Friday Pathways contains information about new, exciting, and possibly unique public health jobs that have been posted during the current week.
Finding that one perfect job is always a goal and many of us are always on the hunt. We can all peruse the job boards, right? But sometimes it helps to have a mentor to point out something important, something worthwhile to strive for, or perhaps something to be wary of.
Join me each week here on Friday Pathways as I present my current picks for public health job opportunities. You never know, you might just find an exciting position that perfectly aligns with your particular skills and goals.
My commentaries about the featured jobs will also be useful advice for your current or future job search. If you are a student needing to learn about future job prospects, or perhaps you are dreaming of your future perfect job, the extra commentary I provide may be useful to you.
I truly hope you find something valuable that sends you down the right public health career path!
– Dr. Reagan
Have you landed on this page on a date too late to apply for one of these jobs? A post with current job listings is available every week. Simply click on Friday Pathways to view my favorite picks of the latest public health job postings.
Social Media Analyst for Westat’s Rockville, MD Office
Job Title: Social Media Analyst
Employer: Westat
Location: Rockville, MD
Salary: Not specified
Degree Required: Bachelor’s degree in public health, communications, or related field.
Description: Westat is a very large employee-owned research company. It focuses on research in various areas, including behavioral health and human policy, clinical trials, education, public health, epidemiology, social policy, economics, and more. The company has an opening in its Rockville, MD office for a social media analyst to support ongoing public health communications campaigns. “The successful candidate will bring an analytical, thoughtful, and creative approach to developing social media content, monitoring social media activity, and evaluating social media strategies for clients.”
The job involves the following duties:
- Content development, management, and reporting.
- Social media monitoring and analysis
- Social listening
- Partner social media tracking
- Graphics coordination support
- Influencer outreach support
- Social media buying support
- Data entry and analysis support
Professor Reagan’s Comments: This job is a very good example of the vast reach of the field of public health. Let’s assume you have experience as a web content developer and specific skills in social media. Then you decide to go on to pursue a degree in public health. Voila, here is your perfect job! It doesn’t seem like these two fields would necessarily go together. However, in today’s world, where almost everything is web-based in some form or another, these types of skills are very valuable.
Contact Tracers Are in High Demand
Job Title: Contact Tracer
Employer: HealthCare Resolution Services, Inc. “HealthCare Resolution Services, Inc. (HCRS) is a professional services firm that provides its clients with value-added consulting solutions and services in health information management.”
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Salary: Not Specified
Degree Required: None required. The job requires health care experience or customer service-oriented type experience where the candidate had frequent interactions with customers.
Description: This is a position in the area of allied health. The job involves making follow-up calls to patients after an initial call by an epidemiologist contact tracer. It also involves documenting names and contact information for individuals who came in contact with a COVID-19 patient and similar duties.
Professor Reagan’s Comments: This appears to be a typical COVID-19 contact tracer position. Of course, it is very common now with the pandemic; however, it is an important public health job that applies to other types of infectious diseases. This would be an excellent job for someone who is just getting into the field of public health and needed to gain experience in the field. It would certainly look good on a resume or an application for admission to a school of public health.