Public Health (read time: 29 min)
So you want to work in Public Health?
A mini summary of the Healthcare Industry
Public health deep(er) dive
Healthcare deep(er) dive
Advice for MPH programs
Other programs
How to get a job in public health
Pick your door
Test that hypothesis
What to demonstrate in your application
That good, bad, and ugly we mentioned
Next three steps
So you want to work in Public Health?
Over the past few years, we have felt public health everywhere we’ve turned. We have closely tracked the choices made by politicians, business people, and health professionals, and we have honed our collective familiarity with topics like “nasal swabs,” “vaccination clinics,” and “antigens.” While we have seen the public health field succeed and falter, many of us have felt its immediate, painful impact. And this impact has motivated a surge of young people to turn towards careers in public health.
But what is this public health thing? And why is it一apparently一so hard to do right?
It is good, bad, and ugly. Anyone you ask about the global healthcare world will touch on how simultaneously incredible and devastating this work can be一the financial incentives, systemic breakages, and vast inequality can be truly heartbreaking. But at the same time, small tweaks, smart analysis, and creative innovations can save the lives of thousands and change the health trajectory of communities forever. No big deal.
Maybe you have been pre-med your whole college career and have just realized that being a doctor was your parents’ dream, not yours. Maybe you have always loved health, but your school has no guidance on what you can do in the healthcare space that is not … being a doctor. Maybe you have always been interested in broad social issues, and health seems like a promising area for you to focus your energy.
Regardless of how you got here, if this career path sounds exciting to you, this guide will take you through everything you need to know about working in public health. To inform our work, Second Day has spoken to experts in the field and gathered the best information out there for upcoming and recent graduates. First, the guide will take you through the different entry-level positions to look out for in this field. Then, we’ll provide tips on actually getting those jobs in public health. We’ll finish with our next three steps: actionable items you can take to make progress towards finding your first job. Let’s get started!
This guide was written by Brigit Goebelbecker in partnership with the Second Day team.
Many thanks to experts in the field who supported this work:
Margaret Griffin, Digital and Connected Health Manager at ZS
Trishla Jain, Market Research Manager at Lyra Health - to listen to our interview with Trishla, click here. Part 2 of her interview can be found throughout this career guide!
Dominique Rouleau, Doctor of Public Health student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Primary Healthcare Reform Advisory at Clinton Health Access Initiative
Brent Stackhouse, Managing Director at Mount Sinai Health System
A mini summary of the Healthcare Industry
Fair warning!
A humble attempt to summarize the wild world of healthcare on the horizon! Don’t get us wrong, we know this is the tiniest tip of the smallest point of the iceberg. But we are here to put some loose guardrails around this mega topic to help direct where you dip your toes. Here goes!
At its most simple, there are three levels to the professional world of “health.”
LEVEL 1: MEDICINE
Those who are directly providing care. Medical professionals interact on a one-on-one level with patients. In this way, their work is focused mostly on individuals.
Examples of what medicine does: managing your prescription, removing your mole, providing hospice for your grandpa
Examples of medical professionals: doctors, nurses, diabetes coaches, psychologists, etc.
LEVEL 2: PUBLIC HEALTH
Those trying to improve the health of more than one person. Public health professionals are still interventional, but rather than one-on-one, they intervene on a “population” or “community” level. Public health is almost always nonprofit.
Examples of what public health does: national mask mandate, distributing mosquito nets to a community, tracking disease outbreaks, using AI to deploy genetic screening technologies
Examples of public health professionals: Program Coordinator at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Research Assistant at AARP, Community Relations Associate at a recovery center for people living with substance abuse disorders
LEVEL 3: HEALTHCARE
Everything else that maintains or profits from a healthcare system. Healthcare is not interventional, but rather the business and gears that keep the machine running. Corporations that make a profit while operating within the health space qualify in this category.
Examples of what healthcare does: dissect cells in a laboratory, processing insurance claims, scheduling doctor appointments, promote pharmaceuticals to doctors, developing wearable technologies
Examples of healthcare professionals: Budget Associate at a telehealth platform, Marketing Director at a pharmaceutical company, Project Manager at Epipen, director of a hospital system
This guide will focus on level 2, public health, with some additional context around level 3, healthcare. If you are only interested in level 1, medicine, stop reading now! Get ye to med school and take advantage of the many resources already available :)
Public health deep(er) dive
The public health field is vast. You’ll find that professionals will say “I work in public health, and my focus area is X.” If you want to work in public health, your goal should be to figure out what your general focus area is as soon as possible. To be blunt, working in “public health” won’t cut it. Let’s take a look at some subcategories to get your brain churning:
HEALTH POLICY (HEALTH SYSTEMS): a focus on the policies behind the delivery of care to populations.
