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

What is a public relations officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Stefanie Leiter,

Anonymous Professor

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a public relations officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.18 an hour? That's $33,646 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 22,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

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

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 OfficerUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,646

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 10.34%

Hispanic or Latino 12.21%

Unknown 5.12%

White 66.39%

Gender

female 58.90%

male 41.10%

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 officer

Explore public relations officer education requirements

Most common public relations officer degrees

Bachelor's

70.4 %

Master's

11.0 %

Associate

7.9 %

Start to develop specific public relations officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Website Content	16.47%
Press Releases	16.18%
Facebook	7.63%
Press Conferences	7.22%
Twitter	4.43%

Complete relevant public relations officer training and internships

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

Research public relations officer duties and responsibilities

Create PowerPoint presentations and manage a high volume of communication via phone and e-mail from and internal and external sources.
Manage all copywriting elements for live broadcasts and promotional commercials.
Share other organizations' collaborative Facebook events on CAO's Facebook.
Create events and publicize that information through social media platforms such as Facebook.

Prepare your public relations officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your public relations officer 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 officer 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 officer resume templates

Build a professional public relations officer 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 officer resume.