What Are the Top Paying Careers in Communications?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Top-pay­ing roles in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, such as VP of Pub­lic Rela­tions, VP of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Account Direc­tor, and Direc­tor of Strate­gic Alliances, can earn over $100,000 annually.
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tions degrees can lead to var­i­ous roles, includ­ing Mar­ket­ing Coor­di­na­tor, Pub­lic Rela­tions Spe­cial­ist, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Direc­tor, and Tech­ni­cal Writer, among others.
• Start­ing with a bach­e­lor’s degree in com­mu­ni­ca­tions from a rep­utable pro­gram is essen­tial for career advance­ment and high­er salary potential.
• Cours­es in media psy­chol­o­gy, con­sti­tu­tion­al law, com­mu­ni­ca­tion the­o­ry, and strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions are cru­cial for build­ing the skills need­ed for high-pay­ing posi­tions in the com­mu­ni­ca­tions field.

If you want one of the many careers in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, you’re not work­ing for char­i­ty. Com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als help orga­ni­za­tions of all stripes, but not all careers in com­mu­ni­ca­tions were cre­at­ed equal­ly, espe­cial­ly when it comes to mon­ey. There’s a lot of con­flict­ing infor­ma­tion about com­mu­ni­ca­tions career salaries, but a few of the posi­tions that are expect­ed to earn over $100,000 include:

• VP of Pub­lic Rela­tions (sig­nif­i­cant jour­nal­ism, pub­lic rela­tions, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion experience).
• VP of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions (in charge of every­thing: social media, print, pub­lic rela­tions, and oth­er media teams).
• Account Direc­tor (makes sure clients are ser­viced through man­ag­ing account staff).
• Sales, Adver­tis­ing or Pro­mo­tions Man­ag­er, Vice Pres­i­dent, or oth­er exec­u­tive roles.
• Direc­tor of Strate­gic Alliances.

Now in order to step up to one of these roles, you’ll have to start low­er on the careers in com­mu­ni­ca­tions lad­der. A great place to start is with a Bach­e­lor’s degree in com­mu­ni­ca­tions. At Bach­e­lor’s Degree Cen­ter, we’ve ranked some of the best on-cam­pus com­mu­ni­ca­tions degrees in our Top 15 Bach­e­lor of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Pro­grams. When you find a pro­gram you’re inter­est­ed in, make sure to request more infor­ma­tion from the school that pro­vides it. With this head start, you’ll be on your way to earn­ing a degree from an elite school, which is a great step towards a top pay­ing career in communications.

We ranked the 15 schools in our rank­ing by:

• Only choos­ing col­leges from the top 50 of the U.S. News and World Report nation­al rank­ings that offered Bach­e­lor’s in com­mu­ni­ca­tions majors.
• Pri­or­i­tiz­ing schools that PayScale marked for greater salary potential.
• Inspect­ing all schools for their region­al accreditation.
• Choos­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions majors that offered face-to-face speak­ing skills train­ing that’s built into class time.
• Using the NCES Col­lege Nav­i­ga­tor data­base to con­sid­er aver­age annu­al tuition.
• Weigh­ing expe­ri­en­tial oppor­tu­ni­ties, class size, reten­tion rate, con­cen­tra­tions, fac­ul­ty cre­den­tials, and post-grad­u­ate success.

The result is our incred­i­ble rank­ing, which we could­n’t be proud­er of. If you want a high-pay­ing career in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, you’ll need to build sig­nif­i­cant skills, and take com­pre­hen­sive cours­es that give you an advan­tage over the thou­sands of com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als that grad­u­ate each year. The course­work you should expect to immerse your­self in includes:

If you want one of the many careers in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, you’re not work­ing for char­i­ty. Com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als help orga­ni­za­tions of all stripes, but not all careers in com­mu­ni­ca­tions were cre­at­ed equal­ly, espe­cial­ly when it comes to mon­ey. There’s a lot of con­flict­ing infor­ma­tion about com­mu­ni­ca­tions career salaries, but a few of the posi­tions that are expect­ed to earn over $100,000 include:

• VP of Pub­lic Rela­tions (sig­nif­i­cant jour­nal­ism, pub­lic rela­tions, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion experience).
• VP of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions (in charge of every­thing: social media, print, pub­lic rela­tions, and oth­er media teams).
• Account Direc­tor (makes sure clients are ser­viced through man­ag­ing account staff).
• Sales, Adver­tis­ing or Pro­mo­tions Man­ag­er, Vice Pres­i­dent, or oth­er exec­u­tive roles.
• Direc­tor of Strate­gic Alliances.