Examples of health policy work: Looking at all the policies and financing mechanisms that are in a country that help deliver care一assessing who delivers care, who pays for care, what the quality of that care is. This includes analyzing if going to a clinic actually improves your health, and designing improvements to the clinics.
Examples of health policy professionals: Hospital Administrator, Department of Health Project Manager, Staff Assistant at the State Health Commission
HEALTH FINANCING: a focus on how healthcare is financed.
Examples of health financing work: determining how many vaccines the State of New Jersey can purchase, assessing how to improve the global ventilator supply chain
Examples of health financing professionals: Health Economist at the World Health Organization, Strategic Purchaser at a hospital
HEALTH DATA: a focus on how to analyze population health data to inform policy interventions.
Examples of health data work: tracking the spread of Zika to inform border closures, identifying the correlation between diabetic patients and COVID deaths to train medical students
Examples of health data professionals: Epidemiologist at the CDC, Biostatistician at a health data management startup
HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS: a focus on how to communicate with populations about health to change their behavior.
Examples of health communications work: designing subway advertisements about handwashing for the New York City Department of Health, writing textbooks on sexual health for public high schools
Examples of health communications professionals: Communications Associate at the Fund for Public Health, Designer for the Behavioral Insights Team
DISEASE SPECIALTY: a focus on how to mitigate and manage a specific disease in a population.
Examples of disease-specific work: designing shoes that identify foot ulcers in diabetic patients, testing multiple interventions to encourage tuberculosis vaccinations to see which one is most effective
Examples of disease-specific professionals: Health Coach at One Drop, Research Specialist at the CDC
POPULATION-SPECIFIC SPECIALTY: a focus on how to improve the health outcomes of a specific population.
Examples of population-specific work: setting up maternal health clinics in under-resourced communities, designing technology to monitor geriatric populations for falls, launching outreach to communities impacted by the opioid epidemic
Examples of health data professionals: Research Assistant in maternal health at Montefiore Hospital, Pre-K Public Health Adviser at Cleveland Department of Health
While these are some of the most common focus areas in public health, it is important to note that public health does not need to have anything to do with a hospital. There are social and environmental determinants of health, from toxic water sources harming the health of communities to economic hardship increasing cardiac symptoms. Public health, like so many social issues, can and should be intersectional. Social justice, gun violence, and animal protection一all of these topics could be approached with a public health lens. As long as you are trying to advance the health outcomes of a group of people, it is public health.
Career Snapshot: Digital and Connected Health Major at ZS
Meg was a biology major in college, and her first job was as a lab technician at Cornell. It was a super science-y job, but there were still pieces of public health there. She was recruited to work on research at HITLAB, a private consulting firm spun out of Columbia University Medical Center focused on combining traditional business consulting services with socio-technical, design, anthropological, and behavioral science research to identify, understand, develop, and scale emerging digital products in healthcare. She left HITLAB to attend Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where she had the chance to work as a Research Fellow for the Population Council in Bangladesh. Upon graduation, she returned to HITLAB, where she eventually rose to be Director of their Strategy team, where she managed a portfolio of projects sponsored by top 10 life science companies, the NYC government, major medical centers, payers, and large multinational organizations. After nine years, she transitioned to ZS, where she is a manager of their Digital and Connected Health team. While more focused on the business side of healthcare, she has the leverage to prioritize projects that are more public health-focused.
