Six question sets written for the employer side of the table: story judgment, media relations, crisis, measurement, agency management, and a scorecard. Every question comes with the reason to ask it and what a strong answer sounds like. Download as DOCX.
The first time I interviewed for a public relations role, I asked the wrong questions and got exactly the answers I deserved. Every candidate arrived with a folder of clippings, a warm story about a reporter they knew, and a confident opinion about our brand. Not one of them had to explain how they chose which story to pitch, what they would do in the first hour of a bad one, or how they would prove any of it worked.
Public relations is one of the few functions where the candidate persuades people for a living. That makes an ordinary interview a poor test, because the format plays to the exact skill being sold. The only way through it is structure: questions that need specific knowledge rather than delivery, a written idea of what a good answer sounds like, and a scorecard filled in before anyone talks you into a hire.
At FirstHR, we build for owners and managers who run this hire themselves, with no HR department to write the process for them. This page gives you six question sets for the employer side of the table, covering story judgment, media relations, crisis, measurement, agency and stakeholder management, and a scoring rubric. Every question states why it is worth asking.
TL;DR
Interview a public relations manager on six things: story judgment, media relations, crisis response, measurement, managing agencies and vendors, and discretion. Ask questions that require knowledge of your business rather than polished delivery, and treat a guarantee of coverage as a red flag. The federal occupation reported a median of $146,910 a year in the May 2025 wage survey. Download six sets and a scorecard as DOCX.
What to Assess in a PR Manager
Assess a public relations manager on five things: judgment about which story is worth telling, media relations built on beats rather than a contact list, crisis response under time pressure, honest measurement, and the discretion to keep a bad idea out of writing. Everything else in the job is a variation on one of those.
At a small business the manager title is misleading. The person you hire will almost certainly write the pitch, build the media list, prepare the founder, and make the awkward call that a planned message will not survive contact with a reporter. Interviewing them like a department head who directs work is how small companies end up hiring someone who has never done the work themselves.
Story judgment
Finds an angle in an unfamiliar business
Can explain what is not a story
Names outlets and beats, not just brands
Crisis temperament
Verifies facts before drafting anything
Escalates early to a named approver
Knows when silence is the better call
Measurement honesty
Reports outcomes tied to the business
Rejects equivalent advertising value
Says plainly what did not work
Red flags
Guarantees coverage in a named outlet
Vague about their own contribution
Cannot describe a story they killed
The single most useful follow-up in this interview is a version of how did you decide that? Coverage results depend heavily on timing and luck, so the reasoning behind a decision is a better signal than the outcome that followed it. A candidate who can explain a choice they made under uncertainty is worth more than one with a thicker folder of clippings.
Which Question Set Should You Use?
Use the core set and the crisis set with every candidate, then add the sets that match what the role actually owns. Six sets are below, each built around a different part of the job, and each question carries the reason to ask it and what a strong answer sounds like.
Core PR Manager Questions
Use with everyone
Eight questions on story judgment, priorities, and pushback, each with the reason to ask it and what a strong answer sounds like. Start here.
Media Relations and Spokesperson
When earned media matters
Exclusives, deadlines, attribution terms, corrections, and how they would prepare a founder who has never been interviewed.
Crisis and Issues Management
Use with every candidate
The first hour, holding statements, approval chains, and when the right move is to say nothing at all. The largest downside risk in this hire.
Measurement and Budget
Outcomes, not activity
What goes in the monthly report, how to measure with free tools, disclosure for paid programs, and the one metric that exposes a weak candidate.
Team, Agency, and Stakeholders
Managing money and vendors
Briefing an agency, handling one that is missing the mark, setting priorities against a founder, and developing a junior coordinator.
Scoring Rubric and Red Flags
Decide on evidence
A six-area scorecard, a paid work sample checklist, and a red-flag list, so two candidates are compared on what they said rather than who was warmer.
Match the Sets to the Role You Are Actually Filling
Only communications person at a small company: Core, Crisis, and Measurement. Earned media is the point of the hire: add Media Relations and Spokesperson. The role owns a budget, an agency, or a coordinator: add Team, Agency, and Stakeholders. Every candidate, without exception: Crisis, plus the Scoring Rubric. If you use only two sets, use Core and Crisis, since between them they cover the judgment that costs the most when it is missing.
6 Free Question Sets and a Scorecard to Download
Download all six as a single Word document, or copy the sets you need. Each follows the same structure: when to use it, the questions with a stated reason and a good-answer note, what to listen for, and space for notes. The last file is the scorecard with a work sample checklist and red flags.
Download All 6 Question Sets and the Scorecard
Core, media relations, crisis, measurement, agency and stakeholder management, and a scoring rubric with red flags. All in one DOCX.
