r/Communications

I recently completed a writing/communications assessment for a Communications role at a law firm and would really appreciate some objective feedback.

I had 2.5 hours total, with a hard deadline at 1:30 p.m. I received the test at 11:01 a.m. and submitted at 1:27 p.m.

The assessment involved several different tasks, including:
Editing a short article and identifying legal/reputational/client-facing risks
Writing/adapting social media content
Creating a graphic
Writing a promotional LinkedIn post in French for a specific audience
Assessing business/brand considerations

The criteria emphasized attention to detail, editing/proofreading, professional judgment, social media, audience targeting, business judgment and reputational risk.

I think my substantive judgment throughout the exam was strong.

For the French task, I wrote a LinkedIn post aimed at employers. The structure/content was good, but I made a few mechanical errors, including “avocat principale” instead of “avocate principale” and two misspelled hashtags.

Overall, I made around 6–7 proofreading/mechanical errors across the assessment which I would have fixed if I had a few more minutes to do a final QA.

The other issue is that the instructions specifically said to use Track Changes. I started to make the edits directly and then added my risk comments/recommendations in a separate section. By the time I realized I was running close to the deadline and didn’t have time to redo everything in Track Changes.

My concern is that the role is writing-heavy, so I’m worried the proofreading errors and failure to use Track Changes could outweigh the fact that my substantive judgment was strong.

For context, French is also a strong asset for this particular hiring manager, and I did complete the French portion rather than skipping it.

How would you evaluate this? Would you see this as a candidate with strong communications/business judgment who needs better final QA, or would 6–7 errors + not using Track Changes be enough to reject someone at the assessment stage?
I’m looking for a brutally honest assessment, not reassurance.

So I’m a communications major at BMCC and I will be graduating this fall (one semester early) but I realized that I don’t really want to purse careers related to that and want to get into becoming a medical lab scientist which is a very sudden complete career change for me especially because I’m almost done with my associates and I guess I’m not sure what to do next.

There’s only very little time before the fall semester starts and I think it’s already to late to transfer to a 4 year school and even when I do transfer for the spring semester should I even bother changing my major to biology or medical lab technology to pursue this career? Please if anyone has any advice on what to do or what the best option for me is I would appreciate the help so much!!

How are you liking this job? Upsides? Downsides? I just want to understand what your day to day is like!

Hi all - I’m wondering if this would be worth it. My thinking is that the Ivy League tag naturally opens doors and being in nyc is also a plus. Career wise my interests are around marketing, media, PR, etc so I feel like this is a good fit but not yet entirely sure what exactly my career options would be with this degree. I’d appreciate any advice!

Ok, yes I might seem that I lived under a rock but until recently I didn't really care of commenting actively on socials... but I’ve been noticing something lately across Reddit, Instagram, and basically every other platform where people are supposed to be having conversations.

Someone says something you disagree with and there are roughly five possible responses:

“You’re an idiot.”

“Get a job.”

“Who asked?”

😂

🤮

And apparently that counts as winning an argument?

I don't mean this as a complaint about people being “too mean” online. Disagreement is fine. Strong disagreement is fine. Calling out bad arguments is fine. Sometimes someone genuinely is talking nonsense. AND PLEASE, I love a good debate or argument.

What I find interesting is how rarely people seem interested in engaging with the actual argument.

I’ve had this happen recently in completely different contexts.

I commented on a discussion about AI and historical representations, raising a fairly specific question: when we use AI to visually reconstruct people from the past, at what point does “illustration” become interpretation? Someone disagreed with my position. Fine. But rather than addressing the question, the response eventually became essentially “I don’t care about the opinion of anyone who uses AI,” followed by a vomiting emoji.

Okay. But that's not really disagreement. That's just deciding that the person speaking has become disqualified from having an opinion.

I've seen the same thing on political posts. I recently commented on immigration and the treatment of vulnerable minors, making what I thought was a fairly straightforward argument: protecting children who are already here and addressing the conditions that make them vulnerable in the first place aren't mutually exclusive policies.

The response wasn't really an argument against that. It became mockery about “tertulianos,” sarcasm about sending psychologists to the beach, and eventually the framing of the entire issue as an “invasion.”

Again, people are absolutely entitled to disagree with me. Maybe my position is naïve. Maybe it's impractical. Maybe there are serious policy arguments against it.

But tell me those arguments.

And then there’s Reddit, where I’ve watched people ask questions about careers, speaking, expertise, etc., and receive responses along the lines of:

“Get a job.”