Career Snapshot: Primary Healthcare Reform Advisor, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI)
As an undergraduate in Canada, Dominique thought she wanted to be a doctor. One day, she ended up staying late after a chemistry class to finish an assignment. A class on Middle East politics started in the lecture hall and she realized...it was the most fascinating thing she had heard in all of undergrad. She quickly switched out of pure premed and turned towards a degree that blended arts and sciences (a BA in Political Science, International Development, and Social Studies of Medicine). She had the chance to do a paid internship in Kenya while still, an undergraduate, and she came back wondering how she could work like that every day for the rest of her life. Her mentors told her she couldn’t get a job abroad right away, so she met a family friend who worked at the University of Montreal’s global health unit. He was impressed by her energy, and invited her to be a communications intern. She knew how to organize files, nothing else, but this was an excellent way to get her foot in the door. Through this communications role, she had the chance to work with numerous Program Coordinators in explaining their work to external audiences. She was able to leverage this job to go for eight months to do communications work in Gabon, and had excellent hands-on experience. Dominique applied for an MPH while in Gabon, and she eventually chose to go to the University of Montreal because their two-year program had an important fieldwork component. She got funding through this program to do a research year in hospitals in Senegal doing maternal health work. After school, she stayed on as a Research Associate for the team in Montreal and later became a Program Coordinator with the same team, which enabled her to visit Mali and Burkina Faso. Although she didn’t love the administrative work of being a Program Coordinator, she appreciated the chance to visit two countries where the work was happening. Interested in being closer to the action, she got a job working with Partners in Health (PIH) in Kigali, Rwanda, which was more research-focused. After a few years, feeling "stuck" under the ceiling of the research assistant/associate role, she jumped at the chance to work to set up a master's program in Rwanda through PIH and do curriculum development. From Rwanda, she applied for and was accepted into a Doctor of Public Health program at Harvard. Through this program, she is currently working for the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Bamako, Mali, where she is helping the government assess and redesign their national health system. As a student and practitioner, Dominique hopes to serve as a knowledge translator--bridging the gap between what academics are studying and the reality of what the team has to do on the ground.
Healthcare deep(er) dive
There is a complex relationship between the world of public health and healthcare. A lot of healthcare work can be considered public health, or individuals within the healthcare space can apply a public health lens to their work. Nonetheless, the main distinction between public health and healthcare (in our framework) remains that healthcare maintains or profits from a healthcare system.To distill this further: there are many companies that operate in the health space. While the health of populations may be a symptom or measure of success for these companies, their ultimate goal is to make money for the company. For example, Google is a tech company in healthcare. So are Lyra, City Block, ZocDoc, UnitedHealthcare, Oscar, and many more. It is possible to succeed at working at companies in healthcare without any background in public health. Studying population health and epidemiology could help you understand the strategy and implications of your company’s work, but in the end, the emphasis for employees at these organizations is keeping the business working and making a profit.
Career Snapshot: Market Research Manager at Lyra Health
Trishla always knew she didn’t want to be a doctor, but she liked healthcare. She majored in Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA) at Georgetown, and she liked its focus on systems rather than direct patient care since she knew she wanted to make an impact at scale. Through STIA, she got exposed to and excited about the role of technology in healthcare. She took a consulting job at Accenture after graduation because a mentor had done so and gave her the chance to work on some cool projects related to healthcare. However, Trishla always planned to go back to school for an MPH because she felt she didn’t have that core public health education from her undergraduate major, and knew she needed to learn epidemiology, biostats, health economics, and health policy to fill that gap. While consulting, she worked for a few insurance companies and knew for sure that she wanted to stay in healthcare, but wasn’t sold on being a consultant. Her grad school offered a 2.5 year MPH/MBA, which seemed too good to pass up since he knew could be a better employee if she did both. In making this decision, she thought a lot about what problems she wants to solve. And she realized she wanted to solve business questions, like how to build a health product that people actually want to use. She wanted to measurably change health outcomes, but she found government and research just felt too slow. Through her MPH/MBA, she did a bunch of internships at a foundation, A stealth nonprofit, and early/mid-stage startups. She really liked the startups, and ended up landing a marketing position at Lyra Health—a company that is transforming mental healthcare through technology with a human touch. Importantly, she had no experience in marketing. However, her MPH meant she knew enough about the health system to work off of, and her MBA allowed her to hone her business acumen to learn quickly on the job. Now she is building products people will use to significantly improve their health.
Listen to her interview on our podcast The Careers They Didn't Tell You About on Spotify!
Graduate school
The experts we talked with uniformly say that graduate school is a requirement in this field. The health industry is incredibly over-credentialed, so you need a degree to be taken seriously if you want to go into public health or healthcare. If you want to be a leader in public health, you will not hit a leadership position without at least a Masters in Public Health (MPH). If you want to succeed in the healthcare business side, you likely need an MBA, MPH with a healthcare management track, or MPH/MBA.
