March 25, 2025 • 22 mins
Tell us what you thought of this episode - send us a text!
Landing that first public health job can feel impossible when every posting requires experience you don't yet have. We explore four powerful strategies to break this cycle and position yourself as a strong candidate even without traditional job experience.
- Reframing what counts as experience beyond full-time paid positions
- Using course projects, volunteering, internships, and part-time work to showcase relevant skills
- Presenting skills-based experiences with action-oriented language on your resume
- Tailoring applications to mirror job description terminology and sector-specific language
- Building relationships through informational interviews rather than just applying to posted jobs
- Creating your own experience through volunteering, writing, and continuous learning
- Staying motivated during your job search by actively developing skills and connections
- Join our Public Health Career Club for our upcoming workshop on translating volunteer activities into evidence-based experience on your resume! The doors are now open for enrollment!
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 (00:02):
Welcome to PHSpotlight, 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.
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of the Public Health
(00:22):
Spotlight podcast, where weshare stories, inspirations and
guidance to help you build yourdream public health career.
I'm your host, sujani Siva, andtoday we're talking about
something that I know many ofyou struggle with and it's also
something that I, you know, hada lot of challenges with early
(00:43):
on in my career, and that'slanding that first public health
job, especially when you don'tfeel like you have enough
experience to show for whatyou're capable of doing, right.
So it's a question that we getall the time inside the club on
LinkedIn, wherever I'm talking,and it's about like, how do I
(01:06):
break into public health ifevery job posting is asking you
for experience, but you haven'thad your first job yet, right?
So you often feel stuck whenyou're kind of thinking about
this question.
But by the end of this episode,I hope that you will walk away
with a few clear strategies toreally help you position
(01:28):
yourself as a strong candidate,even if you feel like you're
starting from scratch, and Ijust want to let you know that
inside the Public Health CareerClub, this is our membership
community for public healthprofessionals.
This week, wednesday March 26,we're actually hosting a live
(01:50):
session on translating volunteeractivities to evidence-based
experience on your resume.
So this is for anyone who'skind of struggling to figure out
how do I showcase my volunteerexperiences for a job
application right, and that'sgoing to be one of the
(02:11):
strategies that we'll talk aboutin today's episode.
But I just wanted to mentionthat up front to let you know
that that session is happeningthis Wednesday.
So if it sounds like it'ssomething that you might benefit
from, definitely join thePublic Health Career Club at
phspotorg slash club.
(02:32):
Okay, so, first off, we want tojust talk a little bit about
kind of like this, likefoundational piece of
information that you really needto have, right, and that's
understanding the public healthjob market.
So before we jump intostrategies, let's take a step
(02:56):
back and talk about whyentry-level jobs in public
health entry-level jobs inpublic health, they're often
looking for experience.
So you know, in other fields Iguess new grads can jump into
roles and kind of learn on thejob, and with public health it's
(03:19):
a hands-on role and often Ithink, employers want to know
that you understand thecommunity that they're serving,
right.
So, like do you understandcommunity health?
Do you understand how to dobasic data analysis?
Do you know how to implement aprogram or like whatever
(03:43):
specialty that you're applyingto?
And so what you need to kind ofyou know, understand and shift
your mindset around is that whenthese job postings are asking
for experience, it doesn'tnecessarily need to only come
from a paid job.
(04:04):
And so that brings us to ourfirst key point is for you to
reframe what counts asexperience that you're going to
speak about in your application.
So if you're only thinkingabout full-time, paid jobs, I
(04:25):
think you're missing out on alot of relevant experience you
probably already have.
And what employers are lookingfor, what they care about, are
skills that you have and not thejob title that you held, not
(04:48):
the job title that you held.
Okay.
So let's go through someexamples of things that you can
use to showcase quote unquoteexperience or skills for an
entry level job.
So, course projects andresearch, you know, think about
the courses that you've beeninvolved in, projects that
you've worked on, and, forexample, you could ask yourself
did I analyze any help data fora class?
