March 20, 2024 • 22 mins
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Unlock the code to public health job success with Zoila Reina of Public Health Hired, who graces our podcast with expert tips on mastering the language of the sector. If you've ever felt lost in a sea of job applications, Zoila's creation, the Public Health Key Terms Guide, is your beacon. We zero in on the power of terms and how they're not just buzzwords but keys to your next career move. From decoding job descriptions to enhancing your resume and shining in interviews, our conversation is the guiding light for public health hopefuls ready to make their mark.
You’ll Learn
- What the Key Terms in Public Health Guide is and how it came to be
- How understanding terms can help you envision yourself in certain jobs and reflect on your skills
- Understanding key terms to show off your public health knowledge in job applications and interviews
- Elevating your language in everyday work to advance your career
- Using key terms to expand your job search beyond traditional public health roles
Today’s Guest
The founder of Public Health Hired, Zoila Reyna MPH, has single-handedly, with no outsourcing, helped secure over 240 public health job offers and internships through her virtual presentations, online masterclass, tailored mentorships, and social media content. Zoila's unwavering dedication to the diverse public health workforce is evident through the Public Health Hired's mission to demystify the public health employment process and help others master best practices and proven techniques to be successful in the job search. She has a full-time job in healthcare as a consultant for community health and loves spending time in her Los Angeles home with her baby girl Jhara, her son Giovanni, dog Lulu, and spouse Jimmy.
Resources
- Connect with Zoila on LinkedIn
- Get the Key Terms in Public Health guide and check out what else Public Health Hired has to offer
- Listen to the previous episode on personal branding
Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.
Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I realize our workforce, especially those who
are entering, just need to becomfortable with.
This is the language you'redealing with.
Like, this is the vernacularthat you will hear, not only on
the job announcements and inyour interviews, but also when
you actually work.
And that's been one of thegreat things is, folks use the
guide for other ways, like forinterviews, for upgrading their
(00:21):
resume, and that's what theguide's been able to do for some
of my followers.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to PH Spotlight, a community for you
to build your public healthcareer with.
Join us weekly right here andI'll be here too.
Your host, sujani Siva from PHSpot.
Hi, zoila, and welcome to thePH Spot podcast, and welcome Hi.
Thank you, sujani, for havingme Super excited.
(00:53):
Thank you, we've been trying tomake this happen.
I feel like it's been over ayear and we're finally doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yes, and I'm sure we're going to do it again.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh yeah, absolutely the first of many, exactly, and
so for any of our listeners, youmight know Zoila because she
runs public health hired.
But in case you haven't heardof Zoila or public health hired,
I might just turn it over toyou, give us like a two minute
intro of who you are and usethat two minutes however you
want.
However, you want to describeyourself.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Great Well, hi everyone, hi listeners.
My name is Zoila Reina.
I am the founder of publichealth hired.
I am a public healthprofessional, just like you.
I've been in public health forover 16 years, still at my full
time job at a healthcareorganization here in California.
I am based in Los Angeles, andso a lot of my followers and
(01:45):
mentees are from the UnitedStates, but I also support folks
in Canada and other countriesglobally, and essentially I am
really trying to share the bestpractices of how you get a job
in public health, which includeshow to find the job, how do you
apply correctly with resume andcover letters to stand out, how
do you get those callbacks andhow do you actually land
(02:05):
interviews not just one, butmultiple rounds of interviews
plus assignments that theysometimes throw at you.
So I am all about supportingthe workforce as best as we can.
Whether you're a student orjust curious about public health
and trying to prepare yourselfbefore you enter in the field,
or if you're deep in it and wantto pivot into another focus
(02:27):
area, I am here to help as bestI can.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
That's cool.
We're just going to jump intoit because we want to give you
20 minutes or just like solidinformation.
So you might need a notebook forthis chat, but there's also a
cool resource that Zoila has onher website, so I'll make sure
to also link that up.
But essentially, you knoweverything that you talked about
, zoila.
This first step is kind of likeunderstanding the job posting.
(02:54):
But if you're not applying to ajob yeah, job posting, and
somebody recommends it to youthere's still something that you
need to make sure you do onyour resume and cover letter,
and that's like using the rightwords.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yes, it's almost like using the right code.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So, whether you're reading a job posting or you are
going to be writing up anapplication, you know cover
letter, the assignment, theresume these words matter, and
knowing how to use these keywords or key terms in a way
that's going to get yourapplication picked up by the
person on the other side is whatwe're going to talk about, and
(03:36):
when I saw this resource onZoila's page, I was like yes, we
need to talk about this.