There is an overproduction of MPH graduates without specific specialties, which is why you need to define your focus area yourself to ensure you develop the appropriate skills. This is frustrating—we know! You need to get a degree, but the degree isn’t actually enough! Is it a trap??
It’s not a trap! It will open doors! It just takes some thoughtful reflection and research to do properly. Let’s dive in.
Advice for MPH programs
All our experts said: work first please! When you get to graduate school, it is really easy to tell who has worked and who has not. Your educational experience will be more robust and effective if you have used the time before graduate school to identify which public health focus area appeals to you. Some public health programs require all students to have some work experience一Johns Hopkins is one example一and these come highly recommended by our experts.
Unlike in undergrad, it makes less sense to spend time with “exploration” during grad school. You are paying a lot of money for these programs, so make it worth it! Have a general sense of what you want your public health focus area to be before going to school. Take a look at steps before school below:
If you are interested in the business side of healthcare, you can still get there with an MPH if your courseload reflects it. For example, courses in the financing and economics of healthcare will allow you to succeed in corporate healthcare, even without an MBA.
Health policy classes will take you to a hospital or the government.
Global health classes will point you more towards on-the-ground work, nonprofit, or international orgs
If you love research, go get your PhD, you’ll likely need more than a MPH to advance!
Not all MPH programs are created equal (for you). Think seriously about which program you choose. To help guide that choice:
Regional implications一it can be hard to get a job outside of the region where your MPH is. If you go to Emory, it can be hard to leverage your MPH in New York City. But if you go to Baruch, you will be well-positioned to stay in New York.
One or two years一many programs are one year. If you want to use your time in graduate school to explore (a little), get field experience, or leverage it for work placements, consider the two-year option. If you want to attach it to another specialized degree, consider the one-year option.
Other programs
An MPH is the baseline, but the real kicker is that you will often be competing against someone with another degree. MD programs can improve their ranking based on how many MPH students are in their program. As a result, many of them have added light-touch ways for their med students to graduate with MPH’s on top of their MDs. This is great for the doctors, but this means that you, as an MPH, might need to go above and beyond your MPH to compete for higher leadership roles.Luckily, there are several ways to hone your specialty even further. Think about the intersection of healthcare you’re most interested in, and consider doing dual degrees. These are very common and一since many MPHs are one year一several dual degrees can be completed in two years (the standard time for other graduate programs). Some examples of dual degrees:
MPH/JD if you are interested in the legal side of public health
MPH/MBA if you want to slide into the business world
MPH/MPP (Master of Public Policy) if you want to work in health policy
MPH/RD (Registered Dietitian) if you want to work on nutritional health systems
MPH/MA in Journalism if you want to write about public healthMPH/MSW (Masters of Social Work) if you want to work directly with patients
MPH/MS in Bioethics if you want to more seriously evaluate the ethical implications of public health work
MPH/MSUP (Master of Science of Urban Planning) if you want to explore how the built environment impacts public health
How to get a job in public health
Pick your door
To get your foot in the door of public health, you need to start by identifying which door to open. Luckily, you don’t need to decide your specialty until you decide to go to graduate school. That gives you the time before graduate school to test out different pieces of the public health world to determine what you like, what you hate, and where you can see your career growing.
QUESTIONS TO GUIDE YOUR THINKING
Do I like interacting one-on-one with patients?
If you like working in direct service, then consider specialties that are combinations of medicine (level 1) and public health. This could mean getting an MPH/MSW or MPH/RD, or it could mean working to help set up a maternal health clinic in Bolivia. If you get energy from directly interacting with patients, think carefully about if you want an MPH at all. A core component of public health is thinking on a population level rather than an individual level, so assess how much of the group一or systems-wide work一is appealing to you. If you love working directly with communities and translating those learnings into policies or systems, then an MPH with a specialty that is closer to medicine could be for you.
Do I want to work with a specific population?
In addition to the distinctions mentioned above, many public health organizations will focus on providing services for specific vulnerable populations. Some key categories (with overlaps): domestic violence survivors, mothers, youth, veterans, families, seniors, differently-abled individuals, and individuals dealing with substance abuse. Different advocacy groups, research organizations, and service organizations may look for (or value) specialized knowledge about one of these populations. With more focus on a particular population, you can start to build particular skills (such as experience working with youth, or doing trauma-informed work) that will set you apart in the job search.