(05:08):
Did I create some sort of aprogram implementation plan?
Are there certain things fromyour courses that you could pull
out to really showcase that youhave that skill set?
And that's actually somethingthat I did for the first job
that I landed.
They had asked about whether Ihad knowledge, experience or any
(05:31):
skills around infectiousdiseases, and at the time I had
never held a job a full time jobwhere I worked on like
infectious disease.
So what I did instead is talkedabout this large project where
I had to synthesize someinformation on Lyme disease, and
(05:52):
so I really talked about theapproach I took in order to
deliver on that project, toshowcase that I had the skill
set and that I had the abilityto learn this new topic
essentially right.
So course projects are one placethat you can kind of reflect on
(06:12):
to see if you have experience.
Another one is volunteering andI just mentioned that because
of the upcoming workshop that wehave inside the club and so in
your volunteer roles, have youhelped organize a health event,
have you assisted a researchteam, or have you worked with a
non-profit right?
All of these things countbecause they are skills that
(06:34):
you've developed.
These are experiences you'vehad, whether you've been paid
for it or not.
It's about how you're going toframe it in your application.
Another area that you canreflect on are internships and
fellowships.
So even short-term placementsgive you hands-on experience and
those are some great areas foryou to focus on in your job
application.
(06:55):
And then part-time work.
So maybe you've worked at aclinic, like some sort of a
healthcare clinic or assisted inan admin role clinic or
assisted in an admin role.
Think about what experiencesyou've developed in those roles
that you can essentially use inyour application to say like hey
, hiring manager, I do have thatexperience right.
(07:15):
So step one is to make a listof all of your experiences and
frame them in a way thathighlights your public health
skills.
So this is where the real workis.
You got to take all of thesedifferent experiences you've had
that were not part of afull-time, paid like big person,
adult job, if you will, andthink about how do these
(07:37):
experiences, these skills I'vedeveloped, showcase that I'm a
strong candidate for thisfull-time job that I'm applying
to Okay?
Number two is to tailor yourapplication, and so one of the
biggest mistakes I see is peoplesending out generic resumes and
(08:01):
cover letters.
So yes, public health is agenerally a broad field, and so
if your resume doesn't clearlyshow how your skills match a
specific job, your applicationlikely will not stand out, right
?
So here's how you can fix that,for example.
(08:23):
You know we'll go back to.
Here's how you can fix that,for example.
You know we'll go back to acase where you don't have full
time job to highlight on yourresume.
So let's take the example ofcoursework.
So if a job requires knowledgeof epidemiology or biostats and
you've taken those courses orbiostats and you've taken those
(08:49):
courses, we're going to talkabout them, okay.
And we're going to talk abouthow those skills or those
experiences you've had in thosecourses align with what the job
application is looking for.
And you're going to useaction-oriented bullet points to
talk about those things.
So maybe for a course you hadto go out and collect some of
(09:15):
your own data to then analyze,then to write a report to submit
as a paper, right?
So instead of saying I assistedwith data collection, you're
going to make that bit moreaction oriented and say
collected and analyzed healthdata on more than 500
participants to identify keytrends in chronic disease, right
(09:40):
?
So try to be very specific andvery action-oriented.
And the final kind of thing thatyou want to do is try to mirror
the language that's used in thejob description into your own
resume, right?
So if the posting sayscommunity outreach, use that
(10:03):
phrase instead of publicengagement, for example, like if
public engagement is the wordthat you're used to and it's the
word that you kind of use todescribe your experience.
But all over the jobapplication you're seeing
community outreach.
Try to use those terminologies,right.
And I think this is especiallyimportant when you are applying
(10:25):
to different sectors.
So the way, for example,government uses some of these
terminologies or the way theywrite their job description, is
going to look different to howthe private sector is going to
write their job description andthe lingo and the words that
they use.
