0:00

I realize our workforce , especially

0:02

those who are entering , just need to be comfortable

0:04

with . This is the language you're dealing

0:06

with . Like , this is the vernacular that

0:08

you will hear , not only

0:10

on the job announcements and in your interviews

0:13

, but also when you actually work . And

0:15

that's been one of the great things is , folks use

0:17

the guide for other ways , like for

0:20

interviews , for upgrading their resume

0:22

, and that's what the guide's been able to

0:24

do for some of my followers .

0:30

Welcome to PH Spotlight , a

0:32

community for you to build your

0:34

public health career with . Join

0:37

us weekly right here and I'll

0:39

be here too . Your host , sujani

0:41

Siva from PH Spot . Hi

0:46

, zoila , and welcome to the PH

0:48

Spot podcast , and welcome Hi

0:50

. Thank you , sujani , for having me Super

0:52

excited . Thank you , we've

0:55

been trying to make this happen . I feel like

0:57

it's been over a year and we're finally doing

0:59

it .

1:01

Yes , and I'm sure we're going to do it again .

1:03

Oh yeah , absolutely the first of many , exactly

1:05

, and so for any of our listeners

1:08

, you might know Zoila because she

1:10

runs public health hired . But in

1:12

case you haven't heard of Zoila or public

1:14

health hired , I might just turn it over to you

1:16

, give us like a two minute

1:18

intro of who you are and use

1:21

that two minutes however you want . However , you want to

1:23

describe yourself .

1:24

Great Well , hi everyone , hi

1:27

listeners . My name is Zoila Reina

1:29

. I am the founder of public health hired

1:31

. I am a public health professional

1:33

, just like you . I've been in public

1:35

health for over 16 years , still

1:37

at my full time job at a healthcare organization

1:40

here in California . I am based

1:42

in Los Angeles , and so a lot of

1:44

my followers and mentees are from

1:46

the United States , but I also support

1:48

folks in Canada and other countries

1:50

globally , and essentially

1:52

I am really trying to share

1:54

the best practices of how you get a job in public

1:56

health , which includes how to find

1:59

the job , how do you apply correctly with resume and cover letters

2:02

to stand out , how do you get those callbacks and how do you

2:04

actually land interviews not

2:06

just one , but multiple rounds of

2:09

interviews plus assignments that

2:11

they sometimes throw at you . So

2:13

I am all about supporting the

2:15

workforce as best as we can . Whether you're a student

2:18

or just curious about public health and trying

2:21

to prepare yourself before you enter in the

2:23

field , or if you're deep in it and

2:25

want to pivot into another focus

2:27

area , I am here to help as best I can .

2:29

That's cool . We're just going to jump into

2:32

it because we want to give you 20

2:35

minutes or just like solid information

2:37

. So you might need a notebook for this chat

2:39

, but there's also a cool resource

2:42

that Zoila has on her website , so

2:44

I'll make sure to also link that up . But

2:47

essentially , you know everything that you talked about , zoila

2:49

. This first

2:51

step is kind of like understanding

2:54

the job posting . But

2:57

if you're not applying to a job yeah , job posting , and somebody

3:00

recommends it to you there's still something that you

3:03

need to make sure you do on your resume and cover letter , and

3:05

that's like using the right words .

3:09

Yes , it's almost like

3:11

using the right code . Yeah .

3:13

So , whether you're reading a job posting

3:15

or you are going to be writing

3:18

up an application , you know cover letter , the assignment , the

3:20

resume these words matter , and

3:24

knowing how to use these key words or

3:26

key terms in a way that's going to get your application picked up

3:28

by the person

3:32

on the other side is what we're going to talk about , and

3:35

when I saw this resource on Zoila's page , I was like yes , we

3:38

need to talk about this . I've heard

3:40

from a lot of people that that is something

3:42

that they struggle with , right Not

3:44

knowing how to read a job application . So maybe you can start

3:46

us off by like , just laying some of the

3:48

basics

3:53

and then maybe we'll dig into it a little bit . Sure , yeah .

