Paul Stollery (he/him)’s Post

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Co-founder and creative director of Hard Numbers

People of PR: what questions do you ask when you're interviewing entry-level staff? For more senior roles, it's fairly straightforward, as you chat a lot about experience, what they feel they excel at, how they approached things, etc., etc. But for entry-level staff, it's a little bit harder. What we tend to look for is an understanding of PR, what news is, and the basics of how to write. Beyond that, if they're organised and enthusiastic, we can teach them. So we ask: 🤔 Why do you want to work in PR? 🤔 What is your understanding of the difference between PR and advertising? 🤔 How does a PR agency serve its clients? 🤔 What makes a good news story? 🤔 What are your strengths and weaknesses? 🤔 What types of clients do you want to work with? They're a bit ronseal, but they do a job. What do you ask? Am I missing any killer questions? #publicrelations #internjobs #jobs

Rowan Adams

award-winning agency founder | svp, creative director @ porter novelli

9mo

For any role up to and including AD, I always provide the questions ahead of time, so they can be awesome and the interview isn't a memory test. Totally agree that you can teach for skills, I am just looking for enthusiastic/thoughtful/lively discussion. These are the J/AE questions I use: 1. What's the best and/or worst PR campaign you've seen in the last month and why? 2. What publications do you love to read (online/print)? 3. Can you name two newspapers that speak to completely different audiences? 4. What do you think is the biggest trend on TikTok right now? 5. What do you think is the goal of a great PR campaign? 6. What would you like to learn in the next 6 months? 7. Tell us anything you'd love us to know about you 8. Is there anything you've always wanted to know about the industry but have been too afraid to ask?

Naomi MG Smith Chart.PR MCIPR

Digital & Insights, FTI Consulting + Board Member, Coventry University Students' Union.

9mo

I’d also consider asking - how you stay up to date with news and what titles do you read? The idea is to understand how they frequent news, and the type of news they typically engage with e.g. national, regional, trade, digital e.g TikTok - it provides insight about something they’ll have to do in the role.

Nigel Sarbutts

Founder of The PR Cavalry, the freelance PR matchmaking platform. Forbes calls us "The freelance revolution in action". #FutureofWork

9mo

I'm not sure the one about how to serve clients is very fair for entry-level! What PR campaigns have caught your eye and what was it that stood out? What was the last book you read? Who in public life do you admire but disagree with? Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?* *Depending on how it's going at this point 

Doug Hunter

PR | Communications Director and Senior Consultant

9mo

I think there’s a slant here that is missing. Of course, it’s good to know they know what PR is. But, chat to them, where do their interests lie, do they strike you as a person that will take initiative, are they inquisitive? Maybe give them a run down of some of your clients and just bounce around with them to see what questions they ask further or where the conversation goes? In essence, are they intelligent and good to chat to, the rest of the questions about PR can be learned in a morning, how they take that learning for the next one, two, three months, that’s the exciting part. They have something to offer you on day one, fresh eyes and outside our box thinking. Run with it.

Sean O'Meara

Managing Director @ Essential Content|specialist communications agency for businesses in regulated industries.

9mo

What was your favourite PR campaign of this / last year and why did you like it? If you could work with any client, who would it be and why? Please describe your DREAM workday in PR, what are you doing? What's happening? Who are you talking to? Some tasks we set, which give us a really good understanding of how much / little someone 'gets' PR when they may lack hands-on experience: Please send us a press release announcing your appointment to the role. (this gives us a feel for how they perceive themselves and how they perceive us, and whether they can write a press release, it's also good because it's obviously not labour we can 'steal') Take a look at this (either cherry-picked, fake or old) opinion poll data and send us 3 headlines summarising it.

Charlotte Lidster

Helping build cities for people, not cars, by hiring awesome Marketing talent across Bolt's global offices (via Chapter 2)

9mo

What qualities do you have that make you ideally suited to PR? This one helps you get a bit more insight on their understanding of the industry and also what skills they need to be successful in it. I like it because it’s more specific than “tell me your strengths” etc Another good one is what do you think is the biggest challenge facing the PR industry right now. But that also might be a bit hardcore for entry level!

David Fraser

Founder & Managing Director at Ready10 - 2023 PR Week, PRCA UK, PRCA Dare & CIPR Agency of the Year

9mo

Individual choice but I don't ask any of the industry/technical questions at entry level. That's for us to teach them. I want to understand their approach/values/enthusiasm/competence and we'll do the rest. Recruit for attitude, train for skill.

Ata Rahman

Communications at Imperial College London

9mo

Things I have been asked in the past or cobbled as part of mock interviews: How would you handle negative PR? What makes a good campaign? How would you measure PR? I wouldn't be expecting detailed, industry-backed answers, but a good candidate would have enough from their research to give some good points on each of these.

Stuart McBride

Chartered PR Practitioner specialising in turning insight and innovation into news pipelines and communications programmes.

9mo

What's the thing that most concerns you about this role? (You never said the questions had to be nice.)

Nadia Haynes

Strategic Communications & PR | Founder & Director, The Glass Hive | Trusted Advisor, Mentor & Trainer | Shaping Communications, Personal Branding & Business Strategy to Amplify Leaders Voices with Integrity and Impact

9mo

💡 I would ask a candidate, "Can you share a successful PR campaign you admire and why it was effective?" This helps assess their understanding of successful PR campaigns, critical analysis skills, and ability to appreciate effective PR strategies, showing attention to detail and critical thinking capabilities.

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