Set 1: Core Public Relations Manager Questions
Eight questions on story judgment, priorities, pushback, and what would make them leave, each with the reason to ask it and what a strong answer sounds like. Use this set with every candidate.
Core Public Relations Manager Questions
CORE PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO USE THIS SET
Ask every candidate all eight of these, in the same order, and write down what
was said before you form an opinion. Each question lists why it is worth asking
and what a strong answer sounds like, so you can judge the answer without
having run a communications function yourself.
QUESTIONS
1. You have read our website. Which story would you pitch first, and to whom?
Why ask: this is the whole job in one question. It tests whether the
candidate can find news in an unfamiliar business without a briefing deck.
Good answer: names one specific angle, the type of outlet and the beat it
sits on, and why a reporter covering that beat would care right now.
Weak answer: talks about raising awareness, or asks what we want said.
2. What would you want to be measured on in your first six months?
Why ask: it reveals whether they think in outcomes or in activity.
Good answer: proposes two or three concrete measures tied to the business,
such as coverage in named target outlets, message pull-through, or inbound
from a specific audience, and admits what takes longer than six months.
Weak answer: promises a number of placements per month with no target list.
3. Tell me about a story you decided not to pitch. Why did you kill it?
Why ask: judgment shows up more clearly in what someone declines to do.
Good answer: a real example where the story was thin, off-strategy, or
likely to invite a question the company could not answer yet.
Weak answer: cannot think of one, which usually means they pitch everything.
4. How would you split your week if you were the only communications person?
Why ask: at a small company the manager title still includes the writing.
Good answer: a realistic split with time reserved for reading the trade
press, and a willingness to do the work rather than only direct it.
Weak answer: describes a structure that assumes an agency and two reports.
5. Walk me through how you build a media list from nothing.
Why ask: tests process rather than a contact book that may be out of date.
Good answer: starts from the audience, reads recent bylines, verifies who
covers what now, and records a per-contact angle rather than a mass send.
Weak answer: refers vaguely to relationships or to a purchased list.
6. What do you read every morning, and what did you learn from it this week?
Why ask: a communications lead who does not read the news cannot place it.
Good answer: names specific trade titles, newsletters, and reporters, and
can describe a story from this week and why it ran.
Weak answer: general mentions of industry news with nothing specific.
7. How do you decide when to say no to the founder about a message?
Why ask: the role is worth little if it only executes what it is handed.
Good answer: describes a real pushback, the reasoning, and how it was
raised privately and constructively rather than in a group setting.
Weak answer: says the founder is always right, or describes a public fight.
8. What would make you leave this job within a year?
Why ask: honest constraints now cost far less than a resignation later.
Good answer: specific and self-aware: no budget at all, no access to
leadership, or being asked to say something they do not believe.
Weak answer: nothing, or a rehearsed answer about growth opportunities.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Specific outlets, beats, and angles rather than generic brand language
•Judgment about what not to do, not only what to do
•Comfort doing the work personally at a small company
•Honesty about what public relations cannot deliver
NOTES
__
__
Set 2: Media Relations and Spokesperson Questions
Exclusives against broad announcements, deadlines, terms of attribution, corrections, follow-up discipline, and how they would prepare a founder who has never been interviewed.
Media Relations and Spokesperson Questions
MEDIA RELATIONS AND SPOKESPERSON QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set when earned media is a real part of the role: press inquiries,
pitching, and preparing an executive to be quoted. Skip it if the role is
mostly internal communications or content marketing, and weight the core set
and the measurement set instead.
QUESTIONS
1. How do you decide between an exclusive and a broad announcement?
Why ask: it separates someone who understands leverage from someone who
sends the same email to two hundred addresses.
Good answer: weighs the size of the news against the reach of the outlet,
and knows an exclusive buys depth at the cost of breadth.
2. A reporter emails at 4:45 pm on a Friday with a question you cannot
answer. What do you do in the next thirty minutes?
Why ask: reporters do not work around your calendar, and the response in
the first hour usually sets the tone of the piece.
Good answer: acknowledges receipt with a realistic time, finds out the
deadline, escalates internally, and does not guess on the record.
3. What is the difference between on the record, on background, and off the
record, and how do you set that with a reporter?
Why ask: getting this wrong once can be expensive and is easy to test.
Good answer: defines all three accurately and says the terms are agreed
before the sentence is spoken, not after.
4. How do you prepare a founder who has never been interviewed?
Why ask: spokesperson coaching is a core part of the job at a small company.
Good answer: a short message document, three points, anticipated hard
questions, a practice run, and clear guidance on what not to speculate about.
5. We got a story wrong in a published article. How do you handle a correction?
Why ask: tests whether they escalate proportionately or overreact.
Good answer: distinguishes a material factual error, which merits a polite
documented correction request, from an unflattering framing, which does not.
