In this episode, Sujani breaks down the different places you can look for public health jobs. She breaks down the following four categories with specific places (20 in total) to look for opportunities:
Happy job searching!
BONUS: Before the episode wraps up, Sujani shares a convo with Allie (one of the first members of The Public Health Career Club) to talk about her experience. We're opening up the doors to the club so what better way to help you decide to join, than to share insider info ;)
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
In this episode, Sujani breaks down the different places you can look for public health jobs. She breaks down the following four categories with specific places (20 in total) to look for opportunities:
Happy job searching!
BONUS: Before the episode wraps up, Sujani shares a convo with Allie (one of the first members of The Public Health Career Club) to talk about her experience. We're opening up the doors to the club so what better way to help you decide to join, than to share insider info ;)
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Welcome to PH Spotlight, a community for you to build your public health career with. Join us weekly right here and I'll be here too your host, sujani Siva from PH Spot. Hey, sujani here, and welcome to another episode of the PH Spot podcast. So we're still in January January 31st actually and this episode goes live. And you know, at the start of a new year, you have likely set some goals for yourself, whether that's applying to grad school applications are due soon or applying to jobs, right, new opportunities and I hope that if you are looking for new opportunities, that you're not just using one strategy and not just looking in one spot. So on today's episode, I want to tell you where you can find public health jobs. I have about 20 places broken down into four categories that I think and I hope you are considering when you are on your job search journey, and the category that I want to focus on and want to really, really, really really make sure that you are leveraging is the last and final category. So we will get to that and we'll talk about it a little bit more. So, if you are just relying on kind of one strategy or one location to find your jobs, I hope that this episode is going to encourage you, inspire you, give you some tactical ways to approach the jobs that you are finding to then apply to. And with that I'm also going to add in that there are some great episodes that we've recorded with career coaches, or, you know, individuals who are hiring managers in the public health field that I think you should really, really check out. If you look up the episode with Brooke Muerti or Kiriga, those ones will definitely be, you know, an episode that's going to help you with that next stage, after you've found the opportunity that you like and you want to apply to. So here goes four categories that I am hoping that you will consider when you are looking for public health jobs.
Speaker 1:The first one are generic job search engines, right, so that's a no brainer. Linkedin jobs, obviously, is one of those. Indeed is a second one and Google jobs. So Google very recently, I want to say in the last couple of years, has added this feature where they have, similar to news and images, has a jobs kind of feature that pops up when you start looking for any sort of jobs. So if you want to type in public health jobs, you should see that feature pop up. Linkedin and indeed, just like any other kind of search engine platform, it's a good place to filter out and find relevant jobs. Make sure you're using the right filters for yourself. If you're looking in a certain region, make sure you're adding those. The other cool part about LinkedIn jobs is that it will also show you if there are individuals in your network who are part of the organization. So it's a good way for you to reach out. Ask them about the organization, ask them if they know anything about that role, if they could give you any tips around that right. So definitely use job search engines as part of your job search kind of journey.
Speaker 1:The second category are public health job boards. So these are organizations, individuals, associations who are curating job boards specifically for public health. So, unlike the generic job search engines, these individuals or organization are pulling together relevant jobs for us in our field, right and kind. Of. The three subcategories you can consider in this category are university alumni boards. So I have seen at least several different schools of public health websites that they have a dedicated job board there for their students and alumni, and then I've also seen that administrators in schools of public health are good to send out opportunities through a newsletter or an email blast to their alumni when people reach out and say, hey, can you circulate this job right? So make sure you are part of your university's ecosystem. You're checking out those job boards and maybe other universities, right? If there are other schools of public health around the area that you live, make sure to jump onto their website, see if they have a job board, because you know that those jobs will be specific to public health. Another great place that hosts relevant public health jobs are professional public health associations, so the American Public Health Association or the Canadian Public Health Association. There's a sci-fi, which is an institute for public health inspectors in Canada. There's also SOFIS, so the Society of Public Health Education. So lots of public health associations, again similar to universities, will also have job boards where they have curated opportunities there or they have some sort of a submission form that people can come and post jobs on their website. So make sure you're checking those out.
