How To Become A Public Relations Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a public relations consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Stefanie Leiter,

Anonymous Professor

Public relations consultants communicate the mission and image of a company or organization to the public. They work as part of a communications team or department and disseminate information about the company, putting across the desired message about company policies or goals to generate trust for its products or services.

Working as a public relations consultant, you will write press releases, newsletters, brochures, articles, and product information and publish them on media platforms. You might be entrusted with organizing publicity events to raise awareness of new brands or products and represent the company at press conferences or other public appearances.

The chances of finding a job as a public relations consultant are predicted to increase steadily over the next decade. Familiarity with the nuances of social media will be expected of successful candidates. This profession is a popular choice of many, so prepare for some healthy competition.

What general advice would you give to a public relations consultant?

Stefanie Leiter

Assistant Professor of Public Relations, Anderson University

My advice is for students to start connecting early via LinkedIn. Years ago, employers looked at GPAs or resumes. Now, they are wondering who you know and what you did to excel in your program before your career.

ScorePublic Relations ConsultantUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $50,333

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 5.32%

Black or African American 10.18%

Hispanic or Latino 12.06%

Unknown 5.10%

White 66.75%

Gender

female 66.73%

male 33.27%

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 public relations consultant

Explore public relations consultant education requirements

Most common public relations consultant degrees

Bachelor's

80.7 %

Master's

11.6 %

Associate

4.7 %

Start to develop specific public relations consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Press Releases	18.82%
Web Content	12.18%
Strategic Communications	9.62%
Community Outreach	4.85%
Facebook	3.58%

Complete relevant public relations consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New public relations consultants 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 public relations consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real public relations consultant resumes.

Research public relations consultant duties and responsibilities

Maintain strong working relationships across all departments to manage successful on-site opportunities, content and multimedia asset development and spokesperson requests.
Create the first official Instagram account for the fine arts galleries.
Create highly visible content by utilizing a wide variety of social media platforms and SEO trends.
Plan and execute all web, SEO, PPC, email, and social media campaigns.

Prepare your public relations consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your public relations consultant 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 public relations consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable public relations consultant resume templates

Build a professional public relations consultant 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 public relations consultant resume.