“Speaker of what? 😂”

“Snake oil merchant.”

“Who wants to hear some rando speak?”

You can disagree with someone's ambition, think their business idea is terrible, or believe they're completely delusional.

But “you're stupid” doesn't actually establish any of those things.

And I think there's something particularly strange about this because engaging with an argument is harder than mocking the person making it.

You have to understand what they actually said.

You have to formulate a counterargument.

You have to accept that they might have a point somewhere, even if you ultimately disagree.

You have to risk changing your mind.

Mockery requires none of that.

And I'm not pretending I'm above this. I've definitely had moments online where I've written the snarky response because it was more satisfying than writing the thoughtful one.

But lately I'm wondering whether we've collectively forgotten what disagreement is supposed to look like.

You don't have to respect every opinion.

You don't have to be polite to everyone.

You don't even have to engage.

But if you do choose to respond, wouldn't it be more interesting to actually respond to what the person said?

Maybe the most impressive online comeback isn't making someone look stupid.

Maybe it's demonstrating that you understood their argument well enough to disagree with it.

IDK... but seriously people, WHO HURT YOU? Do you really don't enjoy a good debate?

I’m currently attending Indiana University Online and trying to decide between a Communication Studies major and a Digital Media & Storytelling major. I’d love to hear from people who have experience with either type of program.
I know I want to work in media/communications, but I’m not completely sure what career I want to pursue yet. I’m interested in things like writing, journalism, social media, content, public relations, and communicating information to an audience.
What I’m not really interested in at all is video production, audio production, filming, or heavy video/audio editing. I’m okay with learning some basic digital tools or doing light graphic design, but I don’t want my degree to be focused on making or editing videos or audio content—that just isn’t my thing.
I’m trying to figure out which major would give me a strong foundation while still keeping my options open in media and communications.
For people who have studied either of these majors:
Which did you enjoy more?
Which was easier or harder?
What were the assignments and projects like?
How much video/audio production or editing was actually involved?
Which major do you think is better for someone interested in writing, journalism, social media, and communications?
Do you feel like either degree limited you to a certain type of career?
If you could go back and choose again, which would you pick?
I’m an online student, so I’d especially love to hear from other online students, but I’m happy to hear from anyone with experience in either program. I’m mainly looking for honest opinions about what the programs are actually like and which one might be the better fit for my interests!

Is this normal for corporate communications?

I've been at a national private healthcare company for almost 4 years (about 1,500 employees). Our marketing team has six people across different specialties, but I'm the only communications person.

I was hired as an Internal Communications Specialist and have since been promoted to Senior Communications Specialist. The expectation is that I become more strategic and lead an integrated communications approach—which is exactly what I want—but internal "priority" projects still take up essentially 100% of my time.

Right now I'm the comms lead on six projects, plus owning town halls, employee engagement, video editing, graphic design, and copywriting for the marketing team.

I've asked to hire a junior comms specialist to handle some of the internal workload, but leadership questions whether this really requires more than one person.

For those in corporate comms: is this realistically a one-person job? Would you keep pushing for support, try to make it work, or start looking elsewhere?

Hello, I am currently about to be a freshman in college and I’ve been having a dilemma between these two majors. For my career, I’ve always wanted something that has to do with working with the public/making stuff for the public eye to see. I would describe myself as a person that’s both very good with people & charismatic as well as very analytical. I’ve looked at both major outcomes and I’m aware that degrees don’t hold much value, but when it comes to internships and stuff I’m unsure of which one is better since I want to do stuff like PR or some sort of management & marketing.

I had made a plan to do Communications with a minor in something like Data Science but I’m a bit conflicted because I know that marketing is also pretty analytic.

(For clarification— I am doing 2 years of free CC and 2 years of University).

I’m a freshly graduate, major in HR. I’m doing an internship right now. The market is very bad so I joined the only company that gave me an offer. But now I don’t khow if I should looking for another opportunity.

Firstly I don’t have a direct middle manager so I report to CHO. She’s experienced but not in internal communication. Internal communication is a project that she started since April, as when she joined the company. And I just finished my first month being an intern.

The problem is I barely know how to edit video. I did a few fun projects with family vacation footage but never something serious. And she demanded AI because there’s no funding in camera equipment/ no employee wants to show their faces. She keeps mentioning about using more AI in vids when I don’t have access to paid AI subscription. The company does have that but they refuse to let me use one of the accounts, as I’m JUST an intern.

