DMV Area Public Health Job Search
hello! ive been job searching in public health and was hoping to get advice from anyone in the field, especially in the dmv area, or anyone who entered the field without a large professional network.
i completed my mph last summer and have experience in public health research, harm reduction, crisis advocacy, and community health work. my interests are in women’s health, sexual/reproductive health, epidemiology, and health education. later on, i hope to get into health policy work, though most of my current experiences is more research and community health-focused. i originally planned to pursue a phd immediately after my mph, but decided to wait until there was stronger funding support, so right now im focused on gaining full-time experience.
over the past several months, i've been applying through linkedin, handshake, government sites, nonprofit career pages, university portals, and pretty much everywhere else i can think of. i’ve tailored my resumes and cover letters for different roles and had one county government interview that i’m currently waiting to hear back from, but otherwise haven’t had much traction yet.
another challenge has honestly been networking. i don’t really have existing public health connections, and even cold reaching out for referrals or informational interviews/calls has been a lot harder for me compared to the advice i see.
i'd really appreciate any insight from anyone who has navigated the early-career public health job market recently. if anyone knows of any organizations/companies that tend to hire new mph grads, job titles i may not be searching for, or general advice for breaking into the field, i'd greatly appreciate it! i'm open to research, epidemiology, health education, program coordination, community health, and any other related roles. thank you all so so much!