3:55

So just so that everyone has like

3:57

a little bit of background into

4:01

this guide that I have . It's called the public health key

4:03

terms guide . I

4:05

struggled with the title , but that's what we've

4:07

got . Essentially

4:10

, I had worked with so many folks

4:12

on social media for navigating the application

4:14

process and reading the jobs

4:17

and I'm all about doing job

4:19

alerts and I know , sujani , you are too . Let's

4:21

share what's out there but

4:24

folks were still not seeing themselves

4:26

in the job . Right , I would post

4:28

jobs that talk about , you know , technical assistance

4:32

, specialist or best practice implementation , like these

4:36

words that they felt like . But that's not me . And

4:40

so there was basically

4:43

a mentee I had who said you know what I wish we had ? This was really

4:45

just from one mentee suggestion

4:48

and it's changed everything . She

4:51

was like I wish there was a cheat

4:53

sheet where I could see what

4:57

am I expected to read , what

5:00

am I supposed to be saying ? Because

5:03

she kept describing there's this

5:05

gray area of

5:07

coming at a school and jumping

5:10

into employment . And

5:12

after conversations not only with

5:14

her but with my mentees and trying to educate

5:16

them and define these words like

5:18

accreditation , right

5:21

, things that they had never heard about

5:23

but they should know about , I

5:25

also got kind of long winded . I'm like , okay

5:27

, this is what technical assistance is this ? is a

5:29

building capacity , as this is what best

5:31

practices are . This is the difference of standard operating

5:33

procedures . So the language

5:36

was almost it's just too

5:38

much to kind of share in

5:40

one sitting . You have to really you

5:43

need a guide . You need something that lists

5:45

out all of these words and what

5:48

to expect as you're reading them . So

5:50

, essentially , it was the suggestion of

5:52

a mentee of mine and I

5:54

drafted the first guide

5:56

. It was about 50

5:59

terms and it was from what

6:01

I know . It was just from my own

6:03

job searching , from my own practice in

6:05

public health . This is how we talk about the

6:07

work and this is how you should expect reading

6:09

the jobs , and all I did

6:11

was provide the term and

6:13

then transferable skills that

6:15

you should consider to

6:17

fold into that . So for folks

6:20

who were like , oh , here's a term , for

6:22

example , standard operating procedures

6:24

, and so then on the right , I would

6:26

show you that you qualify

6:29

as implementing standard operating

6:32

procedures if you've helped with

6:34

actual operations

6:36

or retail or processes

6:39

workflows . Even

6:41

if you were a cashier , that

6:43

is a standard operating procedure , right

6:45

On how you close out the cash . So

6:48

a lot of this language was

6:50

just helping them see themselves in it , and

6:52

that's where I started . And now

6:55

fast forward to three and a half years later

6:57

. I have a key terms guide . That

6:59

was contributions from five

7:01

committee members and those five committee

7:03

members are folks who got jobs

7:06

using the techniques I use and they are public health

7:08

professionals across the nation . And

7:10

now we have 70 key terms and

7:13

it's not just transferable skills but

7:15

it includes definitions with citations

7:17

and then also an actual

7:20

sentence use Like how do I use this

7:22

word in a sentence if

7:25

I wanted to try it out ? And

7:27

so it's a little more fleshed out , and

7:29

then it still has the transferable skills information

7:32

. But honestly , it's been kind of the game

7:34

changer for public health hired

7:36

and folks who follow , because number

7:39

one , it's free , grab

7:41

it and do what you want with it . But honestly

7:43

, it's the best thing for job

7:46

applications . As you're reading the jobs

7:48

and you're like , oh , what does that mean ? What

7:50

does accreditation mean , then you can kind of use

7:52

the guide as a reference to

7:54

kind of help you get through the

7:57

job announcements .

7:58

That's so good . I remember

8:00

early in my career , like

8:03

in my first job , I remember

8:05

seeing another job and wanted to apply to it and

8:07

I remember talking to my manager saying they're

8:10

asking for like risk assessment experience

8:12

.

8:13

And .

8:13

I don't think I have any like how should I go

8:15

about this ? And she's like the job you're

8:17

in is all about risk assessment . Let's look at

8:19

this . Wait a minute . I'm

8:22

like , oh okay , so that's

8:24

okay , got it . And

8:26

sometimes like you're in it and

8:28

you don't know .

8:29

You don't see it .

