How to Apply to Edelman

8 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 46 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Edelman is the world's largest independent PR firm — family-owned by Richard Edelman and the Edelman family through DJE Holdings, with no holding-company parent.
  • Apply through careers.edelman.com (powered by Workday); your profile carries across DJE Holdings sister brands like Zeno Group and Edelman Smithfield.
  • Expect a written exercise (mock release, crisis statement, or strategic memo) and 3-5 interview rounds for most roles above intern.
  • Read the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer before interviewing — having a point of view on it is table stakes.
  • PR agency life means long hours, billable pressure, and high client demands; AI is squeezing traditional PR billable work, and the firm has had layoffs in some 2023-2024 markets.
  • Independent ownership is a real differentiator versus WPP, Omnicom, IPG, Publicis, Havas, and PE-backed shops — but means no equity comp.
  • Edelman has taken on contested clients (Saudi government work, ExxonMobil historically, Adidas-Yeezy crisis) — be ready to discuss your view on agency client selection.
  • Compensation is base + bonus + benefits + PTO; family-private structure means no public-company stock grants.

About Edelman

Edelman is the world's largest privately-held communications and public relations firm, headquartered at 200 East Randolph in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1952 by Daniel J. Edelman, the firm has been led since 1996 by his son Richard Edelman as President and CEO. The company remains family-owned through DJE Holdings, the parent entity that controls Edelman alongside sister brands including Zeno Group (a separately-branded PR firm), United Entertainment Group (entertainment marketing), Edelman Smithfield (financial communications, acquired 2020), Salutem Health, and Edelman Data & Intelligence. With roughly 6,000 employees across 60+ offices in more than 30 countries, Edelman is one of the last remaining large independent PR firms in an industry that has consolidated aggressively under WPP, Omnicom, IPG, Publicis, Havas, and PE-backed roll-ups like Stagwell, FGS Global, and Teneo. The firm's service portfolio spans corporate reputation, brand marketing, public affairs, employee engagement, financial communications, crisis communications, integrated marketing, paid media, healthcare communications, and technology PR. Its flagship intellectual property is the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, a global research study on public trust in business, government, media, and NGOs released each January at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Trust Barometer functions as both a thought-leadership platform and a business development tool, and authorship contributions to it are an internal credential. Major clients have historically included Microsoft (a long-standing anchor account), Samsung Electronics, Adidas, McDonald's, AB InBev, Visa, Mars, eBay, HP, Unilever's Dove, KFC, and portions of Walmart's portfolio. The agency has also taken on contested engagements — historical Republican political work, Saudi Arabia government communications, ExxonMobil work, and the Adidas-Yeezy crisis — that have sparked periodic ethical debate inside and outside the firm. Be direct about the trade-offs. PR agency life means long hours, high client-service pressure, and billable-hour expectations that are increasingly squeezed by AI tools encroaching on traditional creative, monitoring, and drafting work. The firm has had layoffs in some markets during 2023-2024. Family ownership through Richard Edelman and the Edelman family means long-term horizon but unclear succession. The independent status is a real differentiator versus holding-company peers, but it also means no public stock comp.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Visit the Edelman careers site (careers

    Visit the Edelman careers site (careers.edelman.com) which routes to a Workday-powered job board; filter by office, practice area (Corporate, Brand, Public Affairs, Health, Tech, Financial Comms), and level (Intern through SVP).

  2. 2
    Create a Workday candidate profile

    Create a Workday candidate profile — you can apply to multiple Edelman roles globally with one account, and the profile persists for future openings across DJE Holdings brands.

  3. 3
    Tailor your resume to the specific practice area; a Brand Marketing role and a P

    Tailor your resume to the specific practice area; a Brand Marketing role and a Public Affairs role read very differently to Edelman recruiters even at the same level.

  4. 4
    Upload a resume (PDF preferred), and prepare to attach 2-3 writing samples

    Upload a resume (PDF preferred), and prepare to attach 2-3 writing samples — press releases, op-eds, briefing memos, or social copy you wrote and can attribute.

