Public Health Specialist Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Public Health Specialist resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Public health is a field that’s growing rapidly due to an increased focus on population health and wellness. Public health specialists are tasked with protecting and promoting the health of entire communities. They conduct research, analyze data, develop strategies, educate the public about health issues, and advocate for policy changes.
If you enjoy working with people and want to make a difference in the world, a career in public health might be right for you. Here are some tips plus an example to follow when writing your public health specialist resume.
How to Write a Public Health Specialist Resume
Here’s how to write a public health specialist resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
When you’re writing bullet points, it can be tempting to focus on the tasks and duties you performed. But that’s not enough to make a strong impression.
Instead, you should focus on the results of your work. For example, rather than saying you “conducted research on public health issues,” you could say you “conducted research on public health issues and contributed to report on the impact of food deserts on community health.”
The second bullet point paints a much clearer picture of what you did and the impact of your work. And that’s what hiring managers want to see.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you apply to be a public health specialist, your resume is likely to be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. These programs look for terms related to the job, like “community outreach” or “education” in order to determine whether your skills and experience are a match for the position. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right keywords, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
To increase your chances of getting an interview, use this list of common public health keywords as a starting point and then add in other relevant terms where they fit:
- Public Health
- Community Outreach
- Epidemiology
- Public Health Education
- Epidemiology Research
- Data Analysis
- Program Evaluation
- Healthcare
- Public Health Promotion
- Health Education
- Data Collection
- Healthcare Management
- Teaching
- International Public Health
- Community Health
- Interventions
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Vital Signs
- Research
- Public Speaking
- Social Media
- Grant Writing
- Microsoft Access
- Public Health Training
- Community Engagement
- Public Health Training
- Health Promotion
- Nutritional Counseling
- Mental Health
- Mental Health Counseling
Showcase Your Technical Skills
As a public health specialist, you need to be proficient in a variety of software programs and systems in order to effectively do your job. This might include familiarity with epidemiological software, health information databases, and statistical analysis software. Additionally, public health specialists need to be able to use technology to communicate with other members of the healthcare team, including doctors, nurses, and other specialists.
Some of the programs and systems that public health specialists are typically expected to be proficient in include: Epi Info, SAS, STATA, and Microsoft Office Suite.