I've heard from a lot of peoplethat that is something that
they struggle with, right Notknowing how to read a job
application.
So maybe you can start us offby like, just laying some of the
basics and then maybe we'll diginto it a little bit.
Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So just so that everyone has like a little bit
of background into this guidethat I have.
It's called the public healthkey terms guide.
I struggled with the title, butthat's what we've got.
Essentially, I had worked withso many folks on social media
for navigating the applicationprocess and reading the jobs and
(04:18):
I'm all about doing job alertsand I know, sujani, you are too.
Let's share what's out therebut folks were still not seeing
themselves in the job.
Right, I would post jobs thattalk about, you know, technical
assistance, specialist or bestpractice implementation, like
these words that they felt like.
But that's not me.
And so there was basically amentee I had who said you know
(04:44):
what I wish we had?
This was really just from onementee suggestion and it's
changed everything.
She was like I wish there was acheat sheet where I could see
what am I expected to read, whatam I supposed to be saying?
Because she kept describingthere's this gray area of coming
(05:08):
at a school and jumping intoemployment.
And after conversations notonly with her but with my
mentees and trying to educatethem and define these words like
accreditation, right, thingsthat they had never heard about
but they should know about, Ialso got kind of long winded.
I'm like, okay, this is whattechnical assistance is this?
(05:29):
is a building capacity, as thisis what best practices are.
This is the difference ofstandard operating procedures.
So the language was almost it'sjust too much to kind of share
in one sitting.
You have to really you need aguide.
You need something that listsout all of these words and what
to expect as you're reading them.
(05:49):
So, essentially, it was thesuggestion of a mentee of mine
and I drafted the first guide.
It was about 50 terms and itwas from what I know.
It was just from my own jobsearching, from my own practice
in public health.
This is how we talk about thework and this is how you should
expect reading the jobs, and allI did was provide the term and
(06:13):
then transferable skills thatyou should consider to fold into
that.
So for folks who were like, oh,here's a term, for example,
standard operating procedures,and so then on the right, I
would show you that you qualifyas implementing standard
operating procedures if you'vehelped with actual operations or
(06:36):
retail or processes workflows.
Even if you were a cashier,that is a standard operating
procedure, right On how youclose out the cash.
So a lot of this language wasjust helping them see themselves
in it, and that's where Istarted.
And now fast forward to threeand a half years later.
(06:57):
I have a key terms guide.
That was contributions fromfive committee members and those
five committee members arefolks who got jobs using the
techniques I use and they arepublic health professionals
across the nation.
And now we have 70 key termsand it's not just transferable
skills but it includesdefinitions with citations and
(07:18):
then also an actual sentence useLike how do I use this word in
a sentence if I wanted to try itout?
And so it's a little morefleshed out, and then it still
has the transferable skillsinformation.
But honestly, it's been kind ofthe game changer for public
health hired and folks whofollow, because number one, it's
(07:39):
free, grab it and do what youwant with it.
But honestly, it's the bestthing for job applications.
As you're reading the jobs andyou're like, oh, what does that
mean?
What does accreditation mean,then you can kind of use the
guide as a reference to kind ofhelp you get through the job
announcements.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
That's so good.
I remember early in my career,like in my first job, I remember
seeing another job and wantedto apply to it and I remember
talking to my manager sayingthey're asking for like risk
assessment experience.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I don't think I have any like how should I go about
this?
And she's like the job you'rein is all about risk assessment.
Let's look at this.
Wait a minute.
I'm like, oh okay, so that'sokay, got it.
And sometimes like you're in itand you don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
You don't see it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
That's what they're asking for, right and right now.
When you explain the standardoperating procedure, in my head
I would have thought of it aslike I was responsible to write
out an SOP and I am the one wholike, implemented and did that
whole thing.
But you know, when you'reapplying to especially early
kind of like entry level jobs oreven like mid level jobs,
(08:52):
sometimes pulling from theselike transferable skills or
experiences you've had in otherareas of work is good enough to
get you through the door.
Because you know, I think we'veheard that crazy stat that
people just look at your resumefor a few seconds and then
you're like in the in pile orthe out pile.
So part of what you're sayingis like, use this guide, get
(09:16):
yourself in the in pile and thengo wow them right.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yes, yes, yeah, and honestly, the key terms guide.
It is supposed to be areflection, like, if that's kind
of the first time you get toask yourself did I do that, have
I done that?
And I have these aha momentswith my mentees all the time.
Maybe that's why I still lovedoing this, because I hear their
ahas, they see it, they get itright.