6. How do you follow up on a pitch without becoming a nuisance?
Why ask: follow-up discipline is where relationships are made or burned.
Good answer: one useful follow-up with new information, then stop, and a
note in the tracker about what that reporter does and does not cover.
7. Tell me about a relationship with a reporter that you damaged.
Why ask: everyone has one, and the answer tells you about self-awareness.
Good answer: an honest account and a specific change in behavior after.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Understands beats and deadlines, not just names
•Sets terms with a reporter before speaking, not after
•Proportionate response to unflattering coverage
•Prepares the spokesperson rather than speaking for them
NOTES
__
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The first hour, holding statements, approval chains, and the case for saying nothing at all. Ask these of every candidate, even when the day-to-day job looks like announcements and content.
Crisis and Issues Management Questions
CRISIS AND ISSUES MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set with every candidate for a manager-level role, whatever the rest
of the job looks like. The cost of a poor crisis response is the single largest
downside risk in this hire, and it is the area candidates are least often asked
about in a small business interview.
QUESTIONS
1. A customer posts a serious, credible complaint that starts spreading.
Walk me through your first hour.
Why ask: the sequence tells you whether they have a process or an instinct.
Good answer: verify the facts first, notify the owner, hold the public
response until the facts are known, prepare a holding statement, and decide
who responds and where. Speed of acknowledgment, not speed of explanation.
2. What goes into a holding statement, and what stays out?
Why ask: this is a concrete, checkable craft question.
Good answer: acknowledgment, what is known, what is being done, when the
next update comes. No speculation, no blame, no promises about cause.
3. When would you advise the company to say nothing at all?
Why ask: a manager who always wants to respond will make a small issue big.
Good answer: when the matter is in legal process, when the facts are not
established, or when a response would amplify something almost nobody saw.
4. Who should approve a public statement during a crisis, and how fast?
Why ask: unclear approval chains are why small issues get worse overnight.
Good answer: a named short chain agreed in advance, with counsel looped in
for legal exposure, and a target response time everyone has accepted.
5. Tell me about a real issue you managed. What did you get wrong?
Why ask: the mistake is more informative than the win.
Good answer: a specific account with an honest error and a changed process.
6. How do you separate a genuine crisis from a bad afternoon online?
Why ask: proportion is the scarcest skill in this part of the job.
Good answer: uses tests such as whether it is spreading beyond the original
audience, whether it is factually true, and whether it touches safety,
money, or the law.
7. What would you put in place in your first month so we are ready?
Why ask: preparation is cheap and almost nobody has done it.
Good answer: a one-page plan naming who speaks, the escalation path, the
approval chain, and pre-drafted holding language for likely scenarios.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Verifies facts before drafting a public response
•Knows when silence is the right call
•Wants an approval chain agreed in advance, in writing
•Talks about honesty and correction rather than spin
NOTES
__
Set 4: Measurement, Budget, and Program Questions
What goes in the monthly report, how to measure with free tools, disclosure for gifted and paid programs, and the one metric question that sorts candidates in seconds.
Measurement, Budget, and Program Questions
MEASUREMENT, BUDGET, AND PROGRAM QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set when the role owns a budget or reports to an owner who needs to
justify the spend. It is also the fastest way to separate a candidate who
measures work from one who reports activity, because the vocabulary gives it
away immediately.
QUESTIONS
1. What is in your monthly report, and who is it written for?
Why ask: the report is the artifact the owner actually lives with.
Good answer: a short report tied to business goals, honest about what did
not work, with a clear ask or decision at the end.
2. How do you measure public relations without an enterprise budget?
Why ask: at a small company the monitoring stack is a spreadsheet.
Good answer: free alerts and searches, a coverage log with outlet quality
and message accuracy scored by hand, referral traffic, and a simple record
of how often prospects mention having seen something.
3. What do you think of advertising value equivalency as a metric?
Why ask: this is the clearest single test of measurement literacy.
Good answer: rejects it, and explains that it converts coverage into a fake
media buy figure that says nothing about whether the message landed.
Weak answer: quotes an equivalent dollar value as a headline result.
4. Coverage volume is up and nothing else changed. What do you do?
Why ask: tests whether they will interrogate their own numbers.
Good answer: checks whether the coverage reached the right audience and
carried the right message, then changes the target list rather than the goal.
5. How would you spend a small budget across the year?
Why ask: forces prioritization instead of a wish list.
Good answer: a defensible allocation with a reason for each line and one
thing explicitly not funded this year.
6. If we run gifted product or paid creator programs, how do you handle
disclosure?
Why ask: undisclosed material connections create real regulatory exposure.
Good answer: requires clear and conspicuous disclosure in the post itself,
puts it in the written brief, and monitors compliance rather than assuming it.