Do I want to work domestically or internationally?
The field commonly known as “Global Health” is, essentially, public health in other countries. This field has a complicated colonial legacy, rooted in studies of “tropical medicine” that involve controlling disease rather than building sustainable health systems. For this reason, we have used the term public health to refer to population health broadly一wherever it is in the world. However, if you are interested in working in other countries, look out for opportunities with the keyword of “Global Health.”
How important is pay in deciding my next steps?
Most pay on the path to public health is quite low until you get your MPH. And post MPH, your options vary significantly. If you work at a nonprofit, you can expect to be earning low rates, around $35K with minimum benefits. If you take a job at an insurance company or hospital with about 2 years of experience and an MPH, that could be around $80k and good benefits. If you take the broader healthcare consulting route, you can earn lots of money. Entry-level is $90k with good benefits, the sky is the limit if you stay and work up to be a director or partner ($300k+).
How does my privilege and prior experience factor into my ability to do this job?
When working in public health, and especially in direct service, it is important to think through your motivations for doing this work, and your positionality vis a vis the people you’ll be working with. Though direct service may be your entry point into public health work, it is crucial not to think of it as a means to an end or checking a box. You are entering individuals' lives at a moment when they are vulnerable. Be there to listen, to learn, and to be in solidarity. The experts Second Day spoke with emphasized how they ended up learning far more from the people they met on the job than the other way around. Doing this work will both allow and require you to see the world, and the people you serve, in a broad, nuanced manner. Our experts recommend entering these spaces with compassion and ready to have your assumptions challenged. And know that you will often be the voice advocating for these populations in the halls of power.
Another way to determine where you fit in the world of public health is by examining a scenario and thinking through how you would like to be engaged in this topic. For example, imagine the following:
A few months into the pandemic, it has become clear that rapid antigen testing is going to be a key step in the reopening process. You are bound by the overlords to do something, and you are offered the following options. Which would be most exciting for you?
Work on administering the rapid tests to individual residents of public housing units in your city, determining how to build trust in a community that is generally skeptical of the health system.
Work in a lab that is developing the test and its unique chemical compounds.
Work for a company that is producing rapid tests, building a product and organization quickly and urgently in an uncharted environment.
Collect data on the tests’ effectiveness and usability, and analyze this data to inform how/where/when the tests should be deployed.
Work for the Department of Public Health in launching a program to develop, study, and deploy the rapid tests.
Work on getting cheap and effective rapid tests to rural populations in South America.
Work on covering the rollout of the rapid tests in the news, and help craft messaging that builds trust and excitement in their potential.
Work for the FDA to regulate and approve the tests.
Based on your answer above, you might be a great fit for:
Medical provider一or MPH/RD, MPH/MSW
Disease focus, PhD likely required
Healthcare (medical device or pharma)
Health data一epidemiology
Health policy
International health policy (Global Health)
Health communications一MPH/MA in Journalism
Health policy, health data, MPH/JD, or even PhD!
Test that hypothesis
With the answers to the questions and the scenario listed above, you should have a general sense of what specialties in the world of healthcare are exciting to you. If you’ve narrowed it down to one or five, it is critical to do the work of reflection about where you might like to focus as soon as possible.
Once you have a few options narrowed down, it is time to test the hypothesis of if these are the right specialties for you. To do so, you just need a bit of exposure to the work of your specialty. While what that looks like in practice can vary significantly based on your interest, some common roles below:
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
About: A broad title that is often used in academic settings, Research Assistants generally support a specific study or initiative on the back end analysis. The day-to-day work could vary from crunching numbers to interviewing people to transcribing interviews.
Benefits: Working as a Research Assistant will expose you to what it’s like to work in academia and with a specific population. So if you think you may be interested in the research sides of public health or the population your research is studying, this role can be a great way to test that hypothesis.
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
About: Also a broad title, Program Coordinators often sit between the donors who fund a project and the people who are implementing a project. The Program Coordinator needs to translate the work the people on the ground are doing into the right reporting structure the donor demands. The day-to-day work generally involves a mix of admin work, operations, and internal communications.