I also have to handle the voice over for those videos but she doesn’t READ any proposal or scripts beforehand. I can only sum up in 10 sentences for her to give me the green light or red. It’s also when the video is finish (edited with voice over) THEN she comments on how I use the words or little details like my pausing. I’m not a professional MC or podcaster/ tiktoker. I mean I literally do voice over for the first time on this job. It takes a disastrous amount of time going back and forth.

Frankly I learn a lot about HR working here but the IC task is beyond reasons to me. Also she never truly have a clear vision. She wants me and another intern to have a vision. But jumping from Uni to this battle field is miles apart. I only have one single modul in Marketing and that’s all. I’m totally a newbie so I’m begging for insights/ suggestions on how to do IC. And my intern allowance is way lower than all the things I have to do. It’s barely under $80 and fulltime (it’s under minimum wage here at $210/month). I used to tutor for $350/ month but quit to do this internship.

I have been apply for months before this but only got 3 invitations for interview. My grade is good. I speak 3 foreign languages. My social skills are not bad. 🫠 I’m just hopeless right now.

I’ve been thinking seriously about developing a speaking career in Spain, starting around Valencia, and I’m curious about how this actually works here.
Not motivational speaking or corporate “inspirational” talks necessarily; I’m more interested in speaking about leadership, careers, identity, reinvention, modern work and the things we learn from culture and everyday life. Things I used to speak about in Uk and during my time working at Amazon and Adobe. Now tho, I’m not anymore in a big corporation and I’m back in my hometown.

I’ve worked internationally and spent years outside Spain, but I’m finding that becoming known as a speaker is a completely different game from simply being good at your subject.

So for people who have actually organised conferences, panels, talks, TEDx events, university events, business events etc.:
How did you get your first real speaking opportunities?

Was it:
•knowing the right people?
• LinkedIn?
• networking at events?
• volunteering to speak?
• publishing consistently?
• having a strong personal brand?
• being an expert in a very specific niche?
• getting introduced by someone?
or simply being persistent until someone said yes?
And specifically for Valencia/Spain, where do people actually find speakers or speaking opportunities?

I’m particularly interested in the things that aren’t obvious from Google.

If you’ve organised events or spoken professionally yourself, I’d genuinely love to hear what worked — and what was a complete waste of time.

I started my career in journalism and have worked in comms for one organization for the past 7 years. I don’t feel like I have much I can show in a portfolio because most of my projects involve other teams (like creative services) and it’s all for one company, so there’s not much range.

How can I get a wider range of experience? I am not sure how to go about finding freelance clients and also not sure what kinds of groups I could offer volunteer or pro bono work to help them and build up my portfolio. I have done a little bit of comms work with my volunteer group but we have someone who has already been leading comms for the group for several years.

Any advice or ideas you have would be helpful. Thank you!

I just wanted to ask for some advice.

How do you guys start a conversation with a woman you don’t know, especially in a normal everyday situation?

Honestly, I don’t feel very confident approaching random women. I often think about what I should say, whether I’ll make things awkward, or whether she’ll think I’m bothering her.

I’m not trying to randomly hit on every woman I see. I’d just like to become more comfortable talking to women naturally and respectfully.

For those who are good at starting conversations, how did you get comfortable with it? What do you usually say when approaching someone for the first time?

I'm at my wits end applying to several journalism reporting and producer roles for the past 2 years. I have a masters and a ton of published bylines. I fully support independent media and freelance work so much that I decided to produce my own print and videos on community-centered features and news. It's been a year of chasing my own stories and it's great. I enjoy it, people seem to love it. I pitch ideas to publications yet they don't want it. Then they write about it and the public gives a standing ovation to a content creator. Occasionally I'll read or watch other publications long after they rejected me. So why are the VC-funded publications still hiring content creators with choppy edits over reporters with real skills or reporters with unreliable personalities as their talent? This is what mainstream audiences want? I've decided I can transition into cc roles. If you have any advice or were a past journalist or maybe you really enjoy your current line of work, please share. The economy sucks. Money is dry. Money can come later. Life is shambles.

Law 6: Ask, Don't Tell

One of the simplest ways to influence behaviour is also one of the most overlooked:

Ask a question instead of giving an instruction.

When you tell someone what to do, they can resist.

When you ask a question, you make them think.

That difference matters.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was running against Jimmy Carter.

Carter had an eight-point lead going into the final presidential debate.

