A Public Relations Manager, generally known as a PR Manager, is responsible for a company’s external communications, particularly with media outlets and journalists.
Before you start with the interview process, you should keep in mind these are the main attributes that a great candidate will have:
- Your PR manager will be working with people all day, both internally and externally, so it’s essential that they are a confident person who enjoys the nature of the role.
- Very well organised with the ability to work on different projects at once.
- Good connections within the media industry would be a plus.
- Experience with organising press releases.
- PR managers will also be the first point of contact for any negative press. So, some media crisis management experience would be beneficial.
Interviewing a Public Relations Manager
Now you know the basics of what you should be looking for in your candidates, you can think about the types of questions you’ll want to ask. A mix of behavioural as well as hard and soft skill questions is a good start. Take a look below for the questions that we think are essential.
How to open the job interview
Even the most confident of Public Relations Managers will get nervous before an interview. To get the most out of your time with a candidate it’s important to make them feel at ease around you. This will mean you get the best answers to the questions you ask.
To ensure this is the case, you can ask some positive opening questions to start. These should be easy to answer and are usually about the candidate’s background or general experience.