Benefits: Program Coordinator roles provide an up-close view of the intricacies of running a public health intervention. You get to know all the different stakeholders who are involved, which can help you assess where you would want to focus your specialty. If you think you might like health policy or communications, this role will help test that hypothesis. If you want to work in international public health without actually being “in the field,” Program Coordinator roles are usually based in the headquarters of an organization.
COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE
About: Communications is a huge weakness across the world of public health. It is often under-invested in, and as a result, there are frequent openings for junior talent. Similar to Program Coordinator, Communications Associates usually translate intricate scientific information into simple terms. This could be making fundraising videos or designing posters to be used at a vaccination site.
Benefits: There is a widely-held assumption in the public health world that young people are good at communications. As a result, you might be able to land a Communications Associate role without having studied communications. If you can demonstrate you know how to write and speak well, then you can leverage a communications role to get your foot in the door of competitive organizations. Comms positions will allow you to meet people across the organization and learn what projects you like and which you don’t. Also, post-MPH, potential employers often really appreciate those who worked in communications. Many public health jobs rely on communications in some way (whether in policy memos or grant writing or creating surveys), so starting out with comms can be helpful, even if you don't want to stay there!
VOLUNTEER WORK: If you cannot secure any of the roles above, you can still build your portfolio for public health jobs through volunteer work. Ideally, you can volunteer over the course of your college career, setting yourself up to land a full-time role upon graduation. A few suggestions to keep in mind:
Be careful volunteering to work abroad. The healthcare field is ripe with voluntourism. Since volunteering is so often used to bolster medical school applications, there are numerous opportunities to work in orphanages or schools abroad that are problematic. In many instances, the volunteer does more harm than good through their visit. On the other hand, some volunteer opportunities abroad could be downright illegitimate. Be careful to do your diligence before accepting a volunteer position abroad. Asking to speak with past volunteers is one of the best ways to assess an opportunity.
Volunteering is a great way to escape the academic health bubble. Volunteering in your off-campus community will enable you to see the difference between health practitioners in the field and those in academia. This knowledge, and identifying which group you prefer to work with, is a critical piece of determining what your specialty should be. In this way, you get to assess your interests and build a professional network just by showing up and meeting people.
You can volunteer without being exploited. Volunteering is a standard way to gain experience and build your resume in public health. However, you can do it without working endless unpaid hours. Consider volunteering one day or a few hours a week. Find a topic you care about in your community, assess what your skills and interests are, and then approach those working on the topic to offer your skills.
You can do the things public health organizations need, even if they don’t know they need it. Almost any organization will need people to do data entry, volunteer management, information management (organization), communications (social media, blogging, design), etc. Even if you have no experience in public health, showing up to a professor, a health clinic, or another nonprofit and offering any of the skills you have listed above is way more effective than waiting for them to post a volunteer position online. Many under-resourced organizations can’t afford to pay someone full-time for these roles, so they are left trying to do it all themselves. Offering to take some of the load off their backs, for free, is a great way to get your foot in the door and build a professional reputation as a problem solver.
GENERAL TIPS
Don’t waste your time applying to big-name organizations right out of college. Remember, the public health world is filled with people with advanced credentials. You will usually be competing against someone with an MPH for entry-level jobs at the Red Cross or Gates Foundation (for example).
Do one thing that is totally different from the specialty you plan to pursue. This could be volunteering, a class, anything! Since there is so much pressure in public health to focus early (as we’ve been telling you to do), there can be a tendency for public health professionals to see problems entirely through the lens of their specialty. It will be easier to keep an open mind to the multitude of forces impacting community health if you have intentionally exposed yourself to different approaches. This will also make it easier for you to pivot if you realize the specialty you’ve focused on is not the right one for you. For example—volunteering doing opioid harm reduction work could open the eyes of a health data professional to the limits of medical interventions and the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration (like how to work with police and housing authorities).
The best ice breaker— "Do you need help?"
