Public Relations Specialist Career Assessment
Telling an organization’s story in plain words
Welcome
Public relations specialists handle how an organization talks to everybody outside it — the public, the news, donors, patients, customers, and the people down the street.
It is writing, planning, and showing up in person. You will explore what the day is really like and whether it fits you.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Public Relations Specialist?
A public relations specialist writes and plans. You write news releases, newsletters, social media posts, speeches, and the page on the website that explains what happened. You plan events — a ribbon cutting, an open house, a fundraiser, a booth at the county fair — and then you work them. You answer questions from reporters. When something goes wrong, you help the organization say so clearly and quickly. This is sometimes called communications or marketing communications, and in a small North Dakota organization it is often one person doing all of it.
The Reality: Two things people do not expect. First, this is a writing job before it is anything else — if you do not like writing and rewriting, you will not like this. Second, the work does not stay inside business hours. Events are at night and on weekends. Bad news does not wait. And in a small shop you will also be taking the photos, running the social accounts, and hauling the folding table out to the fair yourself.
Your Responsibilities:
- Write news releases, newsletters, and website copy
- Write and schedule social media posts, and answer the comments
- Plan and run community events, open houses, and fundraisers
- Answer questions from reporters and set up interviews
- Take photos and shoot short video at events
- Build relationships with local news, schools, and community groups
- Help leaders say hard things clearly when something goes wrong
- Track what worked — attendance, coverage, clicks — and report it
You are the voice people hear when they hear from your organization.
A Day in the Life
8:00 AM — Check overnight comments and messages. Answer the two that need a real answer.
8:30 AM — Write a news release about a new clinic service. Get the name and title spelled right.
10:00 AM — Call a reporter in Bismarck and offer an interview with the clinic director.
11:00 AM — Plan next month’s open house: room, food, signs, parking, who greets people.
12:00 PM — Lunch at your desk while you edit photos from last week’s event.
1:00 PM — Draft three weeks of social posts and send them to your director to approve.
3:00 PM — Your director calls: a complaint is going around online. Draft a short, honest response.
5:30 PM — Drive to a community meeting, set up the table, and stay until it is over.
Mostly writing and planning at a desk, with real evenings out among people.
Training in North Dakota
Most jobs ask for a four-year degree in communication, public relations, journalism, or marketing. The degree gets you looked at. The clips get you hired. An employer wants to see things you actually wrote and events you actually ran, so do the internship, write for the student paper, and run the social accounts for a club or a church. A two-year degree plus a stack of real work and an internship can get you an assistant job, especially in a small town.
Training Pathways:
- Four-year degree (4 years): A strategic communication, communication, public relations, journalism, or marketing degree. This is the standard route and it is what most postings ask for.
- Two-year first, then transfer (2 + 2 years): Start with a communication arts or liberal arts associate degree at a North Dakota two-year college, which costs far less, then transfer into a four-year communication program. Write and volunteer the whole time.
- Come in sideways (varies): Plenty of people in this job started as an administrative assistant, a reporter, a teacher, or a nonprofit volunteer coordinator and took over communications because they could write. Keep every piece you produce. That pile is your portfolio.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
- NDSU (Fargo) — Strategic Communication, bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in either public relations or advertising. On campus. Requires a 3-credit, 120-hour internship. Has an Advertising Club and a Public Relations Student Society of America chapter — ndsu.edu
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Communication, BA, offered on campus or online — und.edu
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Strategic Communication: Advertising and Public Relations certificate, which can be added to another degree — und.edu
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Communication Arts, AA. A two-year transfer degree meant as the first half of a four-year communication degree — catalog.bismarckstate.edu
- Minot State University (Minot) — communication coursework and a smaller campus where a student can realistically run real communications for a campus office — minotstateu.edu
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Graphic Design and Communications, AAS, 63 credits. Worth a look if you want the design and photo side too; small organizations love someone who can write and lay out a flyer — catalog.bismarckstate.edu
Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. Strong writing and spelling. Being comfortable talking to strangers, on the phone and in person. Take English, speech, and journalism. Start a folder of everything you write that someone else read.
Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — that is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.
Certification & Licensing
No license is required. There is one respected national credential, and it is for people who already have experience. Nobody needs permission to do public relations work. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) offers the Accreditation in Public Relations, or APR, which is the main professional credential in the field. It is voluntary, and it is not an entry-level credential — it is built for practitioners who already have a body of work to present (prsa.org).
