The Comms Job Market Is Brutal Right Now. Here’s How to Stand Out.

No one wants to say it publicly because LinkedIn has become one enormous piece of professional performance art, but the communications job market is brutal right now.

Not “a little slow.” Not “more competitive than usual.” Brutal.

Every day, I speak with incredibly smart, accomplished people – agency leaders, former journalists, corporate communications executives, media strategists – who have applied to dozens of roles and heard absolutely nothing back. Not even a form rejection. Just silence.

At the same time, nearly every company appears to be searching for a “strategic storyteller” who can also lead executive communications, manage a crisis, oversee social media, understand AI, interpret data, create content, counsel the CEO, partner with legal and, ideally, cure seasonal depression.

For one salary.

The market has officially entered its “we want a unicorn but only budgeted for a horse” era.

And yes, AI is changing the conversation. Companies are openly reorganizing around smaller teams, automated workflows and efficiency mandates. The candidates standing out are not the ones pretending that shift is temporary. They are the ones who understand how to use AI intelligently, where it creates genuine value, and where human judgment still matters.

Adding to the confusion, many hiring teams don’t seem entirely sure about what they need. Half the job descriptions read as though someone combined three open roles, fed them through ChatGPT, added “must thrive in a fast-paced environment” and posted the result. Which means brilliant communicators are exhausting themselves trying to decode hiring processes that may not even represent real competitions.

Fun!

So, Who Is Actually Hiring?

Here is the good news: companies are still hiring. Some very good companies, in fact. But the process of finding these roles has become increasingly fragmented.

LinkedIn and Indeed still matter, but communications professionals should also be spending time on industry-specific platforms focused on PR, corporate communications, marketing and social media. The PR Net, PR Girl Manifesto, Ragan, PRWeek, PRSA and similar communities frequently surface strong opportunities that never gain meaningful traction on the larger job boards. Many also share openings through newsletters and social channels before those jobs are widely circulated.

And if there’s a bucket-list company you’d genuinely love to work for, don’t wait for the perfect role to land in your feed. Check its careers page regularly. Connect with the talent acquisition team on LinkedIn. Pay attention to what they’re hiring for and where the company is headed. The best roles can attract so much interest that they’re effectively spoken for before most candidates even know they’re open.

Following the right recruiters matters too – and yes, it is completely reasonable to contact them directly. Firms like Phifer & Company, Monday Talent, Heyman Associates and Capstone Hill Search frequently work on positions that are not yet public. In a market like this, passive searching is not much of a strategy.

That said, recruiters are being flooded. A cold message should be concise, specific and easy to forward. Tell them what you do, the level you are targeting, the industries you know, your geographic flexibility and where they can find your résumé or portfolio. That’s it. No one needs a 14-paragraph account of your professional awakening in their LinkedIn inbox.

And if another traditional agency or in-house role is not exactly calling your name, there is always the freelance, consulting and project-based route. Platforms like Upwork can provide access to fractional, contract and project work, while your existing network may be an even stronger source of early opportunities.

More communicators are beginning to realize that they would rather build a portfolio career on their own terms than reorganize their lives around another arbitrary return-to-office mandate.

AI Literacy Is Becoming Table Stakes

A few years ago, saying you were “interested in AI” might have sounded forward-thinking. Now it sounds a little like saying you are interested in email.

You don’t need to become a machine-learning engineer, but you should understand the tools affecting your profession, the business models behind them, the risks they introduce and the ways they are changing how communications teams operate. That means going beyond experimenting with prompts whenever you need five headline options.

• Can you use AI to accelerate research without outsourcing your judgment?

• Can you redesign repetitive workflows?

• Can you evaluate output for accuracy, bias and reputational risk?

• Can you help establish responsible usage guidelines?

• Can you advise leaders on how AI changes the company’s narrative, workforce and stakeholder expectations?

• Can you identify the work that should become more efficient – and the work that should remain deeply human?

The market for AI education is expanding almost as quickly as the technology itself. Universities are now offering a broad range of artificial-intelligence certificates, professional programs and executive courses, from technical study in machine learning and deep learning to practical programs focused on strategy, marketing, leadership and governance.

Stanford offers both an Artificial Intelligence Professional Program and an online graduate certificate covering areas like machine learning and natural-language processing. MIT Professional Education offers a professional certificate in machine learning and AI that includes predictive analytics, deep learning and algorithmic approaches.

