Here are the keywords and skills that appear most frequently on recent Public Relations Specialist job postings. In other words, these are the most sought after skills by recruiters and hiring managers. Go to Sample Templates ↓ below to see how to include them on your resume.
Remember that every job is different. Instead of including all keywords on your resume, identify those that are most relevant to the job you're applying to. Use the free Targeted Resume tool to help with this.
Does your resume contain all the right skills? Paste in your resume in the AI Resume Scan ↓ section below and get an instant score.
Paste your resume below and our AI will identify which keywords are missing from your resume from the list above (and what you need to include). Including the right keywords will help you get past Applicant Tracking Systems (i.e. resume screeners) which may scan your resume for keywords to see if you're a match for the job.
Go through the Public Relations Specialist posting you're applying to, and identify hard skills the company is looking for. For example, skills like Social Media, Event Management and Copywriting are possible skills. These are skills you should try to include on your resume.
The following word cloud highlights the most popular keywords that appear on Public Relations Specialist job descriptions. The bigger the word, the more frequently it shows up on employer's job postings. If you have experience with these keywords, include them on your resume.
Here are common soft skills that appear on Public Relations Specialist job postings. Unlike hard skills, which refer to tools, software or techniques, soft skills focus on character traits and interpersonal skills. Instead of listing these phrases on your resume, try to show them through your bullet points like in the examples below.
Tip: Do not list these words or phrases on your resume, and instead focus on the hard skills we described above.
Here are examples of proven resumes in related jobs and industries, approved by experienced hiring managers. Use them as inspiration when you're writing your own resume. You can even download and edit the resume template in Google Docs.
As you work your way through your public relations (PR) career, you may have ambitions to become a manager. This is a role with increasing responsibilities, including leading a team, strategy planning, responding to media inquiries, managing budgets, organizing press conferences and events and overseeing and monitoring media coverage.
In this resume, the job seeker highlights their ability to manage large-scale projects and campaigns (i.e. “Supervised 15 projects across 7 countries”, “Arranged and led an RW campaign”). This shows recruiters that you have the organizational and leadership skills which are critical to senior communications roles.
The director of public policy is a senior-level professional who oversees many facets of public policy. As a director of public policy, you may be involved with ground-level tasks like collecting data, but you will also be heavily involved in making decisions and implementing programs based on your team’s research results. A director of public policy typically has a master's degree in political science, though a bachelor's degree with several years of experience and demonstrated knowledge may suffice. Typically, hiring managers will be looking for candidates with key previous job experience, such as a prior role as a public policy analyst or government relations manager. Hiring managers will be looking for someone who is knowledgeable in the realm of data collection and interpretation, but also skilled at creating actionable plans, communicating effectively, and implementing public policy changes. A good candidate for this role will be an analytical thinker, a skilled communicator, and an effective leader.
Directors of public policy are expected to effectively collaborate with government officials, political actors, and industry specialists to get policy changes across the finish line. For this reason, directors of public policy must be superb communicators, persuasive negotiators, and team players. To land this role, your resume should clearly highlight how you have used leadership and negotiation skills in the past to bring new initiatives or policies to fruition.
Many directors of public policy have previously held a job as a public policy analyst. This is because being able to accurately collect and interpret data is a key piece of being a successful director of public policy. All experience you have in conducting research, collecting data, and obtaining actionable insights from data should be highlighted on your resume. You can get certified in data analysis to bolster your resume, too.
This resume template is suitable for experienced hires or mid-level hires. The education contains two examples of an education experiences, but only include one (your most recent one) if you're a senior level employee.
It strikes the right balance between white space and content, and doesn't waste space on unnecessary images and icons. Remember, recruiters aren't looking at how creative you are when it comes to your template. Your content is core and should be the focus.
This job seeker uses resume bullet points that uses strong action verbs, and most importantly, contain numbers that demonstrate the significance of their accomplishments.
This template is clean, readable by resume screeners, and is effective at calling out key accomplishments and projects from specific work experiences. This would be useful if you have been at a company for a while, or been in a consulting-type of role, and want to point hiring managers to your most impressive accomplishments.
Action verbs are important on your resume are vital. They evoke strong imagery to your reader, and this resume does an excellent job by using words such as “spearheaded,” “managed,” and “drove.” These words will help you to put your achievements in perspective, in conjunction with measurable results. Use action verbs relating to the skills you want to highlight.
Many of your accomplishments will involve your responsibilities in your employer's high-level projects. Recruiters want to see what you’ve completed in previous roles -- such as the Operations Improvement Project and new iPhone app launch highlighted in this resume. The numbers make your experience real, rather than a vague “oversaw several teams for a project.” What did you do specifically? Be specific.
This two column resume template has been designed and created in Google Docs, and puts an emphasis on a skills section. You can download it in Word, or edit it directly in Google Docs.
The two-column in this Google Docs resume template prioritizes the work experience sections, while maximizing the content into the resume. Not all two column templates are ATS-compatible, but this one is when it is saved as PDF and passed through a resume screener.
Skills sections are a great way to include specific keywords and skills that you have, that haven't been included in other parts of your resume. This helps you get past resume screeners that scan your resume for specific keywords.
If you're a job seeker with a few years of experience under your belt, use a template like this one. It's simple, effective at highlighting our work experience, and minimizes the emphasis on the education section (the dates are omitted which is good to prevent ageism, especially if you graduated more than 10 years ago).
Minimal templates like this one are exactly what mid-to-senior level recruiters want to see - it shows professionalism, focuses on accomplishments, and makes full use of each page.
The first rule about including a resume summary is that it does not repeat accomplishments mentioned elsewhere on the resume. This resume stresses new software engineering and leadership skills right at the top of the resume, and includes an award too. If you include a summary, try to include a mix of both technical accomplishments (e.g. projects you developed or led), as well as career-related accomplishments (e.g. being promoted).
On top Public Relations Specialist resumes, skills like Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Access, Event Management, Adobe InDesign and Copywriting appear most often.
Depending on the exact role you're applying to, skills like WordPress, Journalism, Digital Marketing, Press Releases and Writing can also be effective keywords to include on your resume.
While the keywords above are a good indication of what skills you need on your resume, you should try to find additional keywords that are specific to the job. To do this, use the free Targeted Resume tool. It analyzes the job you are applying to and finds the most important keywords you need on your resume.
It is personalized to your resume, and is the best way to ensure your resume will pass the automated resume filters.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