So really study the jobapplications to see how are they
(10:50):
explaining the role and whatare the terminologies, what is
that lingo that they're usingand how can I replicate that in
my own resume?
Because you have to speak thelanguage that a hiring manager
is going to be using, right?
So these are some small tweaksthat you want to think about to
increase your chances of gettingnoticed by the hiring manager,
(11:14):
or like an applicant trackingsystem right.
You want that tracking systemto be able to identify these
keywords so that your resumegets picked up, essentially,
okay.
Number three.
And number three is aboutinformational interviews and
getting started with them.
So let's talk about networking.
(11:36):
I think if you've beenfollowing the podcast or Peach
Spot, you know it's one of mymost favorite things to talk
about and also one of the advicethat keeps coming up over and
over again.
So, again, if you take onething from this episode, let it
be this your first job that youare eventually going to land is
(12:02):
going to probably come from aconversation you have with
somebody, and so, as part ofyour strategy, like your job
application strategy, I want youto not only focus on applying
to jobs that are posted on jobboards, so don't invest like
(12:25):
100% of your energy in justapplying to posted jobs.
I want you to also includeconversations, networking,
building relationships as partof your strategy, and a great
way to do this is throughinformational interviews, and so
I have a whole episode, ormaybe a couple of episodes, on
(12:49):
informational interviews.
So if you go into Google andtype in phspotorg informational
interviews, I'm sure you'll findsome of those, but essentially,
you know the summary of what aninformational interview is.
Is you reaching out to somebodyin a job or an organization that
you can't just send threemessages and determine for
(13:11):
yourself that nobody wants totalk to you?
You do have to reach out andmake them genuine reach outs,
(13:32):
not like an email blast to 100people where there's no
indication that you aregenuinely interested in
connecting with them, learningabout their career journey.
And a part of that is to alsosee if they've already published
, like a blog post, or writtensomething on LinkedIn or been on
(13:55):
a podcast where they've talkedabout their journey.
And so when you reach out tothem, you can say, hey, I heard
your episode on this podcast andlearned about your career
journey.
And so when you reach out tothem, you can say, hey, I heard
your episode on this podcast andlearned about your career
journey.
I'd love it if you you'd beable to give me like 15 minutes
of your time, because I reallywant to know about X, right?
So you want to ask themsomething very specific.
(14:17):
Show them that you took thetime to learn about them already
and that a little bit more timewith them could be beneficial
to you, right?
So, in summary, you want to findsomebody on LinkedIn or through
your alumni network maybethrough friends, colleagues and
send them a short friendlymessage like hey, my name is
(14:38):
Sujani, I'm a recent MPH gradand I'm really interested in the
field of epidemiology orcommunity development and I
really love the work that you'vedone at this organization.
I've read about your work and Iwould really like to hear about
how you were able to break intothis organization, which I hear
(15:02):
is very difficult to get intoright.
Would you be open to a quickvirtual coffee chat?
I can send an invitation for usif you have the time and you
know.
Hopefully this person gets backto you and in preparation for
that call, you want to preparesome thoughtful questions based
on you know their path, thechallenges, advice that they may
(15:23):
have, and you have this calland then you follow up with the
thank you email and you keep intouch and the goal here is to
establish genuine relationshipswith these individuals, because
not every conversation, andlikely not many conversations,
are going to lead to a job offerimmediately, but these
(15:43):
connections will be a gamechanger for future opportunities
.
So, even if the first job thatyou get ends up being from a job
application, the futureopportunities that are going to
come your way are likely goingto be because of relationships
that you've established early onin your career, okay, and the
(16:05):
final strategy is going to beabout not just, you know,
sticking to applying to jobswhen you're looking for jobs,
but it's about gainingexperience while you're also
searching for jobs, right?
So job hunting can take a lotof time, especially in, like,
(16:31):
the current environment and themarket that we're in.
The current environment, in themarket that we're in, we are
seeing that there's a lot ofkind of shrinking of available
funds in public health andgovernment.
