Public Relations Interview Questions and Answers

Public relations interview questions and Answers have been listed in this article to help you answer all your next interview questions.

Public relations is a powerful role that transforms the way your co-workers talk about your company and, more importantly, how the public views your company. From managing press releases to deciding what statistics and facts about the company are okay to publish to damage control for the company, public relations assistants and managers have a huge impact on messages and perception.

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What are the public relations interview questions?

When you’re interviewing for a public relations internship or an entry-level job in public relations, employers want to make sure that you are a good writer and researcher, that you are a creative and quick thinker, and that you speak well because most of the time, you are the person speaking on behalf of a company. While in PR, you should expect the unexpected; You can also expect these common public relations interview questions.

1. Explain why you love public relations. What does PR mean to you?

The job of a public relations person is to help clients sell their story and help them understand the question “Why this company? Or“ Why this product? ”Before you can do that convincingly for a client, you must sell yourself and your story. What makes you feel that you are a great candidate for the world of public relations? What attracted you to this type of role and what do you think you could contribute? How do you see the public relations changing the company you are interviewing for?

While your answer must be genuine, there is a bit of preparation that goes with it. It’s important to closely review the job description and research the company by doing a quick Google search and selecting the “News” tab. For the job description, if you say that the PR candidate needs to be able to work with new media and get them excited about the company presentation, then you should try starting with something like: “To me, public relations means building relationships with new people and getting them to become strong and lasting advocates for our brand. “

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2. What is your favorite brand and why?

If you work in public relations, you should have an idea of ​​which marketing techniques are working and which are not. Employers want to know that you are paying attention to how well other brands are promoting.

Take a look at some of the brands you love. What makes them identifiable? How do they represent themselves on social media and what do you think they are doing to make their products or services resonate with their audience? How do other publications talk about them? (It is likely that they also intervened in that press). That way, you’ll be well-equipped to be specific about the great PR and marketing techniques they’re using.

3. What type of work and clients of our firm do you find most interesting?

“I was asked this question for every one of my public relations interviews,” says Elana Widmann, who was an account executive at the public relations firm GMI. “I can’t emphasize enough that if you don’t know the answer to this question, you’re done.” If you are interviewing at a public relations firm, research the company’s client portfolio and be prepared to talk about the ones that interest you most and why.

You should also be prepared to answer general questions about the audience, according to Nina Boyd, director of public relations and communications for WayUp. “If it’s a market like ours, or anywhere with more than one key demographic, I would ask how you would present us to a B2C audience and how would that change for a B2B audience,” she says. (Presenting, for those who do not know, is a way of promoting themselves in another publication or company to get some type of association or attract them as a client).

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4. How important is routine to you?

What interviewers want to know when they ask this question is: “Are you the type of person who is exhausted by a time change? Can you handle a job that’s not just 9-5? “Because many of the public relations problems that arise are unexpected, you must be ready at any time to put out a fire or act on new information.

A good answer to this question must be genuine: it will only harm you and the company if you know that you live a structured and orderly life. If you know you have what it takes to be up-to-date and ready at all times, then you can say something like, “I think routine is an important part of life, but I also appreciate when unexpected things come up than me.” I can drive, despite how I expected the day to be. ”Here is a specific example of a time when you had to deal with an unexpected situation.

5. Give me an example of an obstacle you had to overcome or a big problem you had to solve.

Public relations deals with a lot of communication, but a good part of the role also involves crisis management. Are you able to put out fires? Putting a brilliant spin on a story that could be detrimental to the company? Are you able to calm the people around you and assure them that everything is under control?

If you have an example of a time when you were quick, sensible, and took appropriate action under pressure, use it as an answer to this interview question.

In Conclusion

Are you interviewing with a traditional or digital PR agency? If you are applying for a job at a traditional agency, be prepared to answer questions about your writing skills, press relations, past press campaigns you have worked on, and where you see PR in the future.

In a digital PR agency, tasks generally include operating social media channels, sending tweets, managing online communities, and chatting with businesses and consumers via social media.

For agency jobs, you will also receive questions about the particular agency and the client you work with. Be sure to research the agency before your interview.

If you are interviewing to do public relations work for a company, your interviewer might focus on trying to understand how you will craft and execute an effective public relations strategy.