Do I Need a Portfolio to Apply for a PR Job?

Welcome back to another Ask Me Anything, a weekly series where we talk to our friends, our viewers, and our community about all of their pressing needs, questions, wants, and desires.

Let’s take a look at the mailbag to see which questions are burning this week:

“I’d love some opinions on a little issue I’m working through right now. I’m a junior freelance copywriter who wants to start applying to PR firms, but I’m still working on my portfolio website. If someone applied to a position in your firm who had a good resume, but no portfolio, would you consider them for the position? Basically, I feel like I need to start applying, but I’m worried it’s pointless until I finish my portfolio.”

Your Future PR Job

Do not worry about your portfolio. Don’t worry about your portfolio. Don’t worry about your portfolio. Oh, and don’t worry about your portfolio.

Apply for jobs. For one, it’s an employee’s market so you have all of the leverage and can dictate how the interview process goes (without being a jerk, of course).

Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.

The other thing is if you’re applying for a writing job, you’re going to take a writing test.

We always look at a portfolio as something that’s been edited and polished, which is great, but it doesn’t show us the raw talent of the candidate.

Every agency I’ve worked for (and at my own) has required a writing test, just to get a really good sense of where the candidate’s skill and talent lie.

If you have your portfolio as a backup, that’s great, but know that it won’t replace a writing test.

For a PR job, a portfolio is nice to have, not a necessity.

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