So give yourself a lot of timeand recognize that things will
(16:51):
take a little bit more time thanthey used to in the current
environment that we're in.
So, instead of applying andwaiting around, make sure you're
also creating your ownopportunities, right, and
(17:12):
creating ways for you to developsome of those skills, develop
some of the experiences thatyou'd like to, and for you to do
that, you got to get a littlebit creative and figure out like
, how can I still keep myselfinterested, motivated and
inspired in this field?
And here are three things thatyou can do.
Number one is you can volunteerwith the public health
organization.
You know, even just one or twohours a week at a nonprofit
(17:35):
organization can give you theexperience, the motivation, the
inspiration, keep you connectedto the public health community
and it's, you know, similar tohow you were.
You would reach out to somebodyfor an informational interview.
Find some organizations thatyou're really passionate about
and pitch to them one of yourskill sets right.
Like, hey, can I come and dosome social media marketing for
(17:58):
you?
Or can I come and do anenvironmental scan in this space
?
I saw that you will be startingsome work in this area.
So think about, like, what aresome areas or skills that you
want to develop and see if youcan go and pitch that to an
organization.
You can also contribute to apublic health blog or a podcast
(18:19):
by writing articles or speakingon topics to show thought
leadership.
Writing on LinkedIn is one ofthe easiest and kind of like no
barrier to entry option that youcan consider If there is an
area that you really want tobecome a thought leader in, see
if you can consider If there isan area that you really want to
become a thought leader in, seeif you can maybe start reading
(18:43):
some articles and reflecting onit and summarizing it on
LinkedIn.
It's a great way to kind ofdevelop those skill sets.
Other things you can do is takesome free online courses, right
.
You could use platforms likeCoursera or even some of the
government organizations WHO.
They might have trainingportals with different types of
training to really boost yourskill.
Keep up to date with things.
(19:05):
A great topic is you know, howare people using AI in public
health?
Are there things that you couldlearn so that you could stay
ahead even if you're not workingin that area?
Right?
So think about these options.
And again, like, another pro tiphere is if you are going to be
(19:28):
doing some unpaid work and youreally want to talk about that
experience in your resume, makesure to frame it like a
consulting project, right, likesomething.
Don't just leave that off yourresume.
So, instead of saying, like Ivolunteered at this organization
, say, I led a community healthinitiative which reached 200
(19:49):
individuals, right, so make sureyou are framing this experience
that you're gaining throughdifferent, you know creative
channels in your resume in a waythat showcases those skills and
experiences that you'redeveloping.
Okay.
So, um, those are my four tips,or like strategies to really,
(20:12):
um, yeah, think about, like, howyou can land that first public
health job without having priorexperience in the sense of, like
that traditional full-time job.
So, as a recap, you want toreframe what counts as
experience right.
Tell yourself that you havemore than what you think and you
(20:33):
just got to dig a little bitdeeper into your past, all the
skills that you've developed,all the experiences that you
have, and make sure it's allreflected on your resume.
Number two you want to tailoryour application.
Make sure it matches the jobdescription, using similar words
, that lingo.
Number three you want to usenetworking and informational
(20:54):
interviews, because you need tounderstand that and
informational interviews becauseyou need to understand that
these conversations are going tolead to future opportunities.
And then, number four, makesure you're gaining experience
while you're job searching.
Right, you want to stay active.
You want to keep building yourskills, understanding the market
that we're currently in it'sit's really important that
you're keeping yourselfmotivated and inspired so that
(21:18):
you don't lose that momentum.
So apply these strategies andsee if you're able to progress a
little bit more in your jobapplication.
And I really think that if youcan think about these four
strategies, you will be able tohave a much stronger application
(21:39):
if you're trying to land thatfirst public health job.
Okay, you do belong in thisfield.
Your contribution is going tobe so valuable.
So don't let imposter syndromestop you.
Don't let kind of the situationthe the market right now bring
you down.
Talk to people, don't do italone.
