Ready for a career change? The world of PR and Communications is waiting for you. But before pressing send on those applications, it’s important to consider the qualities necessary to hack it in the industry. Transferable skills are those that are taken from one job field and easily applied to another. Lucky for you, PR and Communications is FULL of them. Let’s see what you’re bringing to the table.
Social Skills
The PR and Communications industry is centered around professional relationship-building, whether that be with clients, influencers, partners, or the public. In order to be effective in your efforts, you must maintain strong conversational skills. Being an active listener is just one piece to the puzzle and it is important to also consider your persuasion, negotiation, and teamwork skills.
This type of skill is most often picked up through customer- or public-facing roles like sales, management, and consulting. Regardless, interpersonal skills are all about connecting and relating to your colleague or client. Don’t overcomplicate it! You can also enhance your skills by joining professional networks, attending PR and Communications events, or seeking out a mentor in the field. While nerves might sometimes get in the way, social skills are one of the easiest to improve upon!
Creative Skills
Creativity is a key component to successful PR and Communications efforts, as you need to come up with original, innovative ideas for product launches, storytelling campaigns, and digital content. PR and Communications professionals need to be able to think outside the box in order to adapt to changing industry landscapes and client needs. Further, you need to be able to express your ideas visually, verbally, and digitally using a range of mediums.
Creative skills can be honed in any role that involves problem-solving, designing, producing, or performing. You can also boost your creative juices by seeking inspiration from viral campaigns and staying up to date with industry trends.
Research Skills
Success in PR and Communications requires the power to collect, analyze, and present relevant information and data for various projects and campaigns. A skilled professional is proficient in conducting market, media, competitor, and audience research. Beyond actually conducting research, you also need to have the skills to analyze, interpret, and communicate findings clearly and concisely.
Research skills can be learned from any role that involves collecting and using data, often within the science, engineering, finance, or health fields. On your resume or in conversation, be sure to speak to different research projects you’ve been a part of and how you went about it. Understanding the parallels and why you know how important it is in the PR and Communications world, will pay dividends.
Writing Skills
Unsurprisingly, writing is one of the principal skills necessary for PR and Communications success, as the job is centered around crafting compelling and consistent messaging for different audiences, platforms, and purposes. No matter what type of material you are creating– press releases, blogs, social posts, newsletters, or proposals– you must maintain a keen understanding of grammar and style.
While the type of writing that PR and Communications require might be new, these skills can be developed in any writing-focused position, like journalism, marketing, administration, or even law. If writing isn’t your strong suit, you can improve your skills by immersing yourself in PR and Communications blogs like PRWeek, Spin Sucks, or our very own RemotePRJobs. But on that resume, play up your writing experience and be ready to explain why it is relevant.
Organizational Skills
Lastly, it is imperative to stay organized. While this applies to nearly every career path, it remains particularly relevant to this industry. PR and Communications professionals are often tasked with planning, executing, and evaluating simultaneous tasks and projects within strict deadlines and budgets. You need to be able to prioritize, coordinate, monitor, and report on your work, progress, and results. Time and resource management is of paramount importance, especially for freelancers.
Organizational skills can be acquired through any role that involves managing or overseeing work processes, such as administration, project management, operations, or accounting. You can also always work to improve organizational skills by maintaining content calendars and media contact lists. Make sure to discuss how you have organized different projects or teams, and how that is a valuable skill set you look forward to bringing to your next role.
PR and Communications are versatile fields that welcome newcomers with various backgrounds, as long as they have the passion and willingness to learn and grow. If you identify with these skills, you are already one step closer to a successful and rewarding career change.