Now in order to step up to one of these roles, you’ll have to start low­er on the careers in com­mu­ni­ca­tions lad­der. A great place to start is with a Bachelor’s degree in com­mu­ni­ca­tions. At Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter, we’ve ranked some of the best on-cam­pus com­mu­ni­ca­tions degrees in our Top 15 Bach­e­lor of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Pro­grams. When you find a pro­gram you’re inter­est­ed in, make sure to request more infor­ma­tion from the school that pro­vides it. With this head start, you’ll be on your way to earn­ing a degree from an elite school, which is a great step towards a top pay­ing career in communications.

We ranked the 15 schools in our rank­ing by:

• Only choos­ing col­leges from the top 50 of the U.S. News and World Report nation­al rank­ings that offered Bachelor’s in com­mu­ni­ca­tions majors.
• Pri­or­i­tiz­ing schools that PayScale marked for greater salary potential.
• Inspect­ing all schools for their region­al accreditation.
• Choos­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions majors that offered face-to-face speak­ing skills train­ing that’s built into class time.
• Using the NCES Col­lege Nav­i­ga­tor data­base to con­sid­er aver­age annu­al tuition.
• Weigh­ing expe­ri­en­tial oppor­tu­ni­ties, class size, reten­tion rate, con­cen­tra­tions, fac­ul­ty cre­den­tials, and post-grad­u­ate success.

The result is our incred­i­ble rank­ing, which we couldn’t be proud­er of. If you want a high-pay­ing career in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, you’ll need to build sig­nif­i­cant skills, and take com­pre­hen­sive cours­es that give you an advan­tage over the thou­sands of com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als that grad­u­ate each year. The course­work you should expect to immerse your­self in includes:

• Media Psy­chol­o­gy
• Con­sti­tu­tion­al Law
• Jour­nal­ism Law
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Pol­i­cy & Regulation
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Theory
• Cor­po­rate Communication/Public Relations
• Inter­per­son­al Communications
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Research Methods
• New Writ­ing and Reporting
• Speech Com­mu­ni­ca­tion
• Press Releas­es
• Mar­ket Research
• Strate­gic Communications
• And so much more.

You may find your­self work­ing for a non-prof­it, for gov­ern­ment agencies,

Highest-Paying Communications Jobs

A great career in com­mu­ni­ca­tions isn’t out of your reach. You won’t be mak­ing over $100,000 overnight, but a Bachelor’s in com­mu­ni­ca­tion from one of the pro­grams on our list can instant­ly qual­i­fy you to work in roles including:

• Mar­ket­ing Coordinator
• Client Ser­vices Representative
• Pub­lic Rela­tions Assistant
• Edi­to­r­i­al Assistant
• Asso­ciate Brand Manager

• Mar­ket­ing Manager
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Manager
• Pub­lic Rela­tions Spe­cial­ists (PR Specialists)
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Director

• Sales Rep­re­sen­ta­tives
• Copy­writer
• Pub­lic Rela­tions Manager
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Specialist
• Tech­ni­cal Writers
• Sales Man­agers
• Fundrais­ing
• Among many others.

With tech­nol­o­gy, there are many new jobs and job oppor­tu­ni­ties that were unimag­in­able just a decade ago, like Social Media Coor­di­na­tor or Social Media Man­ag­er. Mar­ket Research Ana­lysts are the job of the 21st cen­tu­ry, with the wealth of data avail­able. It’s no longer nec­es­sary to go to Los Ange­les or New York to work for media out­lets — with dig­i­tal media, the com­mu­ni­ca­tions field is everywhere!

From these jobs, you can fur­ther build your com­mu­ni­ca­tions skills, net­work, and work your way up to top com­mu­ni­ca­tions career posi­tions. Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics (BLS), get­ting to the high­est-pay­ing career path to boost your annu­al salary and earn­ing poten­tial will require years of expe­ri­ence. So stop read­ing this, click over to the Top 15 Bach­e­lor of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Pro­grams, and request infor­ma­tion from any school that catch­es your eye.

Relat­ed:

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Media Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Programs

15 Best Online Media Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Bach­e­lor’s Programs

10 Fastest Online Media Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Bach­e­lor’s Programs

10 Most Afford­able Online Media Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Degree Bach­e­lor Programs

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Dig­i­tal Communications

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Dig­i­tal Communications

25 Best Dig­i­tal Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Certificates