(22:02):
And, you know, join ourmembership community, the public
health career club, phspotorgslash club, if you are looking
for a community of peers andmentors to help you along with
this journey.
We have opened up the doors forenrollment, so definitely check
that out.
And if you found today'sepisode helpful, share it with
(22:23):
someone else who's job searching.
And if you'd like moreresources or tips or just more
support along this journey ofyours, check out phspaorg.
And thank you for tuning in andI will see you in the next
episode.
Welcome to PHSpotlight, 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.
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of the Public Health
(00:22):
Spotlight podcast, where weshare stories, inspirations and
guidance to help you build yourdream public health career.
I'm your host, sujani Siva, andtoday we're talking about
something that I know many ofyou struggle with and it's also
something that I, you know, hada lot of challenges with early
(00:43):
on in my career, and that'slanding that first public health
job, especially when you don'tfeel like you have enough
experience to show for whatyou're capable of doing, right.
So it's a question that we getall the time inside the club on
LinkedIn, wherever I'm talking,and it's about like, how do I
(01:06):
break into public health ifevery job posting is asking you
for experience, but you haven'thad your first job yet, right?
So you often feel stuck whenyou're kind of thinking about
this question.
But by the end of this episode,I hope that you will walk away
with a few clear strategies toreally help you position
(01:28):
yourself as a strong candidate,even if you feel like you're
starting from scratch, and Ijust want to let you know that
inside the Public Health CareerClub, this is our membership
community for public healthprofessionals.
This week, wednesday March 26,we're actually hosting a live
(01:50):
session on translating volunteeractivities to evidence-based
experience on your resume.
So this is for anyone who'skind of struggling to figure out
how do I showcase my volunteerexperiences for a job
application right, and that'sgoing to be one of the
(02:11):
strategies that we'll talk aboutin today's episode.
But I just wanted to mentionthat up front to let you know
that that session is happeningthis Wednesday.
So if it sounds like it'ssomething that you might benefit
from, definitely join thePublic Health Career Club at
phspotorg slash club.
(02:32):
Okay, so, first off, we want tojust talk a little bit about
kind of like this, likefoundational piece of
information that you really needto have, right, and that's
understanding the public healthjob market.
So before we jump intostrategies, let's take a step
(02:56):
back and talk about whyentry-level jobs in public
health entry-level jobs inpublic health, they're often
looking for experience.
So you know, in other fields Iguess new grads can jump into
roles and kind of learn on thejob, and with public health it's
(03:19):
a hands-on role and often Ithink, employers want to know
that you understand thecommunity that they're serving,
right.
So, like do you understandcommunity health?
Do you understand how to dobasic data analysis?
Do you know how to implement aprogram or like whatever
(03:43):
specialty that you're applyingto?
And so what you need to kind ofyou know, understand and shift
your mindset around is that whenthese job postings are asking
for experience, it doesn'tnecessarily need to only come
from a paid job.
(04:04):
And so that brings us to ourfirst key point is for you to
reframe what counts asexperience that you're going to
speak about in your application.
So if you're only thinkingabout full-time, paid jobs, I
(04:25):
think you're missing out on alot of relevant experience you
probably already have.
And what employers are lookingfor, what they care about, are
skills that you have and not thejob title that you held, not
(04:48):
the job title that you held.
Okay.
So let's go through someexamples of things that you can
use to showcase quote unquoteexperience or skills for an
entry level job.
So, course projects andresearch, you know, think about
the courses that you've beeninvolved in, projects that
you've worked on, and, forexample, you could ask yourself
did I analyze any help data fora class?
(05:08):
Did I create some sort of aprogram implementation plan?
Are there certain things fromyour courses that you could pull
out to really showcase that youhave that skill set?
And that's actually somethingthat I did for the first job
that I landed.
They had asked about whether Ihad knowledge, experience or any
(05:31):
skills around infectiousdiseases, and at the time I had
never held a job a full time jobwhere I worked on like
infectious disease.