7. What did you stop doing at your last job, and why?
Why ask: a manager who only adds programs will bury a small team.
Good answer: a specific program ended with a reason and a measured result.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Measures outcomes, not impressions or equivalent ad value
•Comfortable working with free and low-cost tools
•Treats disclosure as a requirement, not a courtesy
•Willing to stop programs that are not working
NOTES
__
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Briefing an agency or a freelancer, handling one that is missing the mark, setting priorities against a founder who sends requests directly, and developing a junior coordinator.
Team, Agency, and Stakeholder Questions
TEAM, AGENCY, AND STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set if the role will manage anyone: a coordinator, a freelance writer,
a contract designer, or an outside agency. Most small business public relations
managers manage budget and vendors long before they manage employees, and the
vendor questions are the ones usually skipped.
QUESTIONS
1. How do you brief an agency or a freelancer so the first draft is usable?
Why ask: a weak brief is the most common cause of wasted retainer spend.
Good answer: audience, message, proof points, constraints, deadline, and
the definition of done, provided in writing before work starts.
2. An agency is missing the mark three months in. What do you do?
Why ask: tests whether they will manage a vendor or quietly absorb the work.
Good answer: a documented review against the agreed scope, a direct
conversation with specific examples, a short correction period, and a
willingness to end the relationship if nothing changes.
3. How do you work with sales and the founder without becoming a request desk?
Why ask: at a small company everyone will send this person tasks.
Good answer: a published intake with lead times and a visible priority list
agreed with the owner, so trade-offs are explicit rather than personal.
4. How would you develop a junior coordinator into someone who can pitch?
Why ask: this is the difference between a manager and a senior individual.
Good answer: a specific progression: shadowing, drafting under review, a low
stakes first pitch, and feedback on the process rather than only the result.
5. Tell me about a time you disagreed with leadership on a public position.
Why ask: the value of the role is the counsel, not the press release.
Good answer: a real disagreement, raised privately with reasoning and an
alternative, and a professional response to the decision either way.
6. How do you handle confidential information before an announcement?
Why ask: this role sees hiring, funding, and product news before anyone.
Good answer: treats everything as confidential by default, keeps drafts in
controlled locations, and expects to sign a confidentiality agreement.
7. What would you need from me in the first ninety days to succeed?
Why ask: a good manager will ask for access and clarity, not headcount.
Good answer: access to leadership, a decision on the priority audience, and
agreement on the approval chain.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Briefs vendors in writing before work starts
•Manages an underperforming agency rather than absorbing the work
•Makes trade-offs visible instead of taking every request
•Treats confidentiality as a default, not a special case
NOTES
__
Set 6: Scoring Rubric and Red Flags
A six-area scorecard, a paid work sample checklist, and a red-flag list, so two candidates are compared on what they said rather than on which conversation felt better.
PR Manager Scoring Rubric and Red Flags
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER SCORING RUBRIC AND RED-FLAG CHECKLIST
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO SCORE
Score each area from 1 to 5 right after the interview, while it is fresh, and
anchor every score to something the candidate actually said. If more than one
person interviews, each scores independently before the group talks, so the
most senior voice in the room does not set everyone else. Use the same rubric
for every candidate.
Rating scale:
5 = Strong, specific evidence 4 = Solid evidence 3 = Some evidence
2 = Weak or mixed evidence 1 = No evidence or red flags
SCORING AREAS
Story judgment: finds real news, and can explain what is not a story
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Media relations: understands beats, deadlines, and terms of attribution
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Crisis judgment: verifies first, escalates, knows when to stay quiet
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Measurement: reports outcomes, rejects vanity and equivalent ad value
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Vendor and stakeholder management: briefs well, manages agencies, sets priority
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Writing and accuracy: clear, correct, and fast under a deadline
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
WORK SAMPLE SCORE (OPTIONAL, PAID)
Brief: draft a short announcement and a three-line pitch for one of our real
stories, in forty-five minutes, paid at a fair rate.
[ ] Found a real angle rather than restating the brief
[ ] Wrote a subject line a busy reporter would open
[ ] Facts accurate, no invented claims
[ ] Clean copy: names, titles, and numbers correct
[ ] Named a plausible outlet and explained why
Work sample score: ______ / 5
RED FLAGS (WEIGH CAREFULLY)
[ ] Guarantees coverage in a named publication
[ ] Leads with impressions or an equivalent advertising dollar value
[ ] Name-drops reporters but cannot describe what they cover
[ ] Cannot name a story they chose not to pitch
[ ] Treats a crisis as a messaging problem before a facts problem
[ ] Vague about what they personally did versus what the agency did
[ ] Uncomfortable with a confidentiality agreement
If you only have time for four questions, use these. Each one requires either specific knowledge of your business or a judgment call that cannot be rehearsed, which is exactly what an interview with a professional communicator needs. Everything else on this page supports them.