Reagan could have simply attacked Carter's economic record.

Instead, he asked voters a question that made them evaluate their own situation.

The question shifted the audience from:

"What is Reagan telling me?"

to:

"What do I think?"

And that is the power of questions.

Research discussed in the chapter shows that questions can influence behaviour because they make people mentally simulate the action or decision themselves.

Instead of:

"You should exercise."

Ask:

"Will you exercise tomorrow?"

Instead of:

"You need to eat healthier."

Ask:

"Will you eat vegetables today?"

The question forces the brain to confront a choice.

And when someone answers yes, they are making a small commitment to themselves.

That's much more powerful than simply receiving an instruction.

The deeper principle

People resist being controlled.

But they often cooperate with decisions they believe they made themselves.

This applies everywhere:

Leadership:

Don't always tell your team what to do. Ask them what they think the best move is.

Parenting:

Don't only say, "Clean your room." Ask, "When are you going to clean your room?"

Sales:

Don't immediately explain why your product is valuable. Ask questions that help the customer identify their own problem.

Self-discipline:

Don't say, "I have to study."

Ask:

"Will I study for the next 30 minutes?"

The question creates a decision.

The decision creates ownership.

Ownership makes behaviour more likely.

The important distinction

This isn't about manipulating people with clever questions.

It's about understanding human psychology:

A command gives someone an answer.

A question makes them construct one.

And the answer someone constructs themselves can be much more persuasive than an answer you give them.

So before telling someone what they should do, pause.

Ask a better question.

Because sometimes the most powerful way to change behaviour...

is to make someone question their own behaviour.

I graduated with a degree in English and minor in communications in May and after literally 150 applications I managed to get an internship in communications for a healthcare provider.

I’m super thankful for the opportunity don’t get me wrong, it’s the exact job I’ve trained for and all the responsibilities are things I want to learn. But, it was never my intention to work in healthcare. I do not like the topic and it’s hard to find motivation to learn skills when the topic they revolve around is something I don’t have passion for. I just feel like I’m filling up all the space in my head with stuff I won’t need or care about after I leave the job.

Also, this internship is my first paid, full time, corporate opportunity that I’ve had. Working in a cubicle for 8 hours a day in a mostly empty office doing Teams calls is taking a lot to get used to, along with all the corporate jargon and customs.

I know I should stick with the job for at least a couple years to gain some skills then look for another opportunity, but in the mean time does anyone have tips for surviving your first corporate job in an industry you’re not passionate about? Sorry for rant, being 21 and in corporate is just a rude awakening and advice is appreciated! :((

I recently joined a new company and they made a new role for me because they saw my experience is more B2B and the campaigns I ran were focused on executives and operating partners.

I was flattered and was excited to make a few sample campaigns but the CEO didn't like it because most of them were difficult to execute and will take time. I made simpler outreach but then he thinks it's too robotic.

The thing is, in my last company, we used to share white papers and conduct compensation/market studies all the time which made it easier for us to connect with executives because they know we have something concrete to show them.

Now in my current company (a design-service firm), since their normal focus target are Marketing/Creatives lead, their approach is more playful/natural and I'm having difficulty to adapt.

For example, if they send a LI connection request, it will be with a playful message of "If I win this, will you give me 10-min of your time to tell you about ____" OR emails with subject lines like: "you saved my college thesis"

Does anyone have an advice or perhaps articles/books to recommend so I can overcome this? Or is this just not a fit and I should pack and go?

I am working on applying for jobs and I don’t have a portfolio. I’m looking to find resources where I can see what a creative portfolio looks like and gather inspiration for my own. I have no idea where to start, thus, I beseech thee o marketing community!!!

How to clear the Versant Test for the Customer Support Roles in Indian companies (For International BPO). Please help me with any suggestions or tips. I rly want to get the job in BPO so I need to clear the Versant Test Round first(60+ score)

Help anyone.......

Thank you!!!!!!

Hello à tous,
J’ai fait 5 ans d’études à l’EFAP, école de communication.
J’ai fait de nombreux stages et je suis maintenant en cdd dans une boîte du cac 40.
J’ai pour but de vivre très confortablement (minimum 48k net l’année d’ici 7/8 ans) et je m’en donnerai les moyens mais avez-vous des idées de métier qui sont dans ma branche vers lesquels je pourrais me tourner ?
Quitte à ouvrir mon agence de communication mais il en existe beaucoup..
merci à vous et belle journée,