(09:40):
Before they didn't seethemselves as someone who
supported assessments right,because they're all about
evaluation and analysis, I'mlike, but you know, we can talk
about it in assessment as well.
So, like these different ways oftalking about public health are
, I realize our workforce,especially those who are
entering, just need to becomfortable with.
(10:01):
This is the language you'redealing with.
Like this is the vernacularthat you will hear, not only on
the job announcements and inyour interviews, but also when
you actually work.
Like and that's been one of thegreat things is, folks use the
guide for other ways, like forinterviews, right, for example,
for upgrading their resume.
And then one of my followersalways gives me updates because
(10:25):
she told me she used the guideto improve her own language at
her job.
So she was already a publichealth professional and, yes,
she wants to grow in her career,but she's like what can I do
now to improve?
And she basically said, likeher boss keeps giving her better
work.
She got a promotion becauseshe's just elevating her
language and she's matching itwith her manager, and that's
(10:49):
what the guide's been able to dofor some of my followers.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's like, when you can use industry terms
appropriately, it kind of likedoes make you seem more
qualified in those roles, right?
Yes, I did a recording withanother coach and we talked
about personal branding and itwas about what you see yourself
(11:13):
as.
And then, what does yourmanagement see you?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
as right.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
If you're thinking like I should be up for that
next promotion.
I feel qualified to be themanager, but if you're like
seniors don't see you in thatrole.
There's a gap there and youneed to figure that out.
And often it could be that theydon't see you speaking like a
manager or showing up like amanager, right, or?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
asking the right questions.
Yeah, you know, public healthis so complex and so dynamic and
multi-layered and I think thebest thing you can do as you're
out there working is don'tassume that you know what's
going on.
Like I think sometimes I'mrealizing that my managers
appreciate when I come withharder questions and in fact
(12:02):
they're on me lately becausethey're like you're not being
hard enough, like you need toraise critical questions that
drive the conversations to acertain level, and so in
everyone's own work you can dothat for yourself.
But it's kind of up to you topractice, to find the
information.
Like, how do I look at thisdifferently?
I always say, when it comes downto interviews, the underlying
(12:26):
question that you are all reallyanswering is are you one of us?
That's the only reason weinterview.
A company wants to know are youone of us?
And let me tell you how peoplerecognize their own Language.
Yeah, that's it, yeah, language.
So I I'm pretty hard with folkson like, stop trying to be
(12:47):
friendly and bubbly and smiley,like, because I can tell you I
would hire someone who Lookslike mean mugging but speaks the
right language.
You know what I mean.
Like, if you're saying theright things, the hiring manager
will be forgiving if you slipup a little bit, but as long as
they're hearing like they getthe world that we work in and
(13:09):
where we're trying to go, thenyou're one of them, then you get
the job.
So, yes, language is everything.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, that's good.
So you know, I think part of itand maybe I read this on your
website is like Knowing theright key terms also helps you
Find the right jobs to apply toand maybe it was on your website
when I read this it's likethere's more you can search than
just public health in a jobsearch engine.
(13:36):
I'm guilty of that.
I think that's how I started gopublic help LinkedIn jobs.
What are you going to give me?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I Mean that's what we all done.
I did that for like I don'tknow, for like two to three
years.
I was doing that like, come onpublic health jobs.
There's got to be more outthere.
But no, that's actually thetrap, that's the that's it.
That's the trap.
You're only looking at the tipof the iceberg, where the jobs
are, are categorized and flaggedas public health, because the
(14:05):
rest of the work is underneaththe water, is the big iceberg of
like Social impact, communityimpact, right, access to care,
like all these other terms thatmake up our world.
And in fact, when you downloadthe guide, the term public
health isn't mentioned in there.
Oh, I don't define publichealth because the whole guide
is public health.
(14:25):
Mm-hmm.
The 70 key terms make up publichealth, so why am I going to
define public health in there?
So I actually Tell people don'tsearch public health, and it's
actually going to hold you backmore.
You can do it on occasion ifyou're bored, but it's not going
to be like the way that you getthe job.
And I'll be honest for mepersonally, while I mentor folks
(14:48):
and even for my own curiosity,the amount of times I punch in
public health in one year isprobably four or five times In
one year and I wonder if that'slike also more important now,
because we're seeing the role ofpublic health practitioners
embedded in kind of these likenon traditional roles that we
(15:09):
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Typically it's the health promoter, the community
health workers, theepidemiologists.
