PUBLIC RELATIONS SPECIALIST: Job Applicant

PUBLIC RELATIONS SPECIALIST: ROLE PLAYING SCRIPT FOR JOB APPLICANT,
Ms. Greene, UMaine.

It is October 2007. You are a senior at University of Maine, and you expect to graduate in the spring of 2008 with a Batchelor of Arts degree in communications with a 3.8 GPA.

While in college, you have worked every summer. The first summer you were the receptionist in a small (5 person) local public relations firm. You were so well liked and did so much extra work greeting clients, handling phone calls, tending to coffee and lunchtime food orders that, during the last two summers, you worked as a “public relations assistant” to the vice president for sales. This was essentially a secretarial and administrative assistant job that gave you good exposure into the ways that the company obtained new clients. The firm was so pleased with your work that they offered you a job when you graduate.

Also, while in college, you volunteered on weekends at a shelter for homeless women. The staff appreciated your exceptional communication skills and assigned you to the front desk to greet women seeking refuge, volunteers, staff and the many vendors supplying the shelter.

Your dream, after graduation, is to get a job with Worldwide Communications, Inc (WCI) the pre-eminent pr/communications firm in the nation with offices in Portland and throughout the world. Every year, WCI hires 20 college graduates around the country who are seeking to make a career in the communications industry. Many of these new hires come from the University of Maine because of its top notch reputation in the industry.

You were thrilled yesterday when Mrs. Powers told you that she was very impressed with you and offered you a job as an entry level public relations specialist. She asked you to come back today just to settle a couple details like salary and starting date and then sign a contract.

You’ve done your homework on www.wageproject.org and know that the job of entry level public relations specialist pays between $35,000 - $43,000 in Portland with a median salary of $39,000. Given the cost to live in Portland, to pay off whopping student loans and to travel home often to visit your very ill mother, the minimum salary you could accept would be $36,000. With your work experience, the excellent reviews you got while working, and your GPA, you determined that your target salary of $39,000. Your benchmarking of benefits tells you that local employers add about $19,000 more in benefits in addition to your starting salary.

You very much want this job with WCI, and probably not a just job but a long-term career with this company.

You have the last appointment of the day. Mrs. Powers must leave to give a speech in Portland in 15 minutes. Can you and Mrs. Powers come to an agreement about a starting salary which you accept? Can you persuade her to meet your target salary? Make notes on what you consider your persuasive points. Decide the sequence in which you will present these points. Make notes about the language you will use. Make notes about likely objections she will raise and what you will say.

Use every minute of that time to get her to your target salary. It's your last chance to start out with the best salary you can get. Remember, $39,000 is what you believe you're worth in that job.

Go for it!