Credentials in This Field:
- No license — North Dakota does not license public relations specialists
- APR (PRSA) — Accreditation in Public Relations. Four steps: apply for candidacy, complete a questionnaire and give a live Panel Presentation to reviewers, pass a monitored computer-based examination, and then keep it current through continuing education (prsa.org)
- What the Panel Presentation is for — PRSA says it judges knowledge, skills, and abilities that an exam cannot judge. You present your own real work and answer for it
- Certificate in Principles of Public Relations (PRSA) — a separate, smaller credential aimed at college juniors, seniors, and recent graduates. This is the one to look at if you are just starting (prsa.org)
- Your clips — releases you wrote, events you ran, coverage you got, numbers you can point to. This is what actually gets you hired, credential or not
- Photo, video, and design software — not required, but in a one-person shop it is the difference between doing the job and not
The Exams: The APR examination is a monitored computer-based test taken after you pass the Panel Presentation. PRSA does not publish a passing percentage on its accreditation page, so ask PRSA directly when you apply.
Cost: PRSA does not publish the APR fees on its main accreditation page — call or email PRSA for current amounts before you commit. One thing it does state: PRSA members get a $100 rebate if they pass the APR examination on the first try (prsa.org).
Keeping It Current: APR is maintained through ongoing continuing education. PRSA describes renewal as showing a commitment to lifelong learning but does not list the hours on that page, so ask PRSA for the current renewal rules.
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Public Relations Specialist Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $23.07–$27.52/hour ($47,980–$57,240/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $33.79/hour ($70,280/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $41.34–$48.42/hour ($85,980–$100,710/year)
What that means: The middle North Dakota public relations specialist earns about $33.79 an hour, or about $70,280 a year. Here is the honest comparison. At the bottom, North Dakota actually pays a little better than the country: about $23.07 an hour here against about $21.21 nationally. In the middle, North Dakota trails: $33.79 here against about $35.94 nationally. At the top, North Dakota trails badly — the top tenth here earns about $100,710 a year, while the top tenth nationally earns about $135,150. The ceiling is lower here. The floor is not.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 620 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 660 (about 6% growth). Expect about 60 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 5% growth — faster than average.
Outlook: Modest but real. About 620 people do this work in North Dakota now, growing to about 660 by 2034, with roughly 60 openings a year. That is the second-best opening count in this group and the growth rate slightly beats the national rate. Most of the jobs are in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot, because that is where the hospitals, universities, agencies, and bigger nonprofits are. Small-town jobs exist but often come bundled with marketing, fundraising, or an office manager role.
Who Hires in ND: Hospitals and health systems, universities and colleges, state agencies and city and county government, banks and credit unions, electric co-ops and utilities, energy companies, tribal governments and tribal colleges, nonprofits and foundations, tourism and chambers of commerce, and marketing and advertising agencies in Fargo and Bismarck.
Work Setting: An office, with a lot of time out of it. Events, community meetings, plant or campus tours, and driving to them. Some jobs allow partial remote work, but the events are in person and many are evenings and weekends.
Physical Demands: Low to moderate. Mostly desk work, but event days mean hauling tables, boxes, and signs, standing for hours, and being on your feet in a crowd. Being able to carry a tote of materials helps.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 27-3031); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: Communications Assistant or Coordinator — The usual first job. Writing, posting, and helping at events.
Path 2: Public Relations Specialist — You own a piece of the communications work.
Path 3: Communications Manager — You plan the whole message and manage others.
Path 4: Public Information Officer — The official voice of a government agency, school district, or hospital.
Path 5: Marketing or Communications Director — You set the strategy and the budget.
Path 6: Freelance or Agency — Write and run campaigns for several clients at once.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- Your writing reaches real people
- Every week brings a different story
- You meet your whole community
- Skills transfer to any industry
- Some jobs allow partial remote work
- A clear ladder into management
What's Hard:
- Evenings and weekends for events
- Bad news does not wait for morning
- One-person shops carry everything
- Someone always edits your writing
- Pay at the top trails the country
- You take the blame for other people’s mistakes
Be Honest: Do you actually like writing, including the third rewrite? Can you stay calm and clear when something has gone wrong and people are upset? Are you willing to work evenings and weekends for events? And can you take your work being edited by someone who is not a writer?