Smart businessmen never underestimate the requirement for a good reputation of their companies. Whenever booming organizations fall out of public favor, they feel the painful financial sting. We have so many examples in front of us, including United Airlines, Tesla, etc., whose stocks plummet overnight due to media mismanagement. To maintain strong media relations with the public, services of experts like media relations specialists can help you out.
Helping an organization keep good public relations through various media platforms is the main role of a media relation specialist. These passionate professionals convey the brand's message and purpose to the public in a good way. They arrange schedules, assign duties to graphic designers and writers, make sure that every goal is met within the decided budget and deadline.
They get a pay of $22.55 per hour for playing such a crucial role. If you are looking to pursue a career in this profession, go for a bachelor's degree in communication or business. To have an advantage over other applicants, get a master's degree instead.
Media Relations Specialist Overview
Media Relations Specialist Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a media relations specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.88 an hour? That's $43,426 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 17,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Media Relations Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many media relations specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed interpersonal skills, organizational skills and problem-solving skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a media relations specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.8% of media relations specialists included patient care, while 12.7% of resumes included communication, and 8.1% of resumes included clinical staff. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the media relations specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most media relations specialists actually find jobs in the health care and hospitality industries.
How To Become a Media Relations Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a media relations specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 60.7% of media relations specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.9% of media relations specialists have master's degrees. Even though most media relations specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a media relations specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a media relations specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on media relations specialist resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a media relations specialist. In fact, many media relations specialist jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many media relations specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or administrative assistant.
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Media Relations Specialist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of assistant manager you might progress to a role such as account manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title marketing communications manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Media Relations Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Salt Lake City Corporation Golfer Relations Specialist Hourly Nibley Golfer Relations Specialist Hourly Nibley | Salt Lake City Corporation Salt Lake City Corporation | 03/03/2021 03/03/2021 | $22,68603/03/2021 $22,686 |
MFB, Inc. Media Relations Specialist Media Relations Specialist | MFB, Inc. MFB, Inc. | 02/23/2021 02/23/2021 | $69,54002/23/2021 $69,540 |
State of Georgia Government & Legislative Relations-Gsp052, Policy & Legislative Relations Specialist (K)-Atlan Government & Legislative Relations-Gsp052, Policy & Legislative Relations Specialist (K)-Atlan | State of Georgia State of Georgia | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $55,23001/29/2021 $55,230 |
Georgia Department of Revenue Government & Legislative Relations-Gsp052, Policy & Legislative Relations Specialist (K)-Atlan Government & Legislative Relations-Gsp052, Policy & Legislative Relations Specialist (K)-Atlan | Georgia Department of Revenue Georgia Department of Revenue | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $55,23001/27/2021 $55,230 |
Tennessee State University Media Relations Specialist Media Relations Specialist | Tennessee State University Tennessee State University | 01/21/2021 01/21/2021 | $38,79801/21/2021 $38,798 |
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Media Relations Specialist Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Media Relations Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Media Relations Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Media Relations Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Media Relations Specialists
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
4. University of Houston
Houston, TX • Public
5. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
6. Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY • Private
7. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
8. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
9. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
10. Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI • Private
Top Skills For a Media Relations Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.8% of media relations specialists listed patient care on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and organizational skills are important as well.
- Patient Care, 12.8%
- Communication, 12.7%
- Clinical Staff, 8.1%
- Office Staff, 7.8%
- Press Releases, 7.1%
- Other Skills, 51.5% See All Media Relations Specialist Skills
Best States For a Media Relations Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a media relations specialist. The best states for people in this position are Washington, Connecticut, Oregon, and New Jersey. Media relations specialists make the most in Washington with an average salary of $61,022. Whereas in Connecticut and Oregon, they would average $58,828 and $52,453, respectively. While media relations specialists would only make an average of $52,016 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. District of Columbia
$68,765
Avg. Salary
2. Oregon
$52,453
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$58,828
Avg. Salary
How Do Media Relations Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Media Relations Specialist Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ media relations specialists and discovered their number of media relations specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that The Nielsen Company was the best, especially with an average salary of $54,756. American Cancer Society follows up with an average salary of $40,907, and then comes Vitalant with an average of $36,203. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a media relations specialist. The employers include HealthTronics, Azalea Health, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Media Relations Specialist Videos