There was like five to ten,maybe traditional roles, but now
I Think we're seeing that wecan be integrated in almost
anything.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yes, and our title is very widely yeah, I'm dealing
with my mentees who are applyingto like grievance and appeal
specialist or Business operationspecialist, you know, still
appropriate still within publichealth, still within our world.
But you wouldn't be searchingthat if you're not looking at
the key terms guide or followingwhat we, what we teach here.
(15:47):
So I think from my mentees,that's the first thing we get on
is what are you searching?
Let's get your key terms solidso that you Get on the right
path, and that's what this guideis for and that's why it's free
, so that you guys can just geton the right Path for yourself.
I like to think that publichealth hired is here to give you
a flashlight in your journey.
(16:08):
That's what really it's allabout is let me help you see
where you're stepping andcareful for that pothole over
here, so you know that's reallywhat the guide is meant to do is
give you a flashlight.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, I think when you were talking about you know,
helping the public health workfor us, kind of like elevate the
language that they use whenthey show up in their roles.
It's almost like we know thatwe're all very competent in
public health.
It's like that part of it wecan kind of check off.
(16:41):
We all have some sort ofeducation or experience that has
allowed us to do public healthreally well.
Now it's about showing theperson on the other side whether
that's an employer for a job orsome other opportunity that
you're putting yourself in forthat you are the right person
and I think you hit that rightwhere it's like are you one of
(17:03):
them?
Do you understand theorganization?
Do you understand the work Notnecessarily public health?
Do?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
you understand the target population?
Yeah, do you understand thepartners at the table?
So I think that's what I getreally excited about when I get
folks to the interview processis, let's make sure you
understand it from a 360.
Not just the project itself,not just the company, but you
understand the audience and thepartners and the skill set that
will be required of this.
(17:29):
So, yeah, I think it's lookingat it comprehensively absolutely
.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, awesome, okay, so this key term I think we
talked about, we can use a toolto first, like, look for roles,
yes, and then we can also use itwhen we're preparing the
application Update your resume.
Yeah, update the resume coverletter Absolutely, and then you
can use it during your interview.
You can use it when you're likein a role you know, use these
(17:58):
terms to have regularconversation.
Maybe choose a term of the weekand try to embed it in your
conversations that week.
Any other uses for it thatyou've come across.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, I think that's it.
I mean, I think it runs thegamut, I mean really it's.
You know, even for folks whoare students and you're not even
looking for work, you candownload it and see, like how
much am I really alreadyabsorbing this in my school.
You know, should I talk moreabout a certain?
because I think we're not evenaware of our interests sometimes
because we're thinking of thetraditional track, right Like
(18:32):
the demology or the healtheducator, and so my goal is also
to help people like make theirown way, make their own path.
You can actually be more thanjust not no, no, banging on
health educators, but you know,we just assume the traditional
roles and we're beyond that.
Now, especially after thepandemic, we're beyond that.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I think another good use I can think of is and I'm
seeing this a lot is likethere's a group of individuals
who are considered early careerprofessionals in public health
but they built like a five or 10year career in another field
and now they want to enterpublic health.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yes, like teachers, yeah teachers.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I've seen like people in marketing coming in or
people in engineering cominginto public health, and I think
that also this list could behelpful when they're looking at
their past experience andthinking okay, how can I
transfer those skills intopublic health?
Like what are some of thosesimilar work that we've done?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, it's very universal and I hope to keep it
improving it, but it is anevergreen product.
Right now it's free and I don'twant to put a fee on it.
So please spread widely, postit.
I try to post it as much as Ican, but, yeah, it does actually
get people on the right footand I'm happy to hear the
feedback.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So awesome, All right .
So public health hirecom youshould be able to find that very
easily.
I think maybe we'll do like afollow up session to even walk
through the document and do moreof an in depth dive into that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, and we can even invite folks to come to the
club for something like thatSomething kind of special and
kind of open up the guide withthem.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So yeah, let's do that, yeah that would be nice.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So thank you, sujani, for this.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
This was so nice to spend some time together.
Thank you for joining me andwe'll see you on a future
episode.
We'll do it again.
Yes, hey, I hope you enjoyedthat episode and if you want to
get the links or informationmentioned in today's episode,
you can head over to phspotorgslash podcast and we'll have
(20:35):
everything there for you.
And before you go, I want totell you about the Public Health
Career Club.
So if you've been looking for aplace to connect and build
meaningful relationships withother public health
professionals from all aroundthe world, you should join us in
the Public Health Career Club.
We launched the club with thevision of becoming the number
(20:56):
one hangout spot dedicated tobuilding and growing your dream
public health career.
