Brand image is a key part of any company’s success. You ensure this core piece of a company’s branding is maintained by crafting expert media releases, creating social media campaigns, and analyzing consumer perception statistics.
Have you put the same effort into your personal brand to write a cover letter and a top-notch resume, or in selecting the appropriate resume template?
While you have everything down on the business side, trying to fit all your excellent reputation management skills on a short resume can seem much more challenging. Take a look at our public relations resume examples that will give you a template to make your top skills and experiences stand out.
Why this resume works
- So, you’re eyeing that role where every note and nuance can turn the tides of public perception. How about you Imagine each bullet point of your public relations resume as a scoop that the press can’t wait to break? Here are a few tips to remember to make your piece impactful:
- Quantify your victories right from the get-go. Think along the lines of “resulting in a 23% improvement in media sentiment,” “resulting in a 21% expansion of media coverage,” or “12-hour reduction in response time. Numbers are your besties here, giving potential employers a taste of what you bring to the table.
- Starting bullet points with verbs like “Distributed” and “Managed” is like adding pop rocks to your prose—exciting, explosive, and unforgettable. They’re your backstage passes into the world of PR greatness.
- How about you personalize that narrative to the specifics of the job ad? Take a leaf from Alexander’s piece with phrases such as “monitor and analyze media coverage” or “track media inquiries and responses.” Such statements whisper directly to the hearts of potential employers, telling them you’re exactly who they’ve been searching for.
- Don’t just bullet-point skills and tools you’re proficient in under “SKILLS.” Show off how you’ve harnessed these proficiencies to perhaps maneuver social media channels or diffuse a PR crisis. See “PR Newswire,” “Zoho CRM,” and “SEMrush” highlights in Alexander’s piece.
Why this resume works
- So, you have a flair for crafting engaging and impactful stories that could change public perceptions in an instant. Why not let that genius shine through in your public relations manager resume? Let’s draw inspiration from Charlotte’s piece.
- Kick things off with punchy action verbs (cue “Orchestrated,” “Supervised,” and “Coordinated”) to showcase yourself as a proactive leader who’s not just participating but actually running the show.
- Now, let’s talk about achievements. Flaunting them is great, but why not dial it up with some solid numbers? Yes, metrics pack a punch in resumes. For example, did your social media strategies foster a “41% increase in engagement?” Or did your compelling content “result in a 6.9K increase in website traffic and a 24% rise in email click-through rates?”
- Speaking of personalization, lace your resume with phrases that click with the public relations roles. Phrases like “identify and engage with key media influencers” or “create and distribute compelling content” make for excellent examples here. It’s like speaking their secret language.
- For that cherry on top, connect the dots between the skills or tools listed in the skills section and real-world scenarios. Phrases like “Supervised event registration and attendee tracking using Pipedrive and Bizzabo” and “promoted 33 successful webinars using GoToWebinar” are excellent examples of how to put your practical prowess front and center.
Why this resume works
- It’s probably the dawn of your journey in public relations and you are poised with fresh ideas and enthusiasm to chart your course in media and communications. Let’s see how you can infuse your resume with all the potential bubbling inside you.
- Ensure each bullet point begins with an action-packed verb (cue “Reached,” “Attained,” and “Developed”). Yes, show them that even at an intern level, you’re not just there to observe— you’re there to steal the show.
- Then, illustrate how you’ve applied job-specific proficiencies (cue Meltwater, Canva, Yelp, and Mailchimp) in the real world. An example would be how you monitored project tasks through Insightly or presented project findings and insights using Canva. It’s about proving you’re not just familiar with the tools of the trade but ready to make an impact, even when learning the ropes.
- How about spicing up your academic accomplishments and extracurricular exploits with hard-hitting numbers? Lines like “Achieved an 11K increase in upsell revenue” and “36-hour reduction in project delivery time” are your golden ticket to showcase your raw potential in PR.
- Get your public relations intern resume to mirror the job by using phrases like “implementing of immersive experiences in our public relations project.” But remember, it’s not just about fitting the job description—it’s more about resonating with the needs of the hiring company.