  5. 5
    Complete the Workday application form including work authorization, salary expec

    Complete the Workday application form including work authorization, salary expectations (where required by jurisdiction), and demographic questions (optional, US/UK).

  6. 6
    Expect an initial recruiter screen within 1-3 weeks for active openings; less re

    Expect an initial recruiter screen within 1-3 weeks for active openings; less responsive for speculative or pipeline applications.

  7. 7
    Prepare for a written exercise

    Prepare for a written exercise — many Edelman roles require a timed or take-home writing test (a mock press release, a crisis statement, a strategic memo, or a social campaign brief).

  8. 8
    Plan for 3-5 interview rounds: recruiter, hiring manager, practice lead, cross-p

    Plan for 3-5 interview rounds: recruiter, hiring manager, practice lead, cross-practice peer, and a senior leader; entry-level may compress to 2-3 rounds.

  9. 9
    Be ready to discuss the Edelman Trust Barometer

    Be ready to discuss the Edelman Trust Barometer — interviewers expect candidates to have read the most recent edition and have a point of view on the findings.

  10. 10
    Offers typically include base salary, bonus eligibility, benefits, and PTO; equi

    Offers typically include base salary, bonus eligibility, benefits, and PTO; equity is not part of compensation given the family-owned private structure.

Resume Tips for Edelman

recommended

Lead with measurable communications outcomes — earned media impressions, share o

Lead with measurable communications outcomes — earned media impressions, share of voice shifts, executive bylines placed, crisis response timelines, campaign reach — not just task lists.

recommended

Name the specific publications and outlets where you placed coverage; Edelman re

Name the specific publications and outlets where you placed coverage; Edelman recruiters know the difference between a USA Today hit and a trade-pub mention.

recommended

If you have agency experience, list the client roster you worked on (where NDAs

If you have agency experience, list the client roster you worked on (where NDAs allow) — Edelman values candidates who have managed brand-side relationships.

recommended

For corporate-side candidates, emphasize cross-functional work with legal, IR, m

For corporate-side candidates, emphasize cross-functional work with legal, IR, marketing, and the C-suite; agency life is matrix-heavy and they need to see you can navigate it.

recommended

Quantify writing volume and range: 'Drafted 80+ press releases, 12 op-eds placed

Quantify writing volume and range: 'Drafted 80+ press releases, 12 op-eds placed in tier-1 outlets, 4 CEO keynote addresses' beats vague 'wrote content.'

recommended

Highlight any crisis communications experience explicitly — product recalls, exe

Highlight any crisis communications experience explicitly — product recalls, executive transitions, regulatory issues, social-media flashpoints. This is a premium skill at Edelman.

recommended

Include languages, especially Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, F

Include languages, especially Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Arabic, or Hindi for international office consideration.

recommended

Reference any Trust Barometer-adjacent work — research, thought leadership, whit

Reference any Trust Barometer-adjacent work — research, thought leadership, white papers, academic publications — Edelman's culture is built on the 'authority' thesis.

recommended

Keep the resume to one page for roles below SVP; senior candidates can extend to

Keep the resume to one page for roles below SVP; senior candidates can extend to two with substantive client-impact case studies.

recommended

Use a clean, ATS-friendly format — single column, standard section headers, no g

Use a clean, ATS-friendly format — single column, standard section headers, no graphics or tables — Workday parses better when the structure is conventional.

ATS System: Workday

Edelman uses Workday as its global applicant tracking system, hosted at edelman.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com and routed via careers.edelman.com. Workday is enterprise-grade, parses standard resume formats reliably, and stores your candidate profile across reapplications and across DJE Holdings sister brands.