And in addition to being able toconnect and build those
meaningful relationships withother public health
professionals, the club alsooffers other great resources for
your career growth and success,like mindset coaching, job
preparation clinics and careergrowth strategy sessions in the
(21:18):
form of trainings and talks, alldelivered by experts and
inspiring individuals in theseareas.
So if you want to learn more orwant to join the club, you can
visit our page at phspotorgslash club and we'll have all
the information there.
And you know, as a space that'sbeing intentionally curated to
bring together like mindedpublic health professionals who
(21:41):
are not only there to pushthemselves to become the best
versions of themselves, but alsoeach other.
And with that, I can't wait tosee how this is going to have a
ripple effect in the world, aswe all work together to better
the health of our populationsand just have immense impact in
the world.
And I hope you'll be joining usin the Public Health Career
(22:03):
Club.
I realize our workforce, especially those who
are entering, just need to becomfortable with.
This is the language you'redealing with.
Like, this is the vernacularthat you will hear, not only on
the job announcements and inyour interviews, but also when
you actually work.
And that's been one of thegreat things is, folks use the
guide for other ways, like forinterviews, for upgrading their
(00:21):
resume, and that's what theguide's been able to do for some
of my followers.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to PH Spotlight, a community for you
to build your public healthcareer with.
Join us weekly right here andI'll be here too.
Your host, sujani Siva from PHSpot.
Hi, zoila, and welcome to thePH Spot podcast, and welcome Hi.
Thank you, sujani, for havingme Super excited.
(00:53):
Thank you, we've been trying tomake this happen.
I feel like it's been over ayear and we're finally doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yes, and I'm sure we're going to do it again.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh yeah, absolutely the first of many, exactly, and
so for any of our listeners, youmight know Zoila because she
runs public health hired.
But in case you haven't heardof Zoila or public health hired,
I might just turn it over toyou, give us like a two minute
intro of who you are and usethat two minutes however you
want.
However, you want to describeyourself.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Great Well, hi everyone, hi listeners.
My name is Zoila Reina.
I am the founder of publichealth hired.
I am a public healthprofessional, just like you.
I've been in public health forover 16 years, still at my full
time job at a healthcareorganization here in California.
I am based in Los Angeles, andso a lot of my followers and
(01:45):
mentees are from the UnitedStates, but I also support folks
in Canada and other countriesglobally, and essentially I am
really trying to share the bestpractices of how you get a job
in public health, which includeshow to find the job, how do you
apply correctly with resume andcover letters to stand out, how
do you get those callbacks andhow do you actually land
(02:05):
interviews not just one, butmultiple rounds of interviews
plus assignments that theysometimes throw at you.
So I am all about supportingthe workforce as best as we can.
Whether you're a student orjust curious about public health
and trying to prepare yourselfbefore you enter in the field,
or if you're deep in it and wantto pivot into another focus
(02:27):
area, I am here to help as bestI can.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
That's cool.
We're just going to jump intoit because we want to give you
20 minutes or just like solidinformation.
So you might need a notebook forthis chat, but there's also a
cool resource that Zoila has onher website, so I'll make sure
to also link that up.
But essentially, you knoweverything that you talked about
, zoila.
This first step is kind of likeunderstanding the job posting.
(02:54):
But if you're not applying to ajob yeah, job posting, and
somebody recommends it to youthere's still something that you
need to make sure you do onyour resume and cover letter,
and that's like using the rightwords.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yes, it's almost like using the right code.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So, whether you're reading a job posting or you are
going to be writing up anapplication, you know cover
letter, the assignment, theresume these words matter, and
knowing how to use these keywords or key terms in a way
that's going to get yourapplication picked up by the
person on the other side is whatwe're going to talk about, and
(03:36):
when I saw this resource onZoila's page, I was like yes, we
need to talk about this.
I've heard from a lot of peoplethat that is something that
they struggle with, right Notknowing how to read a job
application.
So maybe you can start us offby like, just laying some of the
basics and then maybe we'll diginto it a little bit.
Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So just so that everyone has like a little bit
of background into this guidethat I have.
It's called the public healthkey terms guide.
I struggled with the title, butthat's what we've got.
Essentially, I had worked withso many folks on social media
for navigating the applicationprocess and reading the jobs and
(04:18):
I'm all about doing job alertsand I know, sujani, you are too.
Let's share what's out therebut folks were still not seeing
themselves in the job.
Right, I would post jobs thattalk about, you know, technical
assistance, specialist or bestpractice implementation, like
these words that they felt like.
But that's not me.
And so there was basically amentee I had who said you know
(04:44):
what I wish we had?