Harvard Extension School now offers a four-course online AI graduate certificate, along with more targeted microcredentials in AI for business and marketing. Cornell’s eCornell platform currently lists more than 20 AI certificate options, including programs focused on strategy, generative and agentic AI, machine learning, healthcare, finance, and law and policy.

That signals something important: AI proficiency is rapidly becoming a recognizable professional discipline.

Now, does every communicator need to spend five figures on a university certificate? Absolutely not. But a recognizable credential may be useful for someone making a career pivot, pursuing an AI-specific communications role, or trying to demonstrate structured knowledge in a crowded market. But simply collecting an expensive certificate will not make you more employable if you cannot explain how you have applied what you learned.

The real differentiator is evidence.

Show how you used AI to improve an operating process, strengthen analysis, uncover an insight, create a safer review system or give your team more time to focus on consequential work. A certificate can validate learning. It cannot substitute for judgment.

The Biggest Interview Mistake People Are Making

Let’s say you finally land one of these elusive interviews. Now, you need to make it count.

Most candidates are still interviewing as though it is 2019, when employers were hiring more readily for potential, professional growth and the vaguely defined promise of “culture fit.” That market is gone.

Companies are not hiring impressive résumés. They are hiring perceived business impact.

They want communicators who can solve problems, protect reputation, influence leaders and remain clearheaded when conditions become messy – which, conveniently, is most of the time now. So if you spend the interview talking exclusively about: media hits, impressions, campaigns, and press placements…you’ve probably lost at least part of the room. Those accomplishments are not meaningless. But they are outputs, not necessarily outcomes.

Executives want to know:

• Did your work help drive revenue?

• Did you protect the company during a difficult moment?

• Did you influence employee retention or engagement?

• Did you strengthen investor, customer or partner confidence?

• Did you help the company recruit talent?

• Did you support expansion into a new market?

The strongest communicators today sound less like publicists and more like operators.

How to Actually Stand Out in an Interview

Stop delivering the chronological résumé tour: At a certain level of seniority – and that level arrives earlier than many people realize – no one needs you to recite every position you have held since graduation. Lead with the business problem you solve. “I help leadership teams navigate high-stakes change without losing employee or stakeholder trust” is considerably more compelling than, “I started my career at an agency and then moved in-house.” Your interviewer has already read your résumé. Give them the through line.

Bring receipts, not vanity metrics: Talk about business outcomes, executive influence, difficult decisions, stakeholder management and moments when your judgment materially changed what happened next. Do not simply say you secured 500 media placements in 2025. Explain what those placements accomplished. Did they alter the company’s reputation? Support a product launch? Create confidence during a crisis? Help an executive become credible in a new category? Connect the comms work to the business consequence.

Show your range: The market increasingly rewards people who can move between executive communications, media strategy, internal communications, social media, issues management and corporate narrative. That does not mean you must be equally exceptional at everything. It means you need to understand how the functions connect and be capable of operating across boundaries when the business requires it. The era of “I only do media relations” is disappearing quickly.

Have a real point of view on AI: You do not need to position yourself as an expert. In fact, unless you are one, please don’t. But dismissing AI entirely – or acting offended that anyone expects you to understand it – will make you sound outdated. Be prepared to discuss where you have used it, what you believe it does well, where it creates risk and how it may change communications organizations. A thoughtful point of view is more impressive than breathless enthusiasm.

Demonstrate that you understand the business: Before the interview, read the earnings materials. Understand the leadership team. Review recent coverage. Know the company’s growth priorities, vulnerabilities and competitive environment. Then explain how communications can help. The candidates who stand out are not merely prepared to describe what they have done before. They can already see what this particular organization may need next.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Our sweet little industry is splitting in two. There will continue to be strong demand for strategic communicators – people who understand reputation, business strategy, leadership, human behavior and institutional risk. But the market for purely executional PR work is shrinking quickly. Many of the tasks that once required significant time and large teams can now be completed faster, more cheaply or partially through technology.

That does not make communicators irrelevant, it just makes undifferentiated execution less valuable.

The people who will thrive over the next five years will be able to think commercially, advise leadership, understand business strategy, use emerging technology responsibly, and communicate across fragmented platforms and audiences.

In other words, being “good at PR” is no longer enough. You have to be useful to the business.

Which, honestly, is probably how it should have been all along.

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