What you should know before starting a PR career
Being bad at math isn’t a good reason to go into PR. You must have persistence, strong writing skills and be extremely organized, just to name a few attributes.
I recently began looking for an entry-level PR person to help me with my client load. I preferred this person to be able to navigate Cision and build clean target media lists, but client relations experience wasn’t a must. My search got me thinking—as I realized that response quantity far, far exceeded quality—that it’s very tough to find someone equipped with the basic building blocks to be a rock star in this field.
In the end, I hired the only candidate who had not only bothered to research my company and myself extensively, but even more importantly, she could write. She captivated me immediately with her pitch for candidacy.
I will never hire someone who isn’t an excellent writer, because that person will not be successful pitching nor in written communications to clients or the team. To be successful enough to climb the ladder at an agency and carve out a career in PR, most need to first hurdle the barriers of the below five subjects:
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