So what I did instead is talkedabout this large project where
I had to synthesize someinformation on Lyme disease, and
(05:52):
so I really talked about theapproach I took in order to
deliver on that project, toshowcase that I had the skill
set and that I had the abilityto learn this new topic
essentially right.
So course projects are one placethat you can kind of reflect on
(06:12):
to see if you have experience.
Another one is volunteering andI just mentioned that because
of the upcoming workshop that wehave inside the club and so in
your volunteer roles, have youhelped organize a health event,
have you assisted a researchteam, or have you worked with a
non-profit right?
All of these things countbecause they are skills that
(06:34):
you've developed.
These are experiences you'vehad, whether you've been paid
for it or not.
It's about how you're going toframe it in your application.
Another area that you canreflect on are internships and
fellowships.
So even short-term placementsgive you hands-on experience and
those are some great areas foryou to focus on in your job
application.
(06:55):
And then part-time work.
So maybe you've worked at aclinic, like some sort of a
healthcare clinic or assisted inan admin role clinic or
assisted in an admin role.
Think about what experiencesyou've developed in those roles
that you can essentially use inyour application to say like hey
, hiring manager, I do have thatexperience right.
(07:15):
So step one is to make a listof all of your experiences and
frame them in a way thathighlights your public health
skills.
So this is where the real workis.
You got to take all of thesedifferent experiences you've had
that were not part of afull-time, paid like big person,
adult job, if you will, andthink about how do these
(07:37):
experiences, these skills I'vedeveloped, showcase that I'm a
strong candidate for thisfull-time job that I'm applying
to Okay?
Number two is to tailor yourapplication, and so one of the
biggest mistakes I see is peoplesending out generic resumes and
(08:01):
cover letters.
So yes, public health is agenerally a broad field, and so
if your resume doesn't clearlyshow how your skills match a
specific job, your applicationlikely will not stand out, right
?
So here's how you can fix that,for example.
(08:23):
You know we'll go back to.
Here's how you can fix that,for example.
You know we'll go back to acase where you don't have full
time job to highlight on yourresume.
So let's take the example ofcoursework.
So if a job requires knowledgeof epidemiology or biostats and
you've taken those courses orbiostats and you've taken those
(08:49):
courses, we're going to talkabout them, okay.
And we're going to talk abouthow those skills or those
experiences you've had in thosecourses align with what the job
application is looking for.
And you're going to useaction-oriented bullet points to
talk about those things.
So maybe for a course you hadto go out and collect some of
(09:15):
your own data to then analyze,then to write a report to submit
as a paper, right?
So instead of saying I assistedwith data collection, you're
going to make that bit moreaction oriented and say
collected and analyzed healthdata on more than 500
participants to identify keytrends in chronic disease, right
(09:40):
?
So try to be very specific andvery action-oriented.
And the final kind of thing thatyou want to do is try to mirror
the language that's used in thejob description into your own
resume, right?
So if the posting sayscommunity outreach, use that
(10:03):
phrase instead of publicengagement, for example, like if
public engagement is the wordthat you're used to and it's the
word that you kind of use todescribe your experience.
But all over the jobapplication you're seeing
community outreach.
Try to use those terminologies,right.
And I think this is especiallyimportant when you are applying
(10:25):
to different sectors.
So the way, for example,government uses some of these
terminologies or the way theywrite their job description, is
going to look different to howthe private sector is going to
write their job description andthe lingo and the words that
they use.
So really study the jobapplications to see how are they
(10:50):
explaining the role and whatare the terminologies, what is
that lingo that they're usingand how can I replicate that in
my own resume?
Because you have to speak thelanguage that a hiring manager
is going to be using, right?
So these are some small tweaksthat you want to think about to
increase your chances of gettingnoticed by the hiring manager,
(11:14):
or like an applicant trackingsystem right.
You want that tracking systemto be able to identify these
keywords so that your resumegets picked up, essentially,
okay.
Number three.
