Bobble...Bobble... Blog

Here’s where we share some thoughts on the industry, our role as recruiters, and how we can help you land your next great job. We hope these insights are helpful or, at the very least, don’t completely waste your time.

2021 PR Agency Family Tree

Below please find the “2021 Agency Family Tree” sponsored by PR Talent that details the complex lineage of all of the public communications agencies worldwide. This is the 23andMe for our industry. Enjoy looking for crazy Aunt Millie!!

2021 Salary Survey – Compensating for a crisis

Recent years’ momentum on remuneration hit a speed bump in 2020. And while the pandemic did facilitate decreases in everything from pay to job movement, employees industry-wide found motivation in management’s empathetic, supportive and creative response.

Why DE&I Requires Its Own Department & Seat at the Table

Diversity & Inclusion is a Business Strategy, Not an HR Program

Life in the Slow Lane and How to Merge Back into the Fast Lane

Life in the Slow Lane and How to Merge Back into the Fast Lane… some thought from the perspective of a recruiter on how to prepare for life on the other side of COVID-19.

Addressing Staffing Challenges During COVID-19

The impacts of COVID-19 on the public relations industry are wide-ranging and fast-moving.  Companies and agencies are working remotely, clients are shifting priorities, and management is operating in new and foreign territories.   Well, not entirely foreign territory.  For those who went through the dot-com downturn, 9/11 and the 2009 recession, this has a familiar…

Former Golin Executive Director to Head Up PR Talent’s Washington DC & Southeast Region

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — PR Talent, the nation’s largest communications specialist search firm, has hired Julie Dixon to build its presence in Washington, D.C. and the Southeast.  Dixon brings more than 20 years of PR experience to the role including serving as the Deputy Managing Director for Golin’s Baltimore and Richmond offices and Consumer Practice Director for those…

PR Talent Releases “2019 Salary Report/Part II ~ In-house Positions”

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where they stand today.

PR Talent Releases “2019 Salary Report/Part I ~ Agency Roles”

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where they stand today.

Job Search Tips & Insight on PR jobs in the Northwest

Check out our very own Dan Lee’s appearance on the PR Talk podcast of Portland PR hot shop @veracitymktg offering job search tips and insight on PR jobs in the market. https://lnkd.in/eb8qHpD #Portland #PRTalk #prtalent #prjobs #northwest #veracitymktg hashtag

Chicago

PR Talent Adds Matt Batt, Former Zeno SVP, to Head Chicago

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (March 28, 2019) — PR Talent, the nation’s largest communications specialist search firm, has hired Matt Batt as Managing Director of its Chicago office.  Batt will also lead the agency’s presence in the Central U.S. including Milwaukee, Dallas, and St. Louis.    Batt brings more than 20 years of agency and in-house…

5 Things PR Talent Sees for 2019*

Thing 1: Talent War will Leave Some Marketers Behind For agencies, the trend toward integrated communications is now the head-long rush (ok, absolute scramble) to find the right talent to fulfill immediate client demands. PR firms are looking for integrated marketing/advertising talent while advertising firms are looking for more earned media and influencer specialists. Meanwhile, corporations are…

New York

PR TALENT ADDS DONNA FONTANA TO NEW YORK OFFICE

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (Sept. 27, 2018) — PR Talent, the nation’s largest communications specialist search firm, has hired former Weight Watchers, VP of PR, Donna Fontana as Managing Director in its New York office to grow its presence in the market.  Fontana brings more than 20 years of in-house and agency communications experience and was most…

5 Weeks to Hire

How to Speed Your Hiring Process in 3 easy steps!!

PR Talent Releases 2017 Salary Survey | Adds Washington DC Office

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where they stand today.

PR Talent Adds Washington, D.C. Office | DC Veteran Jaya Bohlmann to Lead

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where they stand today.

Does O’Reilly Factor into Diversity in PR?

So if there is no financial incentive, when does this get real for agencies and companies? Only when consumers pressure brands, and brands in turn pressure their marketing teams and agencies.

Six Communications Hiring Trends for 2017

Here are Six Hiring Trends in Communications for 2017…

Top Comms Execs provide Tips to Manage Your Career

Why don’t we put the energy and effort into mapping out a personal game plan for our careers and treat ourselves just like one of our clients?

PR Talent Adds New Seattle Office; Releases Salary Review

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where they stand today.

PR Agency Salaries Will Continue to Rise in 2016

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where they stand today.

PR Talent Adds Danya Proud to Lead Midwest Recruiting

PR Talent adds Danya Proud, former McDonald’s Director of Communications, to lead Chicago and Midwest operations.

PR Agency Salaries Bump up in 2015

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where they stand today.

PR Rock Stars Break on Through…

Technology is disruptive.  And nothing before has disrupted like the Internet.  Every day living is different.  The way we shop, vacation, date, and most profoundly how we communicate with each other has changed. And of course  the impact on communications piece  has fundamentally changed public relations.  It’s what we do.  PR practitioners serve as advocates for their clients by leveraging communications…

Hey New Grad… Here’s The Secret to Landing a PR Job

OK… that was a little mean. There is no secret… no step-by-step formula. But there is a mix of art and science in the process.

PR Salaries to Escalate in 2014

Salaries are trending up for PR and MarCom positions across the country. This is PR Talent’s assessment of where the stand today.

