I have worked in state and county public health, and yes, I agree that the postings can be hard to find. This was 10+ years ago, but I remember scouring state/local government websites to find the job postings at the time. There were also job sites hosted by local universities that seemed to aggregate government jobs as well, and those were useful resources.
Sarah's story also is useful in framing the amount of time it takes to hire at the local government level! I know it took me months to get through the hiring processes of the positions I held. The hiring teams were much larger than what is discussed in this article, and it still took awhile. I applaud those hiring managers that are truly doing all they can to fill positions with such a critical need.
And I have used Emory Public Health Connection and Public Health Jobs in the past (which are both free, if I recall). But posting on each site takes time to do, which is tough to find in between all of the other craziness in my day to day!
Thanks @Essie for your supportive comment. I think that there have been some significant improvements since you were looking 10+ years ago, as sites like publichealthcareers.org and governmentjobs.com (and even LinkedIn) have become increasingly used as aggregator sites (by some -not all- States). However, Sarah's points really underscore the practical and logistical challenges that are going on behind the scenes. I was really struck by her comment about not having a credit card to charge... surely a gap in the market there for one of the aggregators to recognise the limitations of this market and develop a payment mechanism that accepts good old fashioned checks?!
So I should say that some government organization have credit cards, but my experience in the past decade is that it's not universal. We do all of our purchasing with POs (for those reading who don't know much about this process - we receive a quote, submit a requisition for permission to make the purchase, get an actual invoice, product the "purchase order" document that must be returned signed by the vendor, signed by the department head, signed by the finance department, and finally signed by an employee witness before heading to the governing body for the check to be approved to go out!) There is no option in Linked In, Indeed, etc. for me to pay that way, so I just do my free, unpromoted postings and hope for the best!
I have worked in state and county public health, and yes, I agree that the postings can be hard to find. This was 10+ years ago, but I remember scouring state/local government websites to find the job postings at the time. There were also job sites hosted by local universities that seemed to aggregate government jobs as well, and those were useful resources.
Sarah's story also is useful in framing the amount of time it takes to hire at the local government level! I know it took me months to get through the hiring processes of the positions I held. The hiring teams were much larger than what is discussed in this article, and it still took awhile. I applaud those hiring managers that are truly doing all they can to fill positions with such a critical need.
And I have used Emory Public Health Connection and Public Health Jobs in the past (which are both free, if I recall). But posting on each site takes time to do, which is tough to find in between all of the other craziness in my day to day!
Thanks @Essie for your supportive comment. I think that there have been some significant improvements since you were looking 10+ years ago, as sites like publichealthcareers.org and governmentjobs.com (and even LinkedIn) have become increasingly used as aggregator sites (by some -not all- States). However, Sarah's points really underscore the practical and logistical challenges that are going on behind the scenes. I was really struck by her comment about not having a credit card to charge... surely a gap in the market there for one of the aggregators to recognise the limitations of this market and develop a payment mechanism that accepts good old fashioned checks?!
So I should say that some government organization have credit cards, but my experience in the past decade is that it's not universal. We do all of our purchasing with POs (for those reading who don't know much about this process - we receive a quote, submit a requisition for permission to make the purchase, get an actual invoice, product the "purchase order" document that must be returned signed by the vendor, signed by the department head, signed by the finance department, and finally signed by an employee witness before heading to the governing body for the check to be approved to go out!) There is no option in Linked In, Indeed, etc. for me to pay that way, so I just do my free, unpromoted postings and hope for the best!