And number three is aboutinformational interviews and
getting started with them.
So let's talk about networking.
(11:36):
I think if you've beenfollowing the podcast or Peach
Spot, you know it's one of mymost favorite things to talk
about and also one of the advicethat keeps coming up over and
over again.
So, again, if you take onething from this episode, let it
be this your first job that youare eventually going to land is
(12:02):
going to probably come from aconversation you have with
somebody, and so, as part ofyour strategy, like your job
application strategy, I want youto not only focus on applying
to jobs that are posted on jobboards, so don't invest like
(12:25):
100% of your energy in justapplying to posted jobs.
I want you to also includeconversations, networking,
building relationships as partof your strategy, and a great
way to do this is throughinformational interviews, and so
I have a whole episode, ormaybe a couple of episodes, on
(12:49):
informational interviews.
So if you go into Google andtype in phspotorg informational
interviews, I'm sure you'll findsome of those, but essentially,
you know the summary of what aninformational interview is.
Is you reaching out to somebodyin a job or an organization that
you can't just send threemessages and determine for
(13:11):
yourself that nobody wants totalk to you?
You do have to reach out andmake them genuine reach outs,
(13:32):
not like an email blast to 100people where there's no
indication that you aregenuinely interested in
connecting with them, learningabout their career journey.
And a part of that is to alsosee if they've already published
, like a blog post, or writtensomething on LinkedIn or been on
(13:55):
a podcast where they've talkedabout their journey.
And so when you reach out tothem, you can say, hey, I heard
your episode on this podcast andlearned about your career
journey.
And so when you reach out tothem, you can say, hey, I heard
your episode on this podcast andlearned about your career
journey.
I'd love it if you you'd beable to give me like 15 minutes
of your time, because I reallywant to know about X, right?
So you want to ask themsomething very specific.
(14:17):
Show them that you took thetime to learn about them already
and that a little bit more timewith them could be beneficial
to you, right?
So, in summary, you want to findsomebody on LinkedIn or through
your alumni network maybethrough friends, colleagues and
send them a short friendlymessage like hey, my name is
(14:38):
Sujani, I'm a recent MPH gradand I'm really interested in the
field of epidemiology orcommunity development and I
really love the work that you'vedone at this organization.
I've read about your work and Iwould really like to hear about
how you were able to break intothis organization, which I hear
(15:02):
is very difficult to get intoright.
Would you be open to a quickvirtual coffee chat?
I can send an invitation for usif you have the time and you
know.
Hopefully this person gets backto you and in preparation for
that call, you want to preparesome thoughtful questions based
on you know their path, thechallenges, advice that they may
(15:23):
have, and you have this calland then you follow up with the
thank you email and you keep intouch and the goal here is to
establish genuine relationshipswith these individuals, because
not every conversation, andlikely not many conversations,
are going to lead to a job offerimmediately, but these
(15:43):
connections will be a gamechanger for future opportunities
.
So, even if the first job thatyou get ends up being from a job
application, the futureopportunities that are going to
come your way are likely goingto be because of relationships
that you've established early onin your career, okay, and the
(16:05):
final strategy is going to beabout not just, you know,
sticking to applying to jobswhen you're looking for jobs,
but it's about gainingexperience while you're also
searching for jobs, right?
So job hunting can take a lotof time, especially in, like,
(16:31):
the current environment and themarket that we're in.
The current environment, in themarket that we're in, we are
seeing that there's a lot ofkind of shrinking of available
funds in public health andgovernment.
So give yourself a lot of timeand recognize that things will
(16:51):
take a little bit more time thanthey used to in the current
environment that we're in.
So, instead of applying andwaiting around, make sure you're
also creating your ownopportunities, right, and
(17:12):
creating ways for you to developsome of those skills, develop
some of the experiences thatyou'd like to, and for you to do
that, you got to get a littlebit creative and figure out like
, how can I still keep myselfinterested, motivated and
inspired in this field?