8:30

That's what they're asking for , right and right now

8:32

. When you explain the standard operating

8:34

procedure , in my

8:36

head I would have thought of it as like

8:39

I was responsible to write

8:41

out an SOP and I am the one

8:43

who like , implemented and did that whole

8:45

thing . But you know , when you're applying to especially

8:47

early kind of

8:49

like entry level jobs or even like mid level jobs

8:52

, sometimes pulling from these like

8:54

transferable skills or experiences you've

8:56

had in other areas of work is

8:58

good enough to get you

9:01

through the door . Because you know

9:03

, I think we've heard that crazy

9:05

stat that people just look at your resume for

9:07

a few seconds and then you're like in

9:09

the in pile or the out pile . So

9:11

part of what you're saying is

9:13

like , use this guide , get

9:16

yourself in the in pile and then go wow them

9:18

right .

9:19

Yes , yes , yeah , and

9:21

honestly , the key terms guide . It

9:23

is supposed to be a reflection

9:25

, like , if that's kind of the first time you

9:27

get to ask yourself did I

9:29

do that , have I done that ? And I

9:31

have these aha moments with my mentees

9:33

all the time . Maybe that's why I still love

9:35

doing this , because I hear

9:37

their ahas , they see it , they get

9:40

it right . Before they didn't see themselves

9:42

as someone who supported assessments

9:44

right , because they're all about evaluation

9:47

and analysis , I'm like , but

9:50

you know , we can talk about it in assessment

9:52

as well . So , like these different

9:55

ways of talking about public health are , I

9:57

realize our workforce , especially

9:59

those who are entering , just need to be comfortable

10:01

with . This is the language you're dealing

10:03

with . Like this is the vernacular that

10:06

you will hear , not only

10:08

on the job announcements and in your interviews

10:10

, but also when you actually work . Like

10:12

and that's been one of the great things

10:14

is , folks use the guide for other ways

10:17

, like for interviews , right

10:19

, for example , for upgrading their resume

10:21

. And then one of my followers always

10:23

gives me updates because she

10:25

told me she used the guide to

10:28

improve her own language at her job . So

10:31

she was already a public health professional and

10:33

, yes , she wants to grow in her career , but she's like what can

10:35

I do now to improve ? And

10:37

she basically said , like her boss keeps

10:39

giving her better work . She got a promotion

10:42

because she's just elevating

10:44

her language and she's matching

10:46

it with her manager , and

10:49

that's what the guide's been able to do for

10:51

some of my followers .

10:53

It's like , when you can use industry

10:56

terms appropriately

10:58

, it kind of like does

11:00

make you seem more qualified

11:03

in those roles , right ? Yes , I did

11:05

a recording with another

11:07

coach and we talked about personal

11:09

branding and it was about

11:12

what you see yourself as . And then , what does

11:15

your management see you

11:17

?

11:17

as right .

11:18

If you're thinking like I should

11:20

be up for that next promotion . I feel

11:22

qualified to be the manager , but

11:25

if you're like seniors

11:27

don't see you in that role . There's

11:29

a gap there and you need to figure

11:31

that out . And often it could be that they

11:34

don't see you speaking

11:36

like a manager or showing

11:38

up like a manager , right , or ?

11:39

asking the right questions . Yeah , you know

11:42

, public health is so complex

11:44

and so dynamic and

11:46

multi-layered and

11:48

I think the best thing you

11:50

can do as you're out there working is

11:53

don't assume that you know what's

11:55

going on . Like I think sometimes

11:57

I'm realizing that my managers appreciate

11:59

when I come with harder questions and

12:02

in fact they're on me lately because they're like you're

12:04

not being hard enough , like you need to raise

12:06

critical questions that drive

12:09

the conversations to a certain level , and

12:11

so in everyone's own work you

12:13

can do that for yourself . But it's

12:15

kind of up to you to practice

12:18

, to find the information . Like , how do I look at

12:20

this differently ? I always say

12:22

, when it comes down to interviews

12:24

, the underlying question that

12:26

you are all really answering is

12:29

are you one of us ? That's

12:31

the only reason we interview . A company

12:34

wants to know are you one of us ? And

12:36

let me tell you how people recognize their

12:38

own Language . Yeah

12:40

, that's it , yeah , language

12:42

. So I I'm pretty hard with

12:45

folks on like , stop trying

12:47

to be friendly and bubbly and smiley , like

12:49

, because I can tell you I would hire

12:51

someone who Looks like

12:53

mean mugging but speaks

12:55

the right language . You know what I mean . Like , if

12:58

you're saying the right things , the

13:00

hiring manager will be forgiving

13:03

if you slip up a little bit , but as

13:05

long as they're hearing like they get the

13:07

world that we work in and where

13:09

we're trying to go , then you're

13:11

one of them , then you get the job . So

13:13

, yes , language is everything .