This was really just from onementee suggestion and it's
changed everything.
She was like I wish there was acheat sheet where I could see
what am I expected to read, whatam I supposed to be saying?
Because she kept describingthere's this gray area of coming
(05:08):
at a school and jumping intoemployment.
And after conversations notonly with her but with my
mentees and trying to educatethem and define these words like
accreditation, right, thingsthat they had never heard about
but they should know about, Ialso got kind of long winded.
I'm like, okay, this is whattechnical assistance is this?
(05:29):
is a building capacity, as thisis what best practices are.
This is the difference ofstandard operating procedures.
So the language was almost it'sjust too much to kind of share
in one sitting.
You have to really you need aguide.
You need something that listsout all of these words and what
to expect as you're reading them.
(05:49):
So, essentially, it was thesuggestion of a mentee of mine
and I drafted the first guide.
It was about 50 terms and itwas from what I know.
It was just from my own jobsearching, from my own practice
in public health.
This is how we talk about thework and this is how you should
expect reading the jobs, and allI did was provide the term and
(06:13):
then transferable skills thatyou should consider to fold into
that.
So for folks who were like, oh,here's a term, for example,
standard operating procedures,and so then on the right, I
would show you that you qualifyas implementing standard
operating procedures if you'vehelped with actual operations or
(06:36):
retail or processes workflows.
Even if you were a cashier,that is a standard operating
procedure, right On how youclose out the cash.
So a lot of this language wasjust helping them see themselves
in it, and that's where Istarted.
And now fast forward to threeand a half years later.
(06:57):
I have a key terms guide.
That was contributions fromfive committee members and those
five committee members arefolks who got jobs using the
techniques I use and they arepublic health professionals
across the nation.
And now we have 70 key termsand it's not just transferable
skills but it includesdefinitions with citations and
(07:18):
then also an actual sentence useLike how do I use this word in
a sentence if I wanted to try itout?
And so it's a little morefleshed out, and then it still
has the transferable skillsinformation.
But honestly, it's been kind ofthe game changer for public
health hired and folks whofollow, because number one, it's
(07:39):
free, grab it and do what youwant with it.
But honestly, it's the bestthing for job applications.
As you're reading the jobs andyou're like, oh, what does that
mean?
What does accreditation mean,then you can kind of use the
guide as a reference to kind ofhelp you get through the job
announcements.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
That's so good.
I remember early in my career,like in my first job, I remember
seeing another job and wantedto apply to it and I remember
talking to my manager sayingthey're asking for like risk
assessment experience.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I don't think I have any like how should I go about
this?
And she's like the job you'rein is all about risk assessment.
Let's look at this.
Wait a minute.
I'm like, oh okay, so that'sokay, got it.
And sometimes like you're in itand you don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
You don't see it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
That's what they're asking for, right and right now.
When you explain the standardoperating procedure, in my head
I would have thought of it aslike I was responsible to write
out an SOP and I am the one wholike, implemented and did that
whole thing.
But you know, when you'reapplying to especially early
kind of like entry level jobs oreven like mid level jobs,
(08:52):
sometimes pulling from theselike transferable skills or
experiences you've had in otherareas of work is good enough to
get you through the door.
Because you know, I think we'veheard that crazy stat that
people just look at your resumefor a few seconds and then
you're like in the in pile orthe out pile.
So part of what you're sayingis like, use this guide, get
(09:16):
yourself in the in pile and thengo wow them right.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yes, yes, yeah, and honestly, the key terms guide.
It is supposed to be areflection, like, if that's kind
of the first time you get toask yourself did I do that, have
I done that?
And I have these aha momentswith my mentees all the time.
Maybe that's why I still lovedoing this, because I hear their
ahas, they see it, they get itright.
(09:40):
Before they didn't seethemselves as someone who
supported assessments right,because they're all about
evaluation and analysis, I'mlike, but you know, we can talk
about it in assessment as well.
So, like these different ways oftalking about public health are
, I realize our workforce,especially those who are
entering, just need to becomfortable with.
(10:01):
This is the language you'redealing with.
Like this is the vernacularthat you will hear, not only on
the job announcements and inyour interviews, but also when
you actually work.
Like and that's been one of thegreat things is, folks use the
guide for other ways, like forinterviews, right, for example,
for upgrading their resume.
And then one of my followersalways gives me updates because
(10:25):
she told me she used the guideto improve her own language at
her job.
So she was already a publichealth professional and, yes,
she wants to grow in her career,but she's like what can I do
now to improve?