Speaker 1:Public health newsletters are another great way, because you don't need to go looking for it, so the opportunities will show up in your inbox. Our PH Spot newsletter is one of those. Every Thursday we send out job opportunities that we go through and find. So, liz here on the team on a weekly basis is selecting jobs that she knows is relevant for our community. So it's not generated by some sort of a script or anything. She's actually going through and combing through really good opportunities. And so if you're not already on that newsletter, it's phspotorg slash sign up and you'll be able to get that delivered to your inbox every Thursday, similar to the public health newsletter that PH Spot sends out. I'm sure there are other organizations that do something similar. So if you're part of a professional association or you have come across other great organizations or groups of individuals who are supporting public health individuals with job opportunities, definitely get on their newsletter. It's a great way to no-transcript receive those passively, because you're not needing to go and look on a website and it's coming right into your inbox. So that's category number two dedicated public health job boards.
Speaker 1:The third way to look for opportunities is going straight to the source. So what I mean by that is looking on websites of organizations that you want to work at, and typically you will see that on their websites they will have a careers link or a work with us link or an about us link, and then, underneath the about us, there might be ways to work with them. Once you identify the areas of interest that you want to work in, or even specific organizations that you want to be a part of, you can go to their dedicated job board or career site to find opportunities for you Right. So within this third category, I have about seven different kind of subcategories for you to consider. The first one would be government agencies. So, depending on whether you want to work at the federal level, state, provincial levels or local levels, you can go on to those government agencies websites and I believe you know, 99% of the time they do have a career section and they probably have a specific process in which that you need to go through in order to land a job. So make sure you're checking government agency websites. The other one are international agencies. So places like the WHO, unicef, doctors Without Borders, so international agencies that have a huge role in public health globally. They also, similar to government agencies, have a career section where you can go and look on their job board, and you'll have to do a little bit of filtering to figure out if it's a relevant role for you with your experience and background. But that's kind of the second subcategory.
Speaker 1:Third one is research centers. So, whether it's a research center within a university or a kind of privately held research center, they would also have a job board on their website. So, again, think about the areas that you're interested in. Use Google, use LinkedIn, find individuals in these different organizations and go directly to their job board on their website and see if there are opportunities there. Another great place are not-for-profit organizations. They, again, similar to government agencies. Research centers, will also have a job board. Again, you know there will be opportunities in various different fields. You'll have to try and narrow it down to public health and figure out if it's a good match for you. Academic institutions, whether it's within the School of Public Health or other neighboring schools, they may have research opportunities or other opportunities related to public health that they may be posting directly on their university or college website. So don't forget to check those out.
Speaker 1:Hospitals are another great place for public health roles. If there are neighboring hospitals in the area that you live in, make sure to go to each of their websites and look for opportunities directly there. Yes, sometimes they do search up in the generic job search engines that I mentioned as the first category, but sometimes they may not, so it doesn't hurt to do a quick check in kind of on the hospital websites. And then finally, private companies, so consulting firms that have a kind of like health angle, startups, you know, health tech companies, pharma companies they would all definitely have some sort of a public health role. So if you can see yourself working in the private sector in an area that you are really passionate about or are interested in, definitely check those private companies' websites out and their career section. A cool role I recall several years ago I think it was for either YouTube or another Google product and it was related to kind of developing policies around how YouTube approves health related videos on their platform. So you know, you'll have to really look at what the organization does and see if there's a good match with your interests and your experience and what you want to do.
Speaker 1:But that's just a really good example of how I saw public health being kind of reflected in an opportunity in a company that I typically wouldn't have thought of, to have opportunities for public health. So those are the first three kind of big categories, so generic job search engines. Second one was public health job boards and the third one is going straight to the source, so the organization's website. The fourth category, in my opinion, is one of the most opportunity, the most important place to look for opportunities in public health, and if you're not already using this strategy, I recommend that you do that today. Right? If you're looking for a job, start doing this today.