Related resume examples
Add Influence to Your Public Relations Resume by Tailoring it to the Job Description
While designing a media relations strategy, you’d want to consider every aspect of a company, from their desired brand image to the target audience they want to connect with. You should take a similar approach when choosing skills to put on your PR resume.
Ideally, you’ll want to review what each company is seeking in the PR job’s description and tailor the abilities you list to each position’s needs. For example, a company looking for help with its social media PR strategy may want you to be skilled in social listening and content curation.
Need some ideas?
15 popular public relations skills
- Market Research
- Campaign Development
- Sprout Social
- Pipedrive
- Press Release Writing
- Media Analysis
- GetResponse
- PR Newswire
- Stakeholder Relations
- Social Listening
- Timescale Management
- Public Speaking
- Graphic Design
- SEMrush
- Event Planning
Your public relations work experience bullet points
PR is a results-oriented field where consumer perception of a brand can be influenced by every campaign you publish. So, it’s essential to optimize what you include in your work experience bullet points.
To ensure success, you’ll want to make these bullet points sound actionable while using stakeholder relations metrics that businesses care about the most. For example, you could describe how you published a social media campaign that improved brand awareness by 55%.
Here are some of the best metrics to include on public relations resumes.
- Market share: Every company wants to outperform competitors while boosting sales, making market share a huge success metric in PR.
- Open rates: Are you developing consumer relations strategies through email? Then, open rate is a great way to show how you maintain audience engagement.
- Data accuracy: Every campaign you publish will be backed by data, so ensuring your market analysis is accurate is crucial.
- Attendance rates: Whenever you’re planning company events, the attendance of key stakeholders and consumers will be very important.
See what we mean?
- Developed and executed targeted email marketing campaigns using SendinBlue, resulting in 3.2K higher open rates and a 17% increase in conversion rates.
- Utilized Talkwalker to monitor and analyze media coverage, resulting in a 23% improvement in media sentiment.
- Implemented Zoho CRM to track media inquiries and responses, improving data accuracy by 33%.
- Created engaging visual content using Visme for client presentations, resulting in 41% higher client satisfaction.
9 active verbs to start your public relations work experience bullet points
- Published
- Designed
- Performed
- Distributed
- Supported
- Drafted
- Monitored
- Coordinated
- Assisted
3 Ways to Optimize Your Public Relations Resume When You’re Lacking Experience
- Include projects
- When you don’t have a lot of PR experience, achievements in academic projects can help you stand out. For example, you could explain how you used Pipedrive and TrendKite to perform 67% more efficient data analysis during a market research class project.
- Use an objective
- Just like you may present some key information immediately to grab attention during a press release, a career objective will similarly benefit your resume. For example, you could write a few sentences about how you’re a motivated professional ready to apply the media analysis skills you gained while obtaining your public relations degree to help a company better reach its target audience.
- List transferable skills
- Even if you haven’t worked in a PR role, other work experience can still transfer to the required skills. For example, you may have performed customer service aligned with company policies or designed product displays at a retail store to grab customers’ attention.
3 Ways to Make Your Public Relations Resume Stand Out When You Have Experience
- Use a resume outline
- When you have a lot of PR experience, it can feel challenging to organize it all on a short resume outline. Using an outline will help you optimize the placement of stakeholder relations skills and achievements to ensure they stand out to hiring managers.
- Put experiences in reverse chronological order
- PR is constantly evolving, such as social media and online publications now being at the top of concern for today’s news release strategies. That means listing your most recent experiences first will be essential to show how your brand messaging and social listening skills have evolved to align with current market needs.
- Align the skills you list with each company’s needs
- PR professionals with a lot of experience can stand out by listing skills that align with each company’s needs. For example, a company looking for help with social monitoring will appreciate your experience using TrendKite and Sprout Social.
You should limit your PR resume to three or four jobs. Make sure you include your most recent jobs and those that are the most relevant to aspects like campaign development and using PR Newswire.
Applicants with ten or more years of experience can benefit from a resume summary. For example, a few sentences about how you’ve managed 33 client social media accounts and boosted brand reach by an average of 72% will help you stand out immediately.
Many PR jobs require a bachelor’s degree in public relations or other business-related fields, so you should list any relevant education you have. It’ll help you showcase your core knowledge in press release writing and market analysis.