Which of our stories would you pitch first, and to which outlet?
Why ask it: It is the entire job compressed into one question, and it cannot be rehearsed, because the candidate has to find news in your business without a briefing.
Strong answer: Picks one specific angle, names the kind of outlet and the beat it belongs to, and explains why a reporter on that beat would care this month rather than in general. A strong candidate also says what they would need from you to confirm it.
Weak answer: Talks about building awareness, asks what message you want out there, or proposes a launch announcement for something that launched a year ago.
Tell me about a story you decided not to pitch. Why did you kill it?
Why ask it: Judgment shows more clearly in what someone declines than in what they deliver, and this question is almost never asked, so the answer is rarely prepared.
Strong answer: A real example where the story was thin, off-strategy, or would have invited a question the company was not ready to answer. The reasoning is about the reader, not about internal politics.
Weak answer: Cannot think of one. In practice that means they pitch whatever they are handed, which burns the reporter relationships you are hiring them to build.
What do you think of advertising value equivalency as a metric?
Why ask it: It is the fastest single test of measurement literacy, and it takes ten seconds to ask. The answer sorts candidates cleanly.
Strong answer: Rejects it, and explains why: it converts coverage into an imaginary media buy figure that says nothing about whether the right audience saw the right message. Then offers what they would report instead.
Weak answer: Quotes an equivalent dollar value as a headline result, or defends it as what leadership understands. Expect a monthly report full of numbers that do not mean anything.
A credible complaint is spreading. Walk me through your first hour.
Why ask it: The first hour is where most of the damage is done or avoided, and the sequence tells you whether the candidate has a process or only an instinct.
Strong answer: Verify the facts, notify the owner, find out how far it has spread, prepare a holding statement, and decide who responds and where. Acknowledgment comes fast; explanation waits for facts.
Weak answer: Drafts a public response before anyone has checked what actually happened, or treats it as a messaging problem rather than a facts problem.
Notice what these four have in common. None of them can be answered well from a prepared script, and all of them are about a decision rather than a result. That is the design principle behind every set on this page, and it is what separates an employer question from the answer guides written for candidates.
Testing Crisis Judgment Before You Need It
Test crisis judgment with a scenario and score the sequence, not the wording. Describe a serious, credible complaint that is starting to spread, ask for the first hour, and listen for verify, escalate, hold, then respond. A candidate who reaches for a public statement before anyone has checked the facts is showing you how they will behave on your worst day.
Verify before you write
Establish what is actually true and how far it has travelled. A candidate who starts drafting a statement before the facts are known is telling you how they will behave on your worst day.
Escalate to a named approver
The approval chain should be agreed in advance and short. Listen for a candidate who asks who signs off and how fast, because that question means they have done this before.
Acknowledge fast, explain later
A holding statement says what is known, what is being done, and when the next update comes. Speed applies to acknowledgment, never to the explanation of cause.
Judge the proportion
Ask what test they use to tell a genuine crisis from a bad afternoon online. Spread beyond the original audience, factual truth, and exposure to safety, money, or the law are the useful ones.
Follow the scenario with three short questions: what goes into a holding statement and what stays out, when they would advise saying nothing at all, and who should approve a public statement and how fast. The last one matters more than it sounds. Unclear approval chains are the usual reason a manageable issue turns into an overnight problem at a small company.
Ask This Set Even When the Job Looks Quiet
Most small businesses interview for the role they expect: announcements, a newsletter, some content. The crisis questions get skipped because a crisis feels unlikely. That is precisely the asymmetry to protect against, because a routine week costs you nothing if the candidate is average at it, while one badly handled hour is permanent and public. Ask the crisis set of every candidate, and weight it heavily in the score.
Measurement Questions That Expose Theater
Ask what goes in the monthly report and who it is written for, then ask what the candidate thinks of advertising value equivalency. The second question takes ten seconds and sorts candidates cleanly: a strong one rejects it, because converting coverage into an imaginary media buy figure says nothing about whether the right audience saw the right message.
Ask
What a strong answer includes
What is in your monthly report?
Few measures, tied to business goals, honest about misses
How do you measure without a budget?
Free alerts, a hand-scored coverage log, referral traffic
What do you think of ad value equivalency?
Rejects it and explains what they report instead
Volume is up and nothing else changed. Now what?
Questions the target list, not the goal
What did you stop doing at your last job?
A named program ended, with a reason and a result
One more question belongs here if the role will run gifted product or paid creator programs. Ask how they handle disclosure, and expect an answer about clear and conspicuous disclosure inside the post itself, written into the brief and monitored afterward. The FTC endorsement guides put that responsibility on the advertiser, not only on the creator, so a candidate who treats it as optional is creating exposure for you rather than for them.