Speaker 1:And it is looking into the hidden job market. So the hidden job market is essentially opportunities that exist in organizations that are not publicly posted anywhere, and it's not that it's done intentionally, but sometimes hiring managers are, having gone through the process to posted or they have had, you know, great success just asking around to see if anybody knows anybody they could recommend for a role, and they just don't go through the regular process. So you know, whatever the circumstances are on the end of the organization the hiring manager there are definitely opportunities that are not posted that you're missing out on if you don't go and ask for it. So the hidden job market requires you to go and talk to people in your network to see if they have opportunities that they know of, and the first thing I want you to remember here is to not go and message people you don't know to ask for a job. Right, it's very hard for somebody to help you if they don't have a rapport already built. They don't know who you are, because recommending someone for a job or an opportunity at an organization that you know you have a good reputation at is difficult. So if somebody already knows who you are they've you know they can stand behind you and say, yep, I know this individual is hardworking and you won't regret it if you hire them. When you have that sort of established relationship, it just makes it easier for somebody to recommend you, right? So the first tip is don't go ask people that you don't know for a job yet.
Speaker 1:Okay, but there are several ways for you to tap into the hidden job market and I'm going to list them all down for you to kind of just reflect on and think about. And then I actually want you to take this as an activity open up an Excel sheet or a piece of paper and pen and write down everybody that you can think of in each of these categories that I'm going to mention. Okay, so start with the people you know, right? So, right off the top of your head, okay, who are people that I have really good relationships with, who are working at some sort of a related public health organization you know, whether it's a hospital, academic institution, not for profit organization, research center, government agency. Wherever Do I know people in those areas? Write down all their names.
Speaker 1:Next, think about the people your people know, right? So there's this list of people that you know. You think they work in a health field or some sort of an organization that could potentially have public health roles. Then there are people that your people know. So, for example, maybe your cousin or your best friend or somebody you into school with. You know them really well, you have a really good relationship with them, but they themselves are not in public health. But based on your research on LinkedIn, or maybe you follow them on Instagram or Facebook, you know that they know people who are in public health. Could you get an introduction to them? Right? That's the second group. People your people know. Third group are colleagues from jobs you've had or places you volunteered at in the past or even the present.
Speaker 1:Okay, if you are in a job where you're feeling like you need a change and you have built an environment around you where you trust that you can share this with your colleagues, start talking to them. Let them know. I am looking for a new challenge If you know anybody that might be hiring, I'd love an introduction. Start talking to them. Also. Think about places that you've worked or volunteered at in the past and start reaching out to them to say, hey, I'm looking for a new opportunity and I'm wondering if you know anybody in XYZ location.
Speaker 1:The biggest tip here, when you start reaching out to individuals, is to make it easy for them to help you. Somebody comes to me and says, hey, I'm looking for a job, can you help me? It doesn't give me much to go off of right, but if somebody comes to me and says, hey, I'm interested in joining Diabetes Canada, I see that you have volunteered there in the past and you have a couple of recommendations, even on your LinkedIn profile, where people have written recommendations for you and they worked at Diabetes Canada, would it be possible for you to introduce me to somebody that's still working there? That gives me an easy way to help this person. Versus hey, can you help me get a job? That requires me to do a lot of thinking. Versus you already did the research, did the thinking and now you're just asking me to execute. So keep that in mind when you're reaching out to individuals in your network for help to find a job, make it very easy for them to action on it immediately.
Speaker 1:Another group of individuals you can reach out to are alumni, so people you went to school with right, or alumni from the same program. So maybe you graduated five years ago and you see that one of your past classmates is working at an organization that you'd love to be a part of or saw an opportunity at. Reach out to them. Ask them could I get an introduction or could I chat with you about what your work involves? That's another excellent group of individuals to reach out to. Professors, past and present, are also another excellent group of individuals to reach out to with opportunities. I did this when I graduated. There was a professor that I worked with throughout my MPH. I did not take any classes with him, but I did reach out to him to see if he had any connections to any organizations or individuals in Ontario, which is where I was moving back to that he could put me in touch with, and he did. He set up a few calls for me with these individuals. I was able to chat with them. Unfortunately, they didn't have any opportunities at the time, but that introduction was made right. So reach out to professors, past and present, that you have an established relationship with, and see if they can introduce you to somebody. Again, the tip here is make it easy for them. They are busy. They likely get tons of people reaching out to them to give them a hand, so the easier you can make it for them to execute on the task, the better.