What Will be the Hot PR Jobs in 2014

On almost every candidate call I’m asked “how’s business” or “what’s the hiring picture look like?” Often with a concerned tone like… it must be hell to be a recruiter for PR jobs in this economy?!? I reply by saying that hiring has been steady and trending up since early 2010. And that’s the truth. Why?There are three sectors of…

Top 6 Whines

This is not a list of Wine Spectator 90 plus point wines… more like a list of whines from a spectator of candidate and client missteps over the last 90 plus years of my recruiting and PR career. Here we go… 1)  Why do some candidates not list their clients in their resume?  I can’t think of a reson why you…

PR Bunting

Getting into the spirit of things for the upcoming State of the Union address (I’ve already hung the red, white and blue bunting which I normally reserve for when the Yankees are in the World Series) here are a few ramblings on the State of the PR Industry for 2013… The hottest coupling in Hollywood.  The beautiful marriage of digital…

PR Talent Adds SF & Chicago Office Heads

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — PR Talent, the nation’s largest PR specialist recruiting firm, has added Angie Graf, as VP of Bay Area and Northwest Recruiting and Sheri Scott, as VP of Chicago and Midwest  Recruiting. “We believe that having recruiters on the ground in key markets is the best  way to understand that region’s unique…

A Donut Hole for PR Agency Talent

Aside from offering a really handy way to scoop up two or three donuts at one time, a “donut hole” has been recently used to reference the insurance coverage gap found in Medicare.

Matchmaking Niche

Niche is in… especially when it comes to matchmaking. We’ve seen the evolution of dating sites go from eHarmony and Match.com to sites that match by religion — Jdate and ChristianMingle — to sites that now match by occupation. Farmers Only anyone?

Choosing The Best Resume Format: Chronological or Functional

Your resume can be arranged in one of two basic formats: chronological or functional… also sometimes referred to as a summary resume. The functional (or summary) resume distills your total work experience into major areas of expertise. For public relations this can be broken up into specific communications skills and industry expertise. The chronological resume…

Agency vs. Client Side

My views on this topic are based on my years of recruiting experience in the PR industry and many conversations with people who have made the move from  agency  to client side. The decision to make a move from agency to client side depends on where you are in your career and what you are…

2012 PR Agency Salary Survery – LA, NY, SF, Chicago and London

At PR Talent, we’ve never done a salary survey before…. and I’m not about to start now!   Market research has never been my strength and the thought of hiring some independent researcher to pull together an exhaustive survey that delivers only quasi-useful information is not my idea of fun.  On the other hand, after 14…

Steve Jobs was no Einstein… or Edison

Not since Michael Jackson have we seen such an outpouring of heartfelt sympathy and appreciation for a public figure.  It seems the overwhelming sentiment is that Steve Jobs and his creative mind really changed the way Americans interact on a daily basis.  But did he really? He didn’t invent anything that really changed the way we…

Get a Clue

When it comes to their careers, most people don’t have a clue.  They don’t have a plan, a roadmap, a flashlight or even a Thomas Guide.  They simply keep plowing forward, head down and hand out for the next paycheck.  My guess is that a majority of people in PR put more thought into the…

New Rules for a New Reality

In my July post I talked about the growing demand for public relations talent along with the growing time to hire talent.  As we head toward mid-September both trends are continuing and as the supply of PR talent diminishes we may see the time to hire window reverting back to the 6-8 weeks timeframe of a couple…

What's up… is anyone hiring out there?

Yes…. and No.   Some people are hiring but they’re taking their time.  In PR, the average interview to hire timeframe is now 12-16 weeks v. 6-8 weeks from 2 years ago.  But that’s good news…. people are hiring in PR and it’s mostly due to the increased demand for public relations professionals with social media experience.  Clearly PR…

Hunting Heads For Twenty Ten

OK.  So it’s a new year.  Same as the old year?  I don’t think so. This year there’s a palpable sense that people want to do business.  They want to quit wringing their hands and take some risks.  Make some decisions and actually get stuff done.  I think everyone’s tired of the woe is me,…

10 Strategies for the Accidental Entrepreneur

As more and more talented folks find themselves thrust into the role of an accidental entrepreneur… suddenly starring in their own start-up…  here are some tips I’ve learned over a few recessions.  I also invite even better insights from other accidental entrepreneurs.    1. Prioritize Skills.  Brand You is an overused term but it is a good descriptor in this context.  As a new…

How to Get a Recruiter's Attention in a Recession

Times are tough for candidates.  Layoffs abound, jobs are in short supply, and competition for the few available openings is intense.   Candidates are looking for allies and are reaching out to recruiters like never before.  But recruiters are not easy to reach.  Why?  They’ve got lots of candidates but few jobs.  The pendulum has swung and recruiters need to focus most…

PR Departments Getting Worked – and Hard

Agency budgets are being cut but the workload is not diminishing for most public relations departments as much of the burden is being shifted to an ever-leaner — and literally meaner — in-house staff. Over the past few years PR has done a good job at grabbing a significant share of the social media pie,…

What to Leave Out of Your Resume!

Nearly everything written about resume design concentrates on what you should put in. But let’s look at what should be left out, or at least minimized. Salary history or salary requirements. I’ve never heard one good reason to mention your past, current, or expected salary. If you see a classified ad that says, “Only resumes…

Keys to an Effective Resume for PR Candidates OR putting ‘Brand You’ on Paper

First of all there are no rules any more. But we do have some strong suggestions… especially if you’re sending your resume to PR Talent. Brand You. Remember that your resume is summarizing your professional abilities as concisely and persuasively as possible. It’s ‘Brand You’ on paper. Make sure that everything you put in your…

As a War Ends, A New Nation Begins

In 1998, McKinsey published The War for Talent, a landmark study that predicted a white-collar talent shortage as large numbers of Baby Boomers marched off into retirement between the years 2000 and 2015.  What McKinsey didn’t forecast was today’s economic crisis that diminishes these jobs, while simultaneously adding to the ranks tens of thousands of…