And she basically said, likeher boss keeps giving her better
work.
She got a promotion becauseshe's just elevating her
language and she's matching itwith her manager, and that's
(10:49):
what the guide's been able to dofor some of my followers.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's like, when you can use industry terms
appropriately, it kind of likedoes make you seem more
qualified in those roles, right?
Yes, I did a recording withanother coach and we talked
about personal branding and itwas about what you see yourself
(11:13):
as.
And then, what does yourmanagement see you?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
as right.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
If you're thinking like I should be up for that
next promotion.
I feel qualified to be themanager, but if you're like
seniors don't see you in thatrole.
There's a gap there and youneed to figure that out.
And often it could be that theydon't see you speaking like a
manager or showing up like amanager, right, or?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
asking the right questions.
Yeah, you know, public healthis so complex and so dynamic and
multi-layered and I think thebest thing you can do as you're
out there working is don'tassume that you know what's
going on.
Like I think sometimes I'mrealizing that my managers
appreciate when I come withharder questions and in fact
(12:02):
they're on me lately becausethey're like you're not being
hard enough, like you need toraise critical questions that
drive the conversations to acertain level, and so in
everyone's own work you can dothat for yourself.
But it's kind of up to you topractice, to find the
information.
Like, how do I look at thisdifferently?
I always say, when it comes downto interviews, the underlying
(12:26):
question that you are all reallyanswering is are you one of us?
That's the only reason weinterview.
A company wants to know are youone of us?
And let me tell you how peoplerecognize their own Language.
Yeah, that's it, yeah, language.
So I I'm pretty hard with folkson like, stop trying to be
(12:47):
friendly and bubbly and smiley,like, because I can tell you I
would hire someone who Lookslike mean mugging but speaks the
right language.
You know what I mean.
Like, if you're saying theright things, the hiring manager
will be forgiving if you slipup a little bit, but as long as
they're hearing like they getthe world that we work in and
(13:09):
where we're trying to go, thenyou're one of them, then you get
the job.
So, yes, language is everything.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, that's good.
So you know, I think part of itand maybe I read this on your
website is like Knowing theright key terms also helps you
Find the right jobs to apply toand maybe it was on your website
when I read this it's likethere's more you can search than
just public health in a jobsearch engine.
(13:36):
I'm guilty of that.
I think that's how I started gopublic help LinkedIn jobs.
What are you going to give me?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I Mean that's what we all done.
I did that for like I don'tknow, for like two to three
years.
I was doing that like, come onpublic health jobs.
There's got to be more outthere.
But no, that's actually thetrap, that's the that's it.
That's the trap.
You're only looking at the tipof the iceberg, where the jobs
are, are categorized and flaggedas public health, because the
(14:05):
rest of the work is underneaththe water, is the big iceberg of
like Social impact, communityimpact, right, access to care,
like all these other terms thatmake up our world.
And in fact, when you downloadthe guide, the term public
health isn't mentioned in there.
Oh, I don't define publichealth because the whole guide
is public health.
(14:25):
Mm-hmm.
The 70 key terms make up publichealth, so why am I going to
define public health in there?
So I actually Tell people don'tsearch public health, and it's
actually going to hold you backmore.
You can do it on occasion ifyou're bored, but it's not going
to be like the way that you getthe job.
And I'll be honest for mepersonally, while I mentor folks
(14:48):
and even for my own curiosity,the amount of times I punch in
public health in one year isprobably four or five times In
one year and I wonder if that'slike also more important now,
because we're seeing the role ofpublic health practitioners
embedded in kind of these likenon traditional roles that we
(15:09):
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Typically it's the health promoter, the community
health workers, theepidemiologists.
There was like five to ten,maybe traditional roles, but now
I Think we're seeing that wecan be integrated in almost
anything.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yes, and our title is very widely yeah, I'm dealing
with my mentees who are applyingto like grievance and appeal
specialist or Business operationspecialist, you know, still
appropriate still within publichealth, still within our world.
But you wouldn't be searchingthat if you're not looking at
the key terms guide or followingwhat we, what we teach here.
(15:47):
So I think from my mentees,that's the first thing we get on
is what are you searching?
Let's get your key terms solidso that you Get on the right
path, and that's what this guideis for and that's why it's free
, so that you guys can just geton the right Path for yourself.
I like to think that publichealth hired is here to give you
a flashlight in your journey.
(16:08):
That's what really it's allabout is let me help you see
where you're stepping andcareful for that pothole over
here, so you know that's reallywhat the guide is meant to do is
give you a flashlight.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, I think when you were talking about you know,
helping the public health workfor us, kind of like elevate the
language that they use whenthey show up in their roles.
