Students - PRSSA
| PRSSA | The
Cover Letter | Scholarships |
| Advice from the Pros | PR
Career Jumpstart |
Advice From the Pros
The Interview
Congratulations! You've just received a call from a prospective employer inviting you to interview for a public relations job opening. Before you tell your friends you've landed the job, slow down for a moment. Most employers screen from dozens or even hundreds of applicants and select six, maybe 10, candidates for preliminary interviews. Then they narrow the field to the three or four most impressive candidates. You've only made the first cut.
Research the Organization
Instead of savoring your success, now is the time to begin some serious research. Preparing yourself for the interview will greatly increase your odds of making it to the next round and, perhaps, beyond.
Find out all you can about the organization with which you are interviewing. Gather your background information from the Internet, the library or other resources. Maybe a story or two were published recently about your prospective employer. Perhaps you have a trusted friend or relative who can fill the gaps in the public documentation. Ask a receptionist for the organization's annual report, employee newsletter or any other informational literature.
Your objective is to become as knowledgeable as an outsider can be about the organization's mission, its relative size in its field, the names of its key executives as well as its major products or services. Additionally, if you are applying at a consulting firm, it might help to know something about a number of their clients. These elements are important, no matter what type of organization to which you are applying. If you have contacts in the public relations field, try to find out about the company's corporate culture and the issues it is facing now or in the recent past. What issues might be looming in the future? Check out any economic, social or political trends that could affect the organization's operations, just to be sure you're not blind-sided by an unanticipated question.
The purpose of your research is not to dazzle your prospective employer with your knowledge of the business. It is to prepare yourself to answer their questions intelligently and ask some of your own, thus indicating a genuine interest in the job.