Scoring Answers and Red Flags
Score six areas from 1 to 5 immediately after the interview, with a line of evidence under each, quoting something the candidate actually said. Filling in a scoring form before you talk to anyone else is the single habit that keeps a persuasive interview from becoming a hiring decision on its own.
Scoring area
What a 5 looks like
Story judgment
Finds a real angle in your business and can say what is not a story
Media relations
Understands beats, deadlines, and terms of attribution
Crisis judgment
Verifies first, escalates early, knows when to stay quiet
Measurement
Reports outcomes and rejects vanity metrics unprompted
Vendor and stakeholder management
Briefs in writing, manages an agency, makes trade-offs visible
Writing and accuracy
Clear, correct, and fast under a real deadline
The red flags are just as structured. A guarantee of coverage in a named publication is the clearest, because nobody controls an editor. Add an equivalent dollar value quoted as a headline result, reporters named without a description of their beat, no example of a story they killed, and vagueness about what they personally did rather than what the agency did. Score the process, never the promise.
If two candidates are close, settle it with a short paid work sample instead of a third conversation: a draft announcement and a three-line pitch for one of your real stories, forty-five minutes, paid at a fair rate. Score it on the five-point checklist in the rubric. This is also the point where a good reference check earns its keep, if you ask about discretion specifically.
Fair, Legal, and Structured Interviewing
Ask every candidate the same job-related questions, in the same order, and score them on the same rubric. That single habit is what makes an interview fair, legal, and predictive at once, and it matters more for this role than most, because an unstructured conversation measures a communications professional at their strongest.
Ask about the job, not the person
Federal anti-discrimination law prohibits basing a hiring decision on protected characteristics, and a question that probes one creates risk even when it is asked as small talk. Do not ask about age, race, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy or family plans, disability, or genetic information. Communications interviews drift into this territory easily, because the conversation is sociable by nature and the candidate is good at conversation. Watch for the specific traps in this role: where someone is originally from, whether they can handle evening press calls with young children at home, or how long they have been in the industry as a proxy for age. Keep every question tied to running communications for your business. This is general information, not legal advice.
Ask the same core questions of everyone
A structured interview, where every candidate answers the same job-related questions and is scored against the same rubric, predicts on-the-job performance better than a free-flowing conversation, and it reduces the chance that the decision rests on rapport. That matters more here than almost anywhere else, because persuasion is the skill you are hiring for, so an unstructured chat measures the candidate at their strongest and tells you the least. Write the questions before you meet anyone, ask them in the same order, and write down the answers. The sets on this page are built to be used exactly that way.
Score independently, then discuss
When more than one person interviews, have each of them fill in the scorecard alone before the group talks. Otherwise the first strong opinion in the room anchors everyone else, and in a communications hire the first strong opinion is usually about likeability. Compare written evidence first and only then discuss the gaps. A six-area rubric filled in separately turns an argument about who was more impressive into a comparison of what each candidate actually said. For an owner interviewing alone, the discipline is to score before you sleep on it.
Interview for the role you actually have
A public relations manager at a company with an agency, a coordinator, and a monitoring subscription is a different hire from the only communications person at a small business, who will write the pitch, build the list, and prepare the founder personally. Decide which one you are hiring before you write the questions, and say it plainly in the interview. Candidates who want the first job and are offered the second leave inside a year, which is why the core set ends by asking what would make them quit.
Structure Is Both the Fairer and the More Accurate Method
Structured interviews, where every candidate is asked the same job-related questions and rated on a defined scale, are consistently more reliable and more valid predictors of job performance than unstructured conversations, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Keeping questions tied to the job is also how you stay inside the EEOC rules against basing decisions on protected characteristics.
The practical version for a small business: write the questions before you meet anyone, ask them in the same order, and write down what was said. That habit does most of the work of reducing bias, and it is the difference between a structured and an unstructured process. This is general information, not legal advice.
What a Public Relations Manager Costs
Public relations managers are a distinct federal occupation, and the reported median is high because the category is dominated by large corporate and agency employers in expensive metros. Read the percentile ladder rather than the median if you are a small business hiring your first communications lead.
Median $146,910 a Year (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
Public relations managers had a median annual wage of $146,910, about $70.63 an hour, with the lowest 10 percent under $82,410 and the 25th percentile at $106,580, while the 75th percentile reached $204,520, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Small business hires usually sit in the lower quartile of that ladder.
Two adjustments matter. Metro area moves communications pay more than almost any other factor, and scope moves it just as much: a sole communications hire who also writes and builds lists is a different job from a manager directing an agency. If the budget will not reach the manager band, change the scope rather than the title, and start the posting from a broader public relations job description or a communications manager job description.
