Navigating the maze of public health employment: focus on job seekers

Data-driven lessons learned from the job search process: Part I

I’m back from a well-earned vacation, which was reinvigorating in some respects (see here) but has left me wiped out and in need of an actual break.  I’ll just say that travelling with kids is definitely not relaxing, and leave it at that…. 

In today’s episode, I return to new writing and reflections. I share my thoughts about the challenges of the #publichealthjobs market, building upon episodes previously published in which I offered insights and guidance for job seekers. In next week’s episode, I’ll turn the tables and examine lessons learned for public health employers.

Photo courtesy of Secta.AI: I’m loving these AI generated headshots but am getting a bit concerned that I frequently appear to be standing in the middle of the road at night wearing dark clothing.

Navigating the intricate world of the public health job search can feel like traversing a complex maze, filled with countless twisty paths to choose from, including not a few dead ends. Over the last few months of The Public Health Workforce is not OK, I have presented my perspective on how it feels to make your way through this complex labyrinth of decisions. I have opened up conversations and built community among my fellow travelers who are also trying to get through the maze.

Baring it all

Particularly over the most recent episodes, I have been trying out an approach of radical transparency, coming completely clean about the ins and outs of my own job search process, in an effort towards breaking down the taboos against sharing this kind of information so openly.  I have openly shared my individual job search data, both quantitative and qualitative, in the hope that this information usually kept private can help other job seekers to feel less alone. I’m cognizant that I offer this information about myself from a position of privilege and comfort with the implied risks. Yet I do so in order to send a message of support and solidarity to my fellow job seekers, and to work towards breaking down the taboos that have been setting us up against each other and holding us back.

In previous installments, I’ve reflected frankly on changes in the public health employment market and my observations from the job application process for #publichealthjobs.  In continuing to pursue my own continuing search for fulfilling employment in public health, I try to stay true to my training as an epidemiologist / demographer / public health scientist¹, and to maintain an approach that is truly evidence-based.  So in today’s installment, I offer a summary of the lessons I have learned from my individual experiences over the last 20+ years of job hunting in public health.  I explore insights and strategies gleaned from my personal experiences traversing the public health job market, offering takeaways for my fellow job seekers who are in this puzzle together with me.  Next week, I will continue this train of thought by offering an instalment that focuses on implications derived for employers.

Reader responses: You are not alone (again)

I feel enormously gratified by the response from readers of this column.  Many of you have contacted me to tell me how much this approach resonates with you, and how many similarities you share with my experiences.  Both in the LinkedIn chat group and in private messages, readers of this column have shared their own stories and told me how much it helps to know that they are not alone. Perhaps that’s one of these reasons why I started writing this column in the first place: because I don’t have anyone to talk with IRL who understands these soul-sucking challenges. Now that I have moved to Substack, I hope to continue these supportive conversations - please add your comments here² and help me to figure out the features of this new platform.

I too gain strength from learning that my experiences are neither isolated nor a reflection of my personal attributes, but represent a bigger picture. When you learn that you’re not alone, you can stop taking the multiple, repeated experiences of rejection and ghosting so personally. Also, as I have mentioned before (and perhaps multiple times), I believe that this realization has fundamental implications for the ways in which we job seekers ought to be directing our efforts: instead of taking a solitary micro view where we each separately focus on making edits to our resumes, we need to take a wider view and focus on supporting each other and building community towards an awareness of the need for sector-wide action.

The tyranny of evidence-based observations

I try to derive data-driven insights from my own continuing job search. For example, I have learned to temper expectations and not take personally the lack of response to a painstakingly prepared written application, or even the lack of any follow- up after an interview where I thought we had established rapport. I have learned to give up hope for an individual job application after 3 months of ghosting have passed. I have learned to be really sceptical when recruiters tell me that they have head-hunted me for a specific position but somehow can’t manage to share its fabulous details. (Anyone for #salarytransparency?) I have learned not to struggle with an ATS³ that is clearly dysfunctional and not to invest too much time and effort in preparing an individualised presentation to share at interview. I have learned to thicken my skin and not to build up too much hope until reading signs that look encouraging. But do these lessons learned directly from experience make me into a less attractive candidate, perpetuating a vicious cycle?

Working towards change through collective action

I continue to wonder whether there are collective actions in which we could engage for the purpose of effecting systemic change in the public health sector.  For example: I’ve shared my advice and invited others to join me in pushing back when employers ask for references too early in the application process; I’ve offered my suggestions for the three essential components of job advertisements and encouraged job seekers to request this information directly if not specified upfront.  If all of us job seekers together start to behave in this manner, then we’re not isolated individuals being fussy - we can start to create new norms and become a movement for change: change that is sorely needed within a sector that is in danger of losing sight of its goals.  (And it’s more productive than silently rehearsing imaginary snarky comments on the LinkedIn updates of the people who have ghosted me.) Can we create a Bill of Rights for Job Seekers?  What else could we communicate better by doing it together?

You are not alone

I’ve bared my wounds, some of them barely healed.  I’ve told you my stories.  I’m just not sure what lessons to learn from them. It’s very difficult to live through them all, year after year, and not become bitter and cynical - but I am trying so hard. Perhaps a wiser person would have shifted fields by now, but I am strangely passionate about public health.  Even as I question my goals and my allegiances, I keep going back for more. (Remember what Einstein is alleged to have said about the definition of insanity?) I still truly believe that the public health sector can have a positive impact on society.  I still want to teach my children about how we care for the vulnerable people among us.  Despite everything, I still believe that better is possible.

I wish that I were joking or exaggerating about the job-seeking experiences that I have described, but I’m not. All of my reports are 💯authentic and truthful as I have experienced them. This is genuinely what it is like out there right now from the public health job seeker’s perspective. I know from reader responses that I am not alone in repeatedly experiencing these confidence-crushing rejections - and now, so too do readers of this column.  And believe me, there’s a whole lot more that I am holding back for reasons of confidentiality and self-preservation.  This is the polite, published version of me, and I am biting my tongue so hard. Just imagine what else I would say if I wasn’t holding back. 

I am aware that there are some folks out there advising us job seekers that we should shut up about all of the many indignities and injustices in the application process and simply get on with the job search.  I know that some of them advise not counting the applications because there are just too many.  I appreciate that their advice is well-intentioned, for the sake of preserving our mental health.  “Stay sane,” they say, “don’t dwell on the negative.  Just keep putting yourself out there and keep on going.”  But you won’t convince me to give up counting and analyzing the applications: my early training as a demographer has left me peculiarly attached to rates and denominators. (Demographers are really fun at parties.) Speaking out publicly about these injustices and building community to work towards changing them is the only power I have left, and I welcome you to join me in sharing it. 

Questions (join me for discussion in the comments, or on Substack Notes**, or on LinkedIn) 

• What lessons have you learned from your experiences of job seeking? How do you act on them?

• We're stronger together. But how? What are the kinds of collective actions we job seekers could initiate together in order to speak out against inhumane recruitment practices?  Let’s speak out and organize for action. 

• Check out the paradigm-changing work of NAPHSA, the National Alliance of Public Health Students and Alums, who we featured in a previous episode. What issues do you think they should be prioritizing in their campaigns?

1. Is the lack of definition part of the challenge?  Does my individual job search lack focus?  Does our field lack gating criteria?  I welcome your thoughts.

2. Notes? Threads? Comments? I’m here for it. Bring it on! Let’s learn by doing.

3. ATS = applicant tracking system: software for online management of recruitment processes