The most important aspect of being a public relations professional is upholding the public

persona and image of the client or company you are working for. Maintaining a good public
impression would include forming a satisfactory brand image, keeping the public aware of the
client or company’s goals, managing press conferences, and organizing press releases.

To be a public relations professional is a very demanding career. There are a lot of

responsibilities to handle and one must be very diligent with managing their time and abilities.
Firstly, to be successful, a public relations career requires incredibly effective communication
skills. The reason is, communicating with others takes place every day when working as a PR
professional or specialist. You must possess the ability to communicate your ideas and thoughts
concisely and in a way that reflects you’re socially aware of those you are speaking to. Next, the
main responsibility of creating and maintaining a good persona of your client demands adequate
writing skills, as you will most likely be crafting responses, articles, and interviews. It is also very
important to know which tone to convey depending on the occasion, as well as to avoid
involving personal emotions. The need for good writing skills ties in with the requirement to be
comfortable with and knowledgeable about social media. Social media has grown to be an
immense influence on society. Knowing your client’s audiences, which are almost always
stationed behind a screen, and how to appeal best to them will contribute to your success. It is
vital to familiarize yourself with your client’s multimedia and how best to communicate amongst
their platforms. Lastly, you want to avoid creating repetition and recognizable patterns along
your client or company’s media. Upholding a client’s image or searching for new ways to
expand their platform can become boring if you resort to using the same methods. So, creativity
and the ability to be innovative are influential skills for this career.

To become a public relations professional/specialist, you must have a degree in one or more of
the following: journalism, communications, public relations, or business. Throughout the country
and abroad, many universities provide suitable programs to obtain these degrees. For example,
New York University provides the chance to earn a Journalism degree through their college of
Arts and Science. Some courses that help to achieve a Journalism degree include, but are not
limited to: communication, copyediting and design, reporting, history of American media, mass
communication, and media law and ethics. Of course, the classes required when majoring in
Journalism differ slightly depending on the college or university you attend, but they all help to
develop the same skills. There are many career opportunities for someone who has a
Journalism degree, hence why people with the degree can become involved in public relations.
If one is interested in becoming a public relations professional, their average salary, in the
United States, is 55,000 to 65,000 dollars annually. Specifically, in New York, where I wish to
spend my future, the average yearly salary comes out to be about the same. There are ways to
increase your salary as a PR professional, such as working for a different, more powerful
company/client, such as the government.

Some other careers that share similarities to that of a PR professional are social media
management, Journalist, copywriter, market research analyst, etc. Each of these professions
requires very similar skill sets, making it somewhat easy to transfer between them. These
careers and the jobs within them all need good communication, writing, and creativity skills. But
they differ in the sense that some demand more social media involvement than others. But, as
social media continues to grow and flourish, practically running society, these careers are
becoming increasingly popular and the demand for individuals to fill these jobs is growing as
well.

I would love to succeed as a public relations professional, as I believe I possess the skills many
companies are looking for, and I would be grateful to expand those skills and develop more. I
am a good communicator and a great listener, I can navigate my way through social media and
other media outlets fairly easily, I am a very imaginative person who loves to find new ways to
be creative, and I really enjoy writing in any form. I believe being a public relations professional
would fit me and my personality very well.
 Works Cited:

“How to Make Career in Journalism in 2022.” UpGrad Blog, 4 Jan. 2022,

https://www.upgrad.com/blog/career-in-journalism/.

“Salary: Social Media Manager.” Glassdoor, 6 Jan. 2022,

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/social-media-manager-salary-SRCH_KO0,20.htm.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook,

Public Relations Specialists, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/public-
relations-specialists.htm

“Skills Every PR Specialist Needs USC Online Mcm Degree.” USC Online Communication
Degree, USC Online, 13 May 2019, https://communicationmgmt.usc.edu/blog/five-skills-
every-public-relations-specialist-needs/.