Interviewing Without an HR Department
Without an HR department the owner runs this interview alone, which changes what the process has to protect against. Three failure modes come up repeatedly in this role, and each has a fix that costs almost nothing to put in place before the first conversation.
You are hiring the person whose job is to be persuasive
Every hire interviews well when they can. A public relations manager interviews well as a professional competency, which means the ordinary signals you rely on, warmth, confidence, a good story, are exactly the signals this candidate can produce on demand. The fix is not suspicion, it is evidence. Ask questions that require specific knowledge rather than delivery: which of our stories they would pitch and to whom, what they read this week, which story they chose to kill. Then settle it with a short paid work sample on your own material, because a page of writing about your business is harder to fake than an hour of conversation about theirs.
The title says manager, but there is nobody to manage
At a small business the public relations manager is usually the whole function: the strategy, the writing, the list building, the follow-up, and the awkward call to the founder about a message that will not survive contact with a reporter. Candidates coming from a large company or an agency may have directed all of that without doing much of it, so ask directly how they would split a week as the only communications person, and listen for whether the answer assumes a team. It is a fair job to offer, but it has to be offered honestly, or you will be hiring again in ten months.
One bad hour can cost more than the salary
This is the rare small business role where a single judgment error becomes permanent and public. That asymmetry is why the crisis set belongs in every interview for this job, even when the role is mostly announcements and content today. Ask for the first hour, the holding statement, the approval chain, and the case for saying nothing. Once you choose someone, FirstHR handles the part that comes next: e-signature on the offer and the confidentiality agreement, document management for the signed paperwork, onboarding task workflows for access and policy sign-off, and employee profiles where the records and interview scorecards live. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a media database, a monitoring tool, or a payroll provider. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
What you get
In-house PR manager
Agency retainer
Knows your business from the inside
Available in the first hour of an issue
Existing media relationships on day one
Scales up and down with the month
Can prepare the founder personally
Carries employment cost and overhead
The simplest rule: hire in-house when communications is continuous and needs internal access, and use an agency or a fractional consultant when it is occasional and project shaped. If you are unsure, write the job description first and see whether it fills a week. Adjacent postings such as a public relations officer or a marketing manager are worth reading before you commit to a title.
What FirstHR Does and Does Not Do Here
FirstHR handles what happens after you choose someone: e-signature on the offer and the confidentiality agreement, document management for the signed paperwork, onboarding task workflows for system access and policy sign-off, and employee profiles where the records and interview scorecards live. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a media database, a monitoring tool, or a payroll provider, so pair it with those. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
From Interview to the First 90 Days
Once you choose someone, write down the boundaries before day one: who is authorized to speak on the record, the escalation path for a reporter inquiry with an agreed response time, and the approval line for anything published under the company name. Those three documents prevent most of the mistakes this role is capable of making.
Offer and confidentiality agreement
Confirm the role, pay, and start date in writing, and have the confidentiality agreement signed before the new manager sees an unannounced product, hire, or number.
Write down who speaks for the company
A one-page authority document: who may be quoted, who approves a public statement, the escalation path for a reporter inquiry, and the response time you have agreed.
Agree the first monthly report
Settle the format and the measures in week one, so the first review is a conversation about the work rather than an argument about what should have been counted.
Store the records
Keep the signed offer, the confidentiality agreement, I-9, W-4, policy acknowledgments, and the interview scorecards organized and easy to find.
Then give the first quarter a shape. A public relations manager who spends the first two weeks reading the beat and the next two writing the crisis one-pager will produce a better first campaign than one told to get coverage immediately. Pair a standard onboarding template with the role-specific plan below, and keep the new hire paperwork moving in parallel so nothing blocks the start date.
Weeks 1 to 2: learn the beat
Read the trades your customers read, map which reporters cover what now, and produce a one-page summary of the coverage landscape and the gaps in it.
Weeks 3 to 4: write the crisis one-pager
Who speaks, who approves, the escalation path, the response time, and pre-drafted holding language. Cheap to write now and impossible to write later.
Weeks 5 to 8: one targeted campaign
A single well-aimed story to a verified list, rather than a broad send. The point is to prove the process works before it is scaled.
Weeks 9 to 12: the first honest report
The agreed monthly format, with what worked, what did not, and what changes next quarter. Judge the reasoning, not only the coverage.
FirstHR connects the offer letter, the confidentiality agreement, e-signature, the paperwork, and the access-and-policy checklist in one place, so a small business can hire a communications lead without assembling the process from scratch each time. More question sets for adjacent roles live on the hiring templates hub. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
Assess five things: story judgment, media relations, crisis response, honest measurement, and discretion.