It's almost like we know thatwe're all very competent in
public health.
It's like that part of it wecan kind of check off.
(16:41):
We all have some sort ofeducation or experience that has
allowed us to do public healthreally well.
Now it's about showing theperson on the other side whether
that's an employer for a job orsome other opportunity that
you're putting yourself in forthat you are the right person
and I think you hit that rightwhere it's like are you one of
(17:03):
them?
Do you understand theorganization?
Do you understand the work Notnecessarily public health?
Do?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
you understand the target population?
Yeah, do you understand thepartners at the table?
So I think that's what I getreally excited about when I get
folks to the interview processis, let's make sure you
understand it from a 360.
Not just the project itself,not just the company, but you
understand the audience and thepartners and the skill set that
will be required of this.
(17:29):
So, yeah, I think it's lookingat it comprehensively absolutely
.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, awesome, okay, so this key term I think we
talked about, we can use a toolto first, like, look for roles,
yes, and then we can also use itwhen we're preparing the
application Update your resume.
Yeah, update the resume coverletter Absolutely, and then you
can use it during your interview.
You can use it when you're likein a role you know, use these
(17:58):
terms to have regularconversation.
Maybe choose a term of the weekand try to embed it in your
conversations that week.
Any other uses for it thatyou've come across.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, I think that's it.
I mean, I think it runs thegamut, I mean really it's.
You know, even for folks whoare students and you're not even
looking for work, you candownload it and see, like how
much am I really alreadyabsorbing this in my school.
You know, should I talk moreabout a certain?
because I think we're not evenaware of our interests sometimes
because we're thinking of thetraditional track, right Like
(18:32):
the demology or the healtheducator, and so my goal is also
to help people like make theirown way, make their own path.
You can actually be more thanjust not no, no, banging on
health educators, but you know,we just assume the traditional
roles and we're beyond that.
Now, especially after thepandemic, we're beyond that.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I think another good use I can think of is and I'm
seeing this a lot is likethere's a group of individuals
who are considered early careerprofessionals in public health
but they built like a five or 10year career in another field
and now they want to enterpublic health.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yes, like teachers, yeah teachers.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I've seen like people in marketing coming in or
people in engineering cominginto public health, and I think
that also this list could behelpful when they're looking at
their past experience andthinking okay, how can I
transfer those skills intopublic health?
Like what are some of thosesimilar work that we've done?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, it's very universal and I hope to keep it
improving it, but it is anevergreen product.
Right now it's free and I don'twant to put a fee on it.
So please spread widely, postit.
I try to post it as much as Ican, but, yeah, it does actually
get people on the right footand I'm happy to hear the
feedback.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So awesome, All right .
So public health hirecom youshould be able to find that very
easily.
I think maybe we'll do like afollow up session to even walk
through the document and do moreof an in depth dive into that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, and we can even invite folks to come to the
club for something like thatSomething kind of special and
kind of open up the guide withthem.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So yeah, let's do that, yeah that would be nice.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So thank you, sujani, for this.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
This was so nice to spend some time together.
Thank you for joining me andwe'll see you on a future
episode.
We'll do it again.
Yes, hey, I hope you enjoyedthat episode and if you want to
get the links or informationmentioned in today's episode,
you can head over to phspotorgslash podcast and we'll have
(20:35):
everything there for you.
And before you go, I want totell you about the Public Health
Career Club.
So if you've been looking for aplace to connect and build
meaningful relationships withother public health
professionals from all aroundthe world, you should join us in
the Public Health Career Club.
We launched the club with thevision of becoming the number
(20:56):
one hangout spot dedicated tobuilding and growing your dream
public health career.
And in addition to being able toconnect and build those
meaningful relationships withother public health
professionals, the club alsooffers other great resources for
your career growth and success,like mindset coaching, job
preparation clinics and careergrowth strategy sessions in the
(21:18):
form of trainings and talks, alldelivered by experts and
inspiring individuals in theseareas.
So if you want to learn more orwant to join the club, you can
visit our page at phspotorgslash club and we'll have all
the information there.
And you know, as a space that'sbeing intentionally curated to
bring together like mindedpublic health professionals who
(21:41):
are not only there to pushthemselves to become the best
versions of themselves, but alsoeach other.
And with that, I can't wait tosee how this is going to have a
ripple effect in the world, aswe all work together to better
the health of our populationsand just have immense impact in
the world.
And I hope you'll be joining usin the Public Health Career
(22:03):
Club.
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