Speaker 1:Now the next group is people you have met at events and connected with. So maybe you went to a conference, whether it was at your school or with an association, and you recalled meeting somebody there. Maybe you walked by their booth, maybe you checked out their poster, maybe you just had a chat with them in the hallways, whoever it was. Find them on LinkedIn, connect with them, see where they're working. It's yet another group to tap into to just say, hey, I met you at this event. I hope you're doing well. I see that you are part of this organization and I saw that there's an opportunity here and I'd love to hear your experience. Right and start talking to them, see if it makes sense for them to introduce you to others, recommend you for the job. But that's another group of individuals that we often forget.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, online friends. So these are connections that you have made on LinkedIn. I probably wouldn't have added this bullet if it wasn't for my recent, I think experience with LinkedIn. I started showing up on LinkedIn in November of 2022, just over a year and I have made some incredible friends that I, in a heartbeat, would reach out to them for help, and some of them I have never met in person and we've done several Zoom calls, but they are individuals who are as close as friends that I've met in person, and so, definitely, if there are friends online that you have met, you have created some sort of a bond or a connection with them. Reach out to them for help. I'm sure they would be willing to help you out.
Speaker 1:So that takes me to the end of the list under category four, and so, as a reminder, we have generic job search engines, we have public health job boards, we have going straight to the source and leveraging the hidden job market. So I want you to make sure that you are using each of these categories to find opportunities for the next job that you're applying to, and let me know on LinkedIn how your job search is going. I'd love to read about it. Tag me in your post and we'll have a conversation there. So until next time, this is Sujani, and I just love showing up here and being able to talk to you.
Speaker 1:Hey, before you go, I wanted to let you know that the Public Health Career Club, our membership community, where we help you figure out your public health career, we help you with finding a job, growing your network and creating your career path it's an incredible community of public health professionals from all around the world really supporting each other to build up their careers.
Speaker 1:We are opening up the doors next week, february 5th to the 9th, and I'd love for you to be part of it.
Speaker 1:You know, if you're looking for some support this year to build your public health career, this is a place for you, and I just want to share with you one of our club members experience being a part of this community. And so the voice you're going to hear next is of Alice, and she's just going to tell you. You know why she joined the club, what she loves about it, and it was just amazing for me to have this conversation with her, because Ali has been part of PH Spot since we first started and when she heard about this membership community, she decided she would join immediately and she's still in it, you know, a year later has even come back as a speaker to teach her peers about project management in public health. So it's just an incredible full circle moment for me and I think you know for you to hear firsthand how it has been for one of our members will be super helpful, I think, in making a decision.
Speaker 2:So my name is Ali Payetowski. I joined the public health career club after being a part of the PH Spot community for many years, pretty much since its inception and when Sujani started it. So that was an incredible experience. I loved, you know, being part of a professional development community that was public health specific and offered something that really wasn't out there specifically for public health. So I love that. And then more recently I saw that the public health career club was starting up and I jumped at the chance to be a part of that and to be one of its first founding members. That was really exciting. Again, I've never seen anything out there in the world in the professional or academic sphere specifically dedicated to public health and that was membership based. So I thought that was really exciting.
Speaker 1:And you were one of the people that jumped on right when we opened the public health career club, and so you've been part of the membership community almost like one of the longest people, and curious to hear if you can identify some sort of transformation you have had as a result of the career club.
Speaker 2:So it's probably a long term transformation that's happened and, you know, probably the public health pH spot helped you start it off as well. But I think with the career club it's like one of the sessions that stands out to me the most when I look back at my time in the public health career club is the session that we had about networking without networking with Sue Griffey. That was a fantastic session. It was very, very interactive, lots of fun, and I think often when we hear the word networking it doesn't sound like a lot of fun. It sounds very dry and professional.