Ask questions that need knowledge of your business, because delivery is the one skill this candidate can always produce.
Four questions do most of the work: what to pitch, what they killed, the ad value equivalency test, and the first hour.
Run the crisis scenario with every candidate and score the sequence: verify, escalate, hold, then respond.
Treat a guarantee of coverage as a red flag, and settle a close call with a short paid work sample.
The federal occupation reported a median of $146,910 a year in the May 2025 OEWS survey, with the 25th percentile at $106,580.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I ask a public relations manager in an interview?
Ask questions that require knowledge of your business rather than a polished delivery. The strongest opener is which of our stories would you pitch first, and to which outlet, because it tests whether the candidate can find news without a briefing. Follow it with a story they decided not to pitch, what they read every morning, how they would split a week as the only communications person, and how they would handle a reporter emailing at 4:45 pm with a question they cannot answer. Add the crisis set for every candidate: the first hour of a spreading complaint, what goes in a holding statement, and when the right move is to say nothing. Close with measurement, because how someone reports the work tells you what they think the work is. Each set on this page pairs the question with the reason to ask it.
How do I tell a strong PR manager from someone who just interviews well?
Test for specific knowledge and for judgment, because both are hard to improvise. Specific knowledge means named outlets, named beats, an angle in your business they identified themselves, and something they read this week that they can actually discuss. Judgment means an example of a story they killed, a time they pushed back on leadership, and a proportionate answer about an unflattering article. Persuasion is this candidate's profession, so the ordinary interview signals of warmth and confidence tell you almost nothing. The most reliable tiebreaker is a short paid work sample on your own material: a draft announcement and a three-line pitch for a real story, done in forty-five minutes. A page of writing about your business is far harder to fake than an hour of conversation about theirs.
What are the red flags in a public relations manager interview?
The clearest red flag is a guarantee of coverage in a named publication, because no one controls an editor's decision and a candidate who promises it is either inexperienced or telling you what you want to hear. Others worth weighing: leading with impressions or an equivalent advertising dollar value as a headline result, name-dropping reporters without being able to describe what they cover, being unable to name a single story they chose not to pitch, treating a crisis as a messaging problem before it is a facts problem, staying vague about what they personally did versus what an agency did, and hesitating over a confidentiality agreement. None of these is automatically disqualifying on its own, but two or three together usually mean the interview was the strongest part of the candidate.
Should a small business hire a PR manager or use an agency?
It depends on how much of the work is ongoing and how much internal access it needs. An agency gives you a team, existing media relationships, and no employment overhead, but it needs briefing, it does not sit in your meetings, and the retainer is spent whether or not there is news that month. An in-house manager knows the business, can prepare the founder, and is available in the first hour of an issue, which is when it matters most. Many small businesses start with a fractional consultant or an agency and hire in-house once communications becomes continuous rather than occasional. If you do hire in-house, interview for the job you actually have, since a candidate used to directing an agency may not want to build the media list themselves.
How do you test crisis communication skills in an interview?
Use a scenario and listen to the sequence rather than the wording. Describe a serious, credible customer complaint that is starting to spread, and ask the candidate to walk you through their first hour. A strong answer verifies the facts first, notifies the owner, establishes how far it has travelled, prepares a holding statement, and decides who responds and where; acknowledgment is fast, explanation waits for facts. Follow up by asking what goes into a holding statement and what stays out, when they would advise saying nothing at all, and who should approve a public statement and how quickly. Then ask for a real issue they managed and what they got wrong. Ask this set of every candidate, whatever the day-to-day role looks like, because the downside of a poor crisis response is the largest risk in the hire.
How much does a public relations manager cost?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025, public relations managers had a median annual wage of $146,910, about $70.63 an hour. The distribution is wide: the lowest 10 percent earned under $82,410 and the 25th percentile was $106,580, while the 75th percentile reached $204,520. That national median is pulled upward by large corporate and agency employers in major metros, so a small business hiring its first communications lead should usually benchmark toward the lower quartile and adjust for its own market. Location moves this figure more than almost any other factor for communications roles. If the budget does not stretch, a specialist or a fractional consultant is a more honest fit than a manager title at a coordinator salary.
What is the difference between a public relations manager and a communications manager?
A public relations manager is usually focused outward: media relations, earned coverage, spokesperson preparation, and reputation. A communications manager typically owns a wider brief that also includes internal communications, employee messaging, executive communications, and sometimes content. In a small business the two collapse into one job, and the title you choose is mostly a signal about which candidates apply. Decide what the role actually owns before you write the posting, then interview for that. If the job is mostly earned media, weight the media relations and crisis sets. If it also covers internal messaging and content, weight the core set, the measurement set, and the stakeholder questions. Being clear about the real scope in the interview is the cheapest way to avoid a resignation in the first year.
