How To Become A Community Relations Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a community relations representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Derek Arnold,

Valerie Cronin-Fisher Ph.D.

Community relations representatives build and maintain relationships between organizations and communities by developing programs that benefit the organization and positively impact the community. As a community relations representative, you are the point of contact between the organization and the community. You are responsible for planning, organizing, and overseeing all community relations programs carried out to achieve the goal of the organization. You are also in charge of creating marketing content to help promote the organization. You will supervise your team to ensure that both the organization's goal and the goal for the community are being met.

As a community relations representative, you should have sound communication skills, writing skills, research skills, public relations, project management, public speaking, event planning, and community organizing skills. You also need a bachelor's degree in marketing, public relations, or any related course to qualify for this role. You will earn an average of $41,972 per year

What general advice would you give to a community relations representative?

Derek Arnold

Senior Instructor, Villanova University

One of the things I stress to my incoming first-year students is that you need to be less concerned about specialized skills right off the start that you might develop over four (or more) years (and many will wind up changing their choice of that major anyhow over their collegiate career) and worry more about strong "general" skills that will apply to multiple areas "out there." I tell them that some jobs available in four years haven't even been created yet. Application software developers, data miners, 3d printing engineers, AI specialists--all these positions were in their infancy only a few years ago. Some of the people in school right now will be among the first who might be hired to fill the new jobs created.

To some extent, the training for them is not complete either, so some basic skills can help you be in the right place at the right time. Skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, logic/argumentation, and strong speaking skills never go out of style and can turn out to be a key to success once you get dropped into a situation that wasn't exactly what you were expecting when you were looking for your first "real" job. Think about it: If you bought stock in a company that employed Zoom support technicians, plexiglass screen manufacturers, and installers, mask makers, or contact tracing application software designers, you are probably sitting in a good place right now. The key is to be prepared, ready, and willing to explore new opportunities as they arise; there's a lot you can learn on the fly, but having a well developed, sensible pattern to address general questions to solve problems (or even what questions you need to ask) can put you in advantageous positions. There is a crying need for this, especially in today's ever-changing world.

ScoreCommunity Relations RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

3.3

Avg. Salary $42,421

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.59%

Asian 5.34%

Black or African American 10.32%

Hispanic or Latino 12.19%

Unknown 5.02%

White 66.54%

Gender

female 73.93%

male 26.07%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a community relations representative

Explore community relations representative education requirements

Most common community relations representative degrees

Bachelor's

69.9 %

Master's

13.4 %

Associate

10.9 %

Start to develop specific community relations representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Community Relations	15.23%
Patients	11.31%
Community Organizations	10.32%
Communicate Issues	8.12%
Medicaid	6.17%

Complete relevant community relations representative training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New community relations representatives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a community relations representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real community relations representative resumes.

Research community relations representative duties and responsibilities

Manage YouTube channel to promote the brand.
Grow and manage existing relationships in assign territories with physicians, hospitals, skil nursing and rehabilitation facilities and assist livings.
Deliver education regarding hospice services to key decision makers to provide to appropriate patients.
Utilize a personal computer and relate software including Microsoft office, powerpoint and the internet.

Prepare your community relations representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your community relations representative resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a community relations representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable community relations representative resume templates

Build a professional community relations representative resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your community relations representative resume.

Apply for community relations representative jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a community relations representative job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do community relations representatives rate their job?

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Community relations representative reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019

Cons

I love my work. I don't love who I work for. They do not understand the steps involved in social media. And keep asking for analytics. I send them in a thoughtfully presented report. And they just don't get it. Sales thinks I jack around all day on social media. That is my job. Then there's the fact that I have to be paid to monitor the work and campaigns I shoot down the feeds. Ugh. Run for your life unless you work for a corporation.