How to Become a Public Relations Manager

By eHow Careers & Work Editor

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A public relations (PR) manager is a very experienced PR worker who oversees and directs many other workers or runs all external communications for a company. The PR manager has consistently provided clients with excellent results and takes on many of the most challenging assignments in the PR firm. You'll need some special skills and experience if you want to become a public relations manager. Read on to learn more.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Master's degree in public relations
Bachelor's degree in communications

Become a Public Relations Manager

Step1

Study for your bachelor's degree in communications or a related field to help you break into the PR industry. After a few years of work as public relations associates, many people go back to school for their master's degrees. Most, but not all, public relations manager positions require advanced degrees.

Step2

Specialize your public relations skills. While PR associates often handle a variety of clients, many PR managers only work in one industry. For example, you could specialize in health care, public relations or digital-reputation management.

Step3

Think about starting your own public relations firm. After years of working for another company, many PR managers decide to start their own companies and hire associates to help with the work.

Step4

Attend a career-development class to help you figure out the best way to move up in the industry. Many courses are offered by the Public Relations Society of America (see Resources below).

Step5

Look for promotion opportunities with your current employer. Many PR firms and PR departments prefer to promote from within the company because they need workers who are already familiar with their goals and structures. In order to become a public relations manager, you'll need around 10 years of experience in the field.

Step6

Check online job postings for PR manager positions. Since a certain degree of expertise is required for a manager position, many companies conduct countrywide job searches if they cannot promote from within. Websites like Journalism Jobs often post public relations manager positions (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

Start at a smaller company if you lack experience. Public relations manager positions at smaller companies often don't require extensive experience or advanced degrees. In these cases, management experience is often preferred over PR work. In many of these jobs, the PR manager will be the only person who works in public relations.