In this field, everyone is busy. Everyone needs help. Worst case scenario, they don’t need help, but they appreciate you offering. In many cases, however, they do need help, and they likely have a bit of money to pay for that help. Here's how it's done: 1. Identify people in your community working on or close to the public health specialty you want to test (professors at your school, local health clinics, community organizers) 2. Reach out to them by email, on the phone, or (best!) in person and say: Dear (name) - I am a student at (college/university), and I have been a fan of your organization because of (reason). I am great at (1-3 skills - typing, organizing, coding, graphic design, writing, synthesis, excel, etc), and I wanted to reach out to see if you could use help in any of those areas. I have (#) amount of time available per week over the next (#) weeks, on top of my coursework. I am considering applying for an MPH in (amount of time), and I know exposure to your organization would help me discern if (specialty) is right for me. I am sure you are quite busy, but if there are any upcoming grant opportunities where you could fit me in for short-term support, I would love to contribute. My resume and (bonus points) sample of my work is attached below. Thank you for your time, and I'm looking forward to meeting you! Gratefully yours, (name) - Many public health initiatives, particularly research projects, will have some extra buffer money in their grants that can be used to support short-term work like this. While some organizations may only accept offers for volunteers, don’t hesitate to suggest your rate from the beginning! The worst thing they can say is “we can’t afford that, but we would still love your help.” - For example, in a follow-up conversation about the next steps, say: My rate is ($#) for the first six weeks of work, and then we can assess if there is room for growth. This will enable you to “squeeze in” to an existing grant at a low rate, but build in a structure to increase your payment if/when the organization offers you work on other grants. - If you can’t find a professor to reach out to for collaboration opportunities, try your TAs! PhD and grad students interact much more with undergrads than some professors, and they will be able to tell you which professors are doing cool research.
What to demonstrate in your application
While the skills you need to succeed across public health vary largely by specialty, there are a few fundamental traits that will impress any employer:
You have an in-depth understanding of the healthcare system. While it can take a lifetime to truly understand the healthcare industry and public health field, demonstrating that you have put time, effort, and thought into wrapping your head around this complex topic will serve you well. Read about the space, network with a variety of people in the industry, and show you are comfortable diving into this complicated field.
You are laser-focused. If you know your focus一flaunt it! Even if you don’t have your entire specialty figured out, diving deep into one piece of the puzzle will demonstrate your passion and commitment. Think about who you want to impact through your work, and narrow that down as specifically as you can. Then, show in your experience and the way you carry yourself that you have done the work to get to know that population. This could be reading, volunteer work, academic study, lived experience, and so much more.
You are eager and open to learning. The early stages of a public health career require an openness to learning about yourself, the community you serve, and the industry in which you work. Much of this is not taught in school, so demonstrating you are curious, a good listener, and willing to “get your hands dirty” for the sake of learning will appeal to many veterans in the field.
You have any of these assorted, marketable skills. There are a few fundamental skills that can be helpful in almost any entry-level job in public health—transcription, data cleaning, interview recruitment and coordination, and copywriting/editing.
That good, bad, and ugly we mentioned
The experts we interviewed all expressed that working in health is a rollercoaster. There is a fluctuating dynamic of feeling incredibly inspired and deflated often (sometimes at the same time)!This is a curse of caring deeply about your work, a curse we see across the social sector. But this curse is particularly poignant in healthcare, because there are so many very good and very bad actors, with a lot of gray areas in between. While this won’t be news to you, we promised the experts we would warn you up front. An additional pro and con:
PRO
In public health, there is a great mix of being logical and scientifically driven with being creative. Sometimes in more straightforward medicine, there is not much room to be creative and innovative (you can’t test multiple interventions when doing heart surgery). In public health, however, you still need to be methodological in how you approach the questions you’re working on. But your solution to that question can be something wacky. When intervening at a population level, it’s less likely that your solution will cause immediate life or death. You can test out ten different interventions to get people to stop smoking, and the best solutions are often the most creative.
CON
There can be a dynamic when working in healthcare as a public health professional that you are alone in the room. As mentioned, you can work in the business side of health while still personally committed to public health. But when working in healthcare, it is possible you will be surrounded by people who lack the training to think about the population impacts of your work. Unless you go the route of working for a public health organization, you may be the only voice in the room thinking more broadly.
Next three steps
Narrow your search: decide on one or two specialties within public health, and if you want to work with a specific population. Determine if you want to work internationally or domestically.
Start sharing (and/or building) your skills: reach out to organizations working in or around your specialty, and offer to work or volunteer for them. If you feel like you don’t have the skills they need to be helpful, tailor your coursework or extracurriculars to build up those skills.
Make connections: In almost any job, networking will help get you in the door. Identify the key organizations that are well-known in your specialty, and set up at least 3 informational interviews with people in or around those organizations.
Last updated: July 2021