  • Submit a PDF resume with selectable text — Workday's parser handles PDFs well but fails on scanned images or graphic-heavy designs.
  • Mirror the exact job title and key skills from the posting in your resume and Workday work-history fields; Workday surfaces matches to recruiters via keyword scoring.
  • Fill out the Workday work-history section completely even if you upload a resume — recruiters often filter and search on the structured fields, not the resume text.
  • Use a single-column layout with standard headers (Experience, Education, Skills); avoid two-column resumes, which Workday occasionally mis-parses.
  • Save your Workday profile after applying — you can apply to additional Edelman or DJE Holdings roles without rebuilding from scratch, and recruiters can see your full application history.
  • Set up Workday job alerts for the practice areas and offices you want; Edelman posts roles continuously and the freshest applications get reviewed first.

Interview Culture

Edelman interviews are conversational but rigorous, designed to assess writing skill, strategic instinct, client-service temperament, and cultural fit with a thought-leadership-driven firm.

Expect 3-5 rounds across recruiter, hiring manager, practice lead, peer, and a senior leader; SVP and partner-track candidates may face Richard Edelman or other DJE Holdings leadership in late stages. Most rounds are video calls (Zoom or Microsoft Teams), with on-site final rounds in major offices when geography allows. A written exercise is standard for nearly all roles above intern. Common formats include a mock press release for a real client situation, a crisis communications statement under tight time pressure, a strategic memo recommending a campaign approach, or a social media content brief. The exercise is graded on writing quality, strategic thinking, brand voice, and ability to work under deadline — all core PR agency skills. Behavioral interviews probe how you handle conflicting client demands, fast-turnaround pressure, cross-team collaboration in a matrixed agency, and ethically gray client situations. Be ready to discuss a time you pushed back on a client, a time you missed a deadline, and a time you handled a crisis. Interviewers expect candidates to have read the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer and to have an articulated point of view on its findings — not having read it reads as lack of preparation. Culture-fit signals matter. Edelman is a family-controlled firm with a long-term horizon, which translates to interviewers caring about whether you want to build a career, not just a stepping-stone job. Expect questions about why Edelman specifically versus a holding-company shop or a PE-backed competitor. Honest answers about wanting independent ownership, the Trust Barometer platform, or specific practice depth land better than generic 'great brand' answers.

