How to assess · For hiring teams

How to Assess Public Relations Skills When Hiring

The test formats that actually work for Public Relations, what a strong answer looks like, sample questions and a scoring rubric you can use as-is.

The short answer

Assess Public Relations with a task, not a conversation: pitch exercise, crisis scenario, ai-scored assessment (e.g. cohesyve) or coverage critique. Score it against written criteria you fix before you see any submissions, and weight the criteria that the role actually depends on.

Finds the story: what is new, why it matters, to whom
Writes pitches and releases that a journalist can use, in their terms
Understands what specific outlets and reporters cover and pitches accordingly
Builds relationships by being useful, not by volume

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Public relations is judgement about what is newsworthy, who cares, and how to say it — and, when things go wrong, how to protect a reputation under pressure. Candidates can list contacts and past coverage; what predicts success is whether they can find the story in a dull announcement, write for a journalist, and handle a crisis with speed and honesty. This page covers how to assess PR for PR manager, communications and media relations roles: news judgement, writing, media relations, and crisis handling.

Why Public Relations is worth testing

Weak PR produces press releases nobody covers and crises made worse by slow or evasive responses. Testing with a pitch exercise and a crisis scenario shows whether a candidate has news judgement, writes for the reader, and stays composed when it matters, and that predicts coverage that helps and crises that end.

What strong Public Relations looks like

Finds the story: what is new, why it matters, to whom
Writes pitches and releases that a journalist can use, in their terms
Understands what specific outlets and reporters cover and pitches accordingly
Builds relationships by being useful, not by volume
Handles crises fast, honestly, and with clear escalation
Prepares spokespeople and knows what not to say
Measures by coverage quality and message pull-through, not clip counts

Ways to assess Public Relations

Pitch exercise

Provide a mundane company announcement and ask for the angle, a target list of three outlet types with reasons, and a short pitch. Thirty minutes.

Pros

Tests news judgement and writing directly.

Cons

Needs a well-chosen announcement.

Best for Any PR role.

Crisis scenario

Present a developing issue — a data incident, a product failure, a viral complaint — and ask for the first hour, the statement, and what they would not say.

Pros

Tests composure and judgement.

Cons

Talk or written.

Best for Mid and senior roles.

AI-scored assessment (e.g. Cohesyve)

Generate a public relations task from the job description — a pitch with angle and targets, a crisis statement, a media-list rationale — with a rubric. Each candidate receives a different variant; the work and the reasoning behind it are scored together.

Pros

Asynchronous and consistent across a large pool; a different brief per candidate removes recycled portfolio work; scores the reasoning, which is where marketing judgement shows.

Cons

Cannot observe live collaboration; keep a working session for shortlisted finalists.

Best for Screening an applicant pool fairly before interview time is spent.

Coverage critique

Show a press release and the coverage it got (or did not) and ask why.

Pros

Reveals understanding of what works.

Cons

Passive.

Best for Screening.

Cohesyve

Run a Public Relations assessment on your next opening

Cohesyve generates a unique Public Relations task per candidate from your job description, with the scoring rubric attached. Questions are different for every applicant, so they cannot be shared or looked up.

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What to test

News judgement

Whether they find the story.

Find the angle in a dull announcementSay who would care and whyIdentify when there is no story

Writing

Whether journalists can use it.

Write a three-sentence pitchCut a release to what mattersWrite a headline a reporter would write

Media relations

Whether pitches go to the right people.

Choose outlets and reasonsExplain how they would approach a specific reporterDecide when not to pitch

Crisis

Whether reputation is protected.

Plan the first hourDraft a holding statementDecide what to escalate and to whom

Sample Public Relations questions

What makes something newsworthy?

Entry

Look for New, relevant to a defined audience, timely, with a human or business consequence; not "we launched a feature".

A reporter asks a question you cannot answer yet. What do you say?

Entry

Look for Acknowledge, commit to a timeline, do not speculate, follow through.

Find the story in this announcement.

Mid

Look for Identifies an angle beyond the company's framing; names who cares.

A data incident is spreading on social media. What happens in the first hour?

Mid

Look for Establish facts, align with legal and leadership, issue a holding statement that is honest, prepare for questions, monitor.

How do you measure PR?

Senior

Look for Quality and relevance of coverage, message pull-through, audience reached, downstream effects; not clip counts.

Red flags

Pitches everything to everyone
Releases written in corporate language
Speculates in a crisis
Measures by clip counts
Cannot say when there is no story

Scoring rubric

Criterion	Weight	What strong looks like
News judgement	30%	Finds real angles; knows when there is none.
Writing	25%	Usable by journalists.
Media relations	20%	Targeted, useful, relationship-led.
Crisis handling	25%	Fast, honest, well-escalated.

Mistakes hiring teams make

Hiring on contact lists
Not including a crisis scenario
Rewarding volume of coverage
Skipping the writing test
Assuming journalism experience transfers without testing

Roles that need Public Relations

PR ManagerCommunications ManagerMedia Relations ManagerCorporate Communications LeadContent Marketing ManagerFounder

Common questions

What is the best single PR question?

Give a dull announcement and ask for the story. News judgement is the foundation.

How long should a PR assessment take?

Thirty minutes for a pitch exercise; thirty for a crisis scenario.

How do I assess media relationships?

Ask how they would approach a specific reporter and why. Method reveals whether relationships are real.

Should the crisis scenario be realistic for our business?

Yes. Judgement is domain-sensitive; a data incident for a software company, a product issue for a manufacturer.

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