful.
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Educational Public Relations: Public institutions usually deal heavily with the government and are open to taxpayer scrutiny. Responsibilities often include fundraising and development.
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Fundraising/Donor Relations: Identifies possible donors through research and then makes them aware of the organization. Work may involve writing grant proposals, preparing presentation books, creating videotapes, designing brochures or writing letters.
Government Public Affairs- Federal, State or Local: Titles include Public Information Officer, Public Affairs Officer and Departmental Assistant.
Political Public Relations: Assists candidates running for office with speechwriting, strategizing and publicity.
Lobbying: Works closely with federal and/or state representatives and senators to explain the intricacies of proposed legislation. Attempt to persuade lawmakers to adopt specific viewpoints.
What Employers Want:
Competition for entry-level jobs is great, so internships and related experiences are essential for students that want a job in public relations. Employers generally prefer candidates with coursework and majors related to communication and business. English, Writing Seminars, and the Entrepreneurship & Management minor are obvious examples, but Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology majors are also valued by public relations firms. Firms specializing in a specific market, such as healthcare or pharmaceuticals, may seek out students that are knowledgeable about natural and physical sciences.
Students attracted to public relations should be strategic thinkers that enjoy the challenge of crafting a message to meet a client’s goals. Employers want with strong interpersonal and networking or “schmoozing” skills since developing and maintaining a wide variety of relationships is another crucial responsibility of public relations professionals. Creativity, verbal and written communication skills, and problem-solving ability are essential skills for a PR professional. Foreign language skills have always been important in public relations. These skills are increasingly vital to reach groups not fluent in English in both the U.S. and abroad. Keeping pace with technology is fundamental to success in the industry as new media, such as blogs, are creating new arenas to communicate a client’s message.
What They Hire Undergraduates to Do:
Undergraduates typically start as research or account assistants and may be promoted to account executive or account supervisor as they experience success in public relations. Some large firms offer training programs for new hires that may include formal classroom training. However, most training is on the job, with the new hire supervised by more experienced professionals such as senior account executives.
Success in increasingly responsible staff assignments usually leads to advancement to supervisory positions. To advance as public relations professional, broad vision and planning skills become extremely important. Another way to get to the top in this industry is to open one’s own firm.
Beth Ann Felder
Director Federal Relations, Johns Hopkins University
International Studies, Class of 1985
Evelyn Jerome Alexander, Partner/CFO, SJA Strategies
Political Science,
Class of 1992
inCircle - a professional and social networking site for Hopkins students and alumn where you can identify alumni by career field, major and orgnaization.
Resources:
CareerTV Videos
Vault: Guide to Top Advertising and PR Firms
Career Beam: Industry Guide: Public Relations
Public Relations Specialists: Occupational Outlook Handbook
Public Relations Manager: Occupational Outlook Handbook
O'Dwyer's Directory of Public Relations Firms- JHU Career Center Library
Industry /Professional Organizations:
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
PRSA Maryland Chapter
PRSA National Capital Chapter
Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA)
International Association of Business Communicators
PRSA Maryland Chapter
PRSA National Capital Chapter
Industry Websites:
AdWeek Public Relations news, mergers, campaign examples.
American Marketing Association News and events.
Council of Public Relations Firms Industry events, news, publications.
PR Week Latest news of US PR industry.
Ragan Report Links to newsletters, training, conference listing.
Work in PR
Networking:
Networking with professionals who work in this field can help you learn very specific information about a career field. Professional contacts through professional associations, faculty, friends and family can be very helpful. You may also explore career opportunities by talking with employers at career fairs, and company presentations.
Internships, research positions and summer employment are highly effective ways for you to try out a field, gain experience and skills and make professional contacts.
Advertising
Marketing
Consulting
Publishing
Journalism
Media
Want to know more about these career fields? Click on them to view their profiles.
If you would like to talk about how your search is going, we invite you to make an appointment with a Career Counselor by calling 410-516-8056.
Note: Some resources in this section are provided by the Occupational Outlook by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Public Relations Society of America, and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).
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