13:15

Yeah , that's good . So

13:17

you know , I think part

13:19

of it and maybe I read this on your website is

13:21

like Knowing the right key

13:23

terms also helps you

13:26

Find the right jobs to

13:28

apply to and maybe it was on your website

13:30

when I read this it's like there's

13:32

more you can search than just public

13:35

health in a job search engine . I'm

13:37

guilty of that . I think that's how I started go public

13:40

help LinkedIn jobs . What are you going to give me

13:42

?

13:42

I Mean that's

13:44

what we all done . I did that for like

13:46

I don't know , for like two to three years . I

13:48

was doing that like , come on public health jobs

13:51

. There's got to be more out there . But no , that's

13:53

actually the trap , that's

13:55

the that's it . That's the trap . You're only

13:57

looking at the tip of the iceberg

13:59

, where the jobs are , are

14:02

categorized and flagged as public

14:04

health , because the rest of the work is

14:06

underneath the water , is the big

14:08

iceberg of like Social

14:10

impact , community impact , right

14:12

, access to care , like all these other

14:14

terms that make up our world . And in fact

14:16

, when you download the guide , the

14:18

term public health isn't mentioned in there . Oh , I

14:22

don't define public health because the whole

14:24

guide is public health . Mm-hmm . The

14:27

70 key terms make up public health

14:29

, so why am I going to define public health in

14:31

there ? So I actually Tell

14:34

people don't search public health , and

14:37

it's actually going to hold you back more . You

14:39

can do it on occasion if you're bored , but

14:41

it's not going to be like the way that you get

14:43

the job . And I'll be honest for

14:45

me personally , while I

14:47

mentor folks and even for my own curiosity

14:50

, the amount of times I punch

14:52

in public health in one year is probably

14:54

four or five times In

14:57

one year and I wonder if that's like

14:59

also more important

15:01

now , because we're seeing the

15:03

role of public health practitioners embedded

15:06

in kind of these like non traditional

15:08

roles that we you know .

15:10

Typically it's the health promoter , the

15:12

community health workers , the epidemiologists

15:14

. There was like five to ten , maybe

15:17

traditional roles , but now

15:19

I Think we're seeing

15:21

that we can be integrated in

15:23

almost anything .

15:25

Yes , and our title is very widely

15:27

yeah , I'm dealing with my

15:29

mentees who are applying to like grievance

15:32

and appeal specialist or

15:34

Business operation specialist

15:36

, you know , still appropriate still

15:39

within public health , still within our world . But

15:41

you wouldn't be searching that if

15:43

you're not looking at the key terms guide or following

15:46

what we , what we teach here . So I think

15:48

from my mentees , that's

15:50

the first thing we get on is what are you searching

15:52

? Let's get your key terms solid so

15:55

that you Get on the right path

15:57

, and that's what this guide is for and that's why it's

15:59

free , so that you guys can just

16:01

get on the right Path for yourself . I

16:04

like to think that public health hired is here

16:06

to give you a flashlight in your journey . That's

16:09

what really it's all about is let me

16:11

help you see where you're stepping and

16:13

careful for that pothole over here

16:15

, so you know that's really

16:18

what the guide is meant to do is give you a flashlight

16:20

.

16:20

Yeah , I think when you were talking

16:22

about you know , helping the

16:25

public health work for us , kind of like elevate

16:27

the language that they use when they show up in their

16:29

roles . It's almost like

16:31

we know that we're

16:34

all very competent in

16:36

public health . It's like that part of it

16:39

we can kind of check off

16:41

. We all have some sort of education

16:43

or experience that has allowed us

16:45

to do public health really well . Now

16:48

it's about showing the

16:50

person on the other side whether that's an employer for

16:53

a job or some other opportunity that you're

16:55

putting yourself in for

16:57

that you are the right person and

16:59

I think you hit that right where

17:01

it's like are you one of them ? Do you understand

17:04

the organization ? Do you understand the work

17:06

Not necessarily public health ? Do

17:08

?

