Our mission is to create the industry's most intelligent and inspired PR professionals. To do this, we created the Publicist Certification Program™, a lengthy, in-house program of study which assures our clients that even the most junior members of their account team have the expertise of the most seasoned PR professionals.
After passing a rigorous writing test, new employees at Ricochet PR are placed in one of three practice areas: healthcare, technology or industry. While true PR veterans might "test out" of our Publicist Certification Program, most new employees to our company, even those with specialized degrees in fields such as neuroscience or engineering, must undergo 4-6 months of intense training before being "certified" to work in a specific practice area.
Before graduating from the program, each enrollee must complete a two-track program of study. First, in order to master Ricochet's unique methodologies for strategic media relations, each employee must complete a series of workshops with agency founder, Todd Aydelotte; and second, in order to become an expert in his or her specific practice area, enrollees must graduate from an intense academic immersion program, which is led by our own full-time Director of Education and requires up to 20 hours of weekly study time.
In our Healthcare practice, enrollees study pharmaceuticals, drug discovery and development, biotechnology, managed care, and FDA and governmental oversight; in our Technology practice, topics include the history of the computing and electronics industries, semiconductors, software, hardware, and the Internet; and finally, in our Industry practice, new additions to our team study energy, chemicals, gases, materials science and automotive technology.
Take a sample publicist certification quiz: Healthcare, Technology, Industry.