And here are three things thatyou can do.
Number one is you can volunteerwith the public health
organization.
You know, even just one or twohours a week at a nonprofit
(17:35):
organization can give you theexperience, the motivation, the
inspiration, keep you connectedto the public health community
and it's, you know, similar tohow you were.
You would reach out to somebodyfor an informational interview.
Find some organizations thatyou're really passionate about
and pitch to them one of yourskill sets right.
Like, hey, can I come and dosome social media marketing for
(17:58):
you?
Or can I come and do anenvironmental scan in this space
?
I saw that you will be startingsome work in this area.
So think about, like, what aresome areas or skills that you
want to develop and see if youcan go and pitch that to an
organization.
You can also contribute to apublic health blog or a podcast
(18:19):
by writing articles or speakingon topics to show thought
leadership.
Writing on LinkedIn is one ofthe easiest and kind of like no
barrier to entry option that youcan consider If there is an
area that you really want tobecome a thought leader in, see
if you can consider If there isan area that you really want to
become a thought leader in, seeif you can maybe start reading
(18:43):
some articles and reflecting onit and summarizing it on
LinkedIn.
It's a great way to kind ofdevelop those skill sets.
Other things you can do is takesome free online courses, right
.
You could use platforms likeCoursera or even some of the
government organizations WHO.
They might have trainingportals with different types of
training to really boost yourskill.
Keep up to date with things.
(19:05):
A great topic is you know, howare people using AI in public
health?
Are there things that you couldlearn so that you could stay
ahead even if you're not workingin that area?
Right?
So think about these options.
And again, like, another pro tiphere is if you are going to be
(19:28):
doing some unpaid work and youreally want to talk about that
experience in your resume, makesure to frame it like a
consulting project, right, likesomething.
Don't just leave that off yourresume.
So, instead of saying, like Ivolunteered at this organization
, say, I led a community healthinitiative which reached 200
(19:49):
individuals, right, so make sureyou are framing this experience
that you're gaining throughdifferent, you know creative
channels in your resume in a waythat showcases those skills and
experiences that you'redeveloping.
Okay.
So, um, those are my four tips,or like strategies to really,
(20:12):
um, yeah, think about, like, howyou can land that first public
health job without having priorexperience in the sense of, like
that traditional full-time job.
So, as a recap, you want toreframe what counts as
experience right.
Tell yourself that you havemore than what you think and you
(20:33):
just got to dig a little bitdeeper into your past, all the
skills that you've developed,all the experiences that you
have, and make sure it's allreflected on your resume.
Number two you want to tailoryour application.
Make sure it matches the jobdescription, using similar words
, that lingo.
Number three you want to usenetworking and informational
(20:54):
interviews, because you need tounderstand that and
informational interviews becauseyou need to understand that
these conversations are going tolead to future opportunities.
And then, number four, makesure you're gaining experience
while you're job searching.
Right, you want to stay active.
You want to keep building yourskills, understanding the market
that we're currently in it'sit's really important that
you're keeping yourselfmotivated and inspired so that
(21:18):
you don't lose that momentum.
So apply these strategies andsee if you're able to progress a
little bit more in your jobapplication.
And I really think that if youcan think about these four
strategies, you will be able tohave a much stronger application
(21:39):
if you're trying to land thatfirst public health job.
Okay, you do belong in thisfield.
Your contribution is going tobe so valuable.
So don't let imposter syndromestop you.
Don't let kind of the situationthe the market right now bring
you down.
Talk to people, don't do italone.
(22:02):
And, you know, join ourmembership community, the public
health career club, phspotorgslash club, if you are looking
for a community of peers andmentors to help you along with
this journey.
We have opened up the doors forenrollment, so definitely check
that out.
And if you found today'sepisode helpful, share it with
(22:23):
someone else who's job searching.
And if you'd like moreresources or tips or just more
support along this journey ofyours, check out phspaorg.
And thank you for tuning in andI will see you in the next
episode.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.