Speaker 2:But that helped me to realize that networking is something that a lot of us actually do naturally in our day to day lives without even thinking about it that much, and there's lots of ways to network and it's really about building relationships and there's no one way to do it. So there's more formal ways and reaching out to people and events. But you know, there's also just starting conversations with people, whether that's in real life or on LinkedIn, and it's something that we can just do and integrate into our daily lives and just talk to people and share about ourselves. So I think being a part of the club has just made me more open to networking and to building relationships with people and meeting new people, and everyone there has been so supportive of each other and of our career journeys, which I really appreciate. So that's a transformation that I've seen in myself and something that I've seen in a lot of people that are part of what I'm doing too.
Speaker 1:You talked about a lot of things that you enjoy in the Career Club, and I'm wondering what is one thing that kind of stands out to you as the most favorite feature of it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty incredible the amount of programming that goes into the club and how many different sessions there are and how frequently they're held. There's pretty much something going on every week, and the variety of topics is pretty awesome too, so it could range anything from helping to write your resume to preparing for applying to jobs and doing interviews, to networking, to learning about different public health topics and advocacy, and then we have some more informal times as well, so we'll have like social hours and writing sessions together, times where we can come together and just work on different problems, like masterminding sessions, and just encourage each other to pursue our goals and to follow our dreams. So that's really inspiring and it just gives you the opportunity to learn a lot about different areas of public health and professional development that I haven't really seen elsewhere. So that's one of my favorite parts of the club.
Speaker 1:When you think about your public health career and like the just a lot, there are probably a lot of goals that you want to achieve and so, thinking back to some of these big career goals you have, how do you feel the career club is going to help you achieve those?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest part is just providing support and motivation and the resources to be able to make a plan for my goals and to know that there are other people within the club who might be working on similar goals or even have already achieved them that I can reach out to and rely on for support.
Speaker 2:And then, conversely, maybe there's things that I've already done or experienced and I would love to be able to share my experiences too, if those are able to help anyone.
Speaker 2:One of the things I can think about specifically is a session that you led earlier this year at Suzhou, and it was about basically goal setting and working towards your goals and just thinking about what is your journey that's led you towards this point and how do you see what your journey could look like towards your next school that you want to work towards to, and what are the different steps that you can take to get there.
Speaker 2:That's a small thing that you could do today or this week or this year to take a step towards those goals, and just always thinking about making forward momentum, and most goals aren't going to be achieved right away or overnight. It's about consistency and taking steps to get there and knowing that you're moving in a positive direction. So that was a really helpful and inspiring session and I know, when I look back on my notes from that session and some of the goals that I for myself, it's really inspiring and I look forward to checking in on my goals from the session with everyone from the career club and hearing about the goals that everyone set for themselves and the progress that they're making.
Speaker 1:Hey, so that was Ali and I loved that convo with her just to reflect on her journey so far, and I really hope that gave you some sort of an inside look into the career club. So we are opening up the doors for the first time in 2024 and the doors to the club will be open on February 5th. So if you don't want to miss the announcement, head over to phspotorg slash club. Make sure you sign up to the wait list so that you can get all of the reminders, because you know February 5th. Sometimes things just happen and you forget the date. So we'll make sure on our part to remind you up until we close the doors this month. So February 9th will be the deadline to enroll into the career club. So we'll send you those reminders.
Speaker 1:All you have to do is head over to phspotorg slash club and get on the wait list, even if you haven't made the final decision to join the club. Get on the wait list because if not this round, future rounds, you'll get the reminder. But also if you have any questions that were unanswered in either this podcast, on the club page or in any of the emails that come out this week and next week, you can reach out to us, so it's just a great way to keep the communication open. So phspotorg slash club can't wait to have you inside our membership community.
Speaker 1:It's an incredible group of individuals and I'm not just saying that the sessions that are run either by me or some of the incredible speakers and mentors that we bring. They are truly life changing for myself or our members. I learn a ton from the members themselves, from our speakers and, like I always say, I haven't figured it all out with my career and it's so much value for me as it is for all the members and the team here at phspot. We do everything we can to create a space, an environment and a program that really serves everyone inside the community, so I'm really looking forward to having you there.