What Edelman Looks For

  • Strong writing — clean, fast, on-brand, and adaptable across press releases, executive ghostwriting, social copy, op-eds, and strategic memos.
  • Strategic thinking — the ability to connect a client's business goal to a communications program, not just execute tactics.
  • Client-service temperament — calm under pressure, responsive, comfortable with ambiguity and last-minute pivots, and able to push back diplomatically.
  • Media relationships and earned-media instinct, especially for tier-1 outlets in business, tech, healthcare, policy, and consumer verticals.
  • Crisis communications fluency — ability to draft under pressure, anticipate stakeholder reactions, and coordinate across legal, IR, and operations.
  • Thought-leadership orientation — willingness to publish, speak, and contribute to firm IP like the Trust Barometer or practice white papers.
  • Cross-functional fluency — comfort working with creative, paid media, data and analytics, and digital teams in an integrated model.
  • Cultural and language range, particularly for international offices or global accounts spanning multiple markets.
  • Demonstrated client-side or brand-side empathy — having sat in the client's chair (or worked closely with one) is a credibility signal.
  • Long-term commitment — Edelman invests in people who plan to grow with the firm, not transient resume-builders.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Edelman publicly traded or owned by a holding company?
Neither. Edelman is privately held by the Edelman family through parent entity DJE Holdings. Richard Edelman, son of founder Daniel Edelman, has been President and CEO since 1996. This independence is one of its key competitive differentiators versus WPP, Omnicom, IPG, Publicis, Havas, and Stagwell-owned competitors.
What ATS does Edelman use?
Edelman uses Workday, hosted at edelman.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com and routed via careers.edelman.com. Submit a clean PDF resume with a single-column layout, fill out the Workday work-history fields completely, and save your profile to apply to multiple roles across DJE Holdings.
How many interview rounds should I expect?
Typically 3-5 rounds: a recruiter screen, hiring manager, practice lead, peer interview, and a senior leader. Entry-level roles may compress to 2-3 rounds. SVP and partner-track candidates may meet Richard Edelman or other DJE Holdings leadership in late stages. Nearly all roles include a written exercise.
What does the written exercise look like?
Common formats include a mock press release, a crisis communications statement under time pressure, a strategic memo recommending a campaign approach, or a social media content brief. It's graded on writing quality, strategic thinking, brand voice, and ability to work under deadline — all core PR agency skills.
Do I need to read the Edelman Trust Barometer before interviewing?
Yes. The Trust Barometer is the firm's flagship annual research report on public trust in business, government, media, and NGOs, released each January at Davos. Interviewers expect candidates to have read the most recent edition and articulate a point of view on its findings. Not having read it reads as lack of preparation.
What practice areas does Edelman hire across?
Corporate reputation, brand marketing, public affairs, employee engagement, financial communications (Edelman Smithfield), crisis communications, integrated marketing, paid media, healthcare communications, and technology PR. You can also be considered for roles at sister DJE Holdings brands like Zeno Group, United Entertainment Group, and Edelman Data & Intelligence.
What are the work hours like at Edelman?
Be honest about the trade-offs. PR agency life at Edelman means long hours, high client-service pressure, and billable-hour expectations. Crisis work in particular can require nights and weekends. Family-ownership means long-term horizon, but doesn't materially change the day-to-day intensity of agency work.
Has Edelman had layoffs recently?
Yes, the firm conducted layoffs in some markets during 2023-2024 amid broader PR industry pressure from AI tools, holding-company consolidation (notably WPP merging Burson and Hill+Knowlton into Burson in 2024), and shifts in client spend. Independent status helps insulate Edelman from some pressures but does not make it immune.
Does Edelman offer equity compensation?
No. Because Edelman is privately held by the Edelman family through DJE Holdings, there is no public stock to grant. Compensation typically includes base salary, performance bonus, comprehensive benefits, and PTO. This differs from holding-company peers (WPP, Omnicom, IPG, Publicis) where employees may receive listed-company equity.
How should I think about Edelman's controversial client work?
Edelman has taken on contested engagements including historical Republican political work, Saudi Arabia government communications, ExxonMobil work, and the Adidas-Yeezy crisis. Interviewers may probe your view on client selection and agency ethics. Be ready with a thoughtful, honest position rather than a rehearsed script — the firm values strategic judgment, not avoidance.
What languages are useful for international Edelman offices?
English is primary firm-wide, but Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Arabic, and Hindi are valuable for the firm's 60+ offices across 30+ countries. List language proficiency clearly on your resume and in the Workday profile fields if you want to be considered for international or global-account roles.
Who are Edelman's main competitors?
On the holding-company side: WPP (Burson — formed by 2024 merger of Hill+Knowlton and BCW; Ogilvy PR; ICR), Omnicom (FleishmanHillard, Ketchum), IPG (Weber Shandwick, GolinHarris, DeVries), Publicis (MSL Group), and Havas (Red Havas). On the independent and PE-backed side: FGS Global (Permira-backed), Brunswick Group, Teneo, and Stagwell-owned shops. Edelman's independent status is a real differentiator in this landscape.

Open Positions

Edelman currently has 46 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 46 open positions at Edelman

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Sources

  1. Edelman Careers — Workday Job Board —
  2. Edelman Official Website — About Us —
  3. Edelman Trust Barometer — Annual Global Report —
  4. DJE Holdings — Parent Company Overview —
  5. Richard Edelman — President and CEO Profile —
  6. Edelman Smithfield — Financial Communications Brand —
  7. Zeno Group — Sister DJE Holdings Brand —
  8. PRWeek Agency Business Report — Independent vs Holding Company PR —
  9. WPP Announces Burson Merger of Hill+Knowlton and BCW (2024) —
  10. Holmes Report / PRovoke Media — Global PR Agency Rankings —
  11. Workday Candidate Help — Application and Profile Guide —
  12. Edelman Crisis & Risk Practice Overview —