17:08

you understand the target population

17:10

? Yeah , do you understand the partners at the table

17:12

? So I think that's what

17:15

I get really excited about when I get

17:17

folks to the interview process is , let's make sure

17:19

you understand it from a 360

17:22

. Not just the project itself , not just the company

17:24

, but you understand the audience and the partners

17:26

and the skill set that will be required

17:28

of this . So , yeah

17:30

, I think it's looking at it comprehensively

17:33

absolutely .

17:34

Yeah , awesome , okay

17:36

, so this key term I think

17:38

we talked about , we can use a tool

17:41

to first , like , look for

17:43

roles , yes , and then we can also use it when

17:45

we're preparing the application Update

17:47

your resume . Yeah , update the resume cover

17:49

letter Absolutely , and then you can use it during

17:52

your interview . You can

17:54

use it when you're like in

17:56

a role you know , use these

17:58

terms to have regular conversation

18:01

. Maybe choose a term of the week and

18:03

try to embed it in your conversations that week . Any

18:05

other uses for

18:07

it that you've come across .

18:10

Yeah , I think that's it . I mean

18:12

, I think it runs the gamut , I mean really it's

18:14

. You know , even for folks who are students

18:16

and you're not even looking for

18:18

work , you can download it and see , like

18:20

how much am I really already absorbing this

18:23

in my school . You know , should I talk

18:25

more about a certain ? because I think we're not

18:27

even aware of our interests sometimes

18:29

because we're thinking of the traditional track

18:31

, right Like the demology or the

18:33

health educator , and so my goal

18:35

is also to help people like make their

18:38

own way , make their own path . You

18:40

can actually be more than just not

18:42

no , no , banging on health educators , but

18:44

you know , we just assume the traditional

18:46

roles and we're beyond that . Now , especially

18:48

after the pandemic , we're beyond that .

18:50

I think another good use I can

18:53

think of is and I'm

18:55

seeing this a lot is like there's a group of individuals

18:57

who are considered early

19:00

career professionals in public health

19:02

but they built like a five or 10

19:04

year career in another field and now they

19:06

want to enter public health .

19:08

Yes , like teachers , yeah

19:10

teachers .

19:11

I've seen like people in marketing

19:13

coming in or people in engineering coming

19:15

into public health , and I think that

19:17

also this list could be helpful when

19:19

they're looking at

19:22

their past experience and thinking okay

19:24

, how can I transfer those skills into public health ? Like

19:26

what are some of those similar work that we've

19:28

done ?

19:29

Absolutely .

19:30

Yeah .

19:31

Yeah , it's very universal and I hope

19:33

to keep it improving it , but it is an evergreen

19:35

product . Right now it's free and I don't want to

19:37

put a fee on it . So please spread widely

19:39

, post it . I try to post it as much as

19:42

I can , but , yeah , it does

19:44

actually get people on the right foot and I'm happy

19:46

to hear the feedback .

19:47

So awesome , All right . So public

19:49

health hirecom you should be able to find

19:51

that very easily . I think maybe we'll

19:54

do like a follow up session to

19:56

even walk through the document

19:58

and do more of an in depth dive

20:00

into that .

20:02

Yeah , and we can even invite folks to come to

20:04

the club for something like that Something kind of

20:06

special and kind of open up the guide with

20:08

them .

20:09

So yeah , let's do that , yeah that would be nice .

20:11

So thank you , sujani , for this

20:13

.

20:13

This was so nice to spend some time together

20:16

. Thank you for joining me and we'll see

20:18

you on a future episode . We'll do it again

20:20

. Yes , hey

20:24

, I hope you enjoyed that episode and

20:26

if you want to get the links or information

20:29

mentioned in today's episode , you can head

20:31

over to phspotorg slash

20:33

podcast and we'll have everything

20:36

there for you . And before you go

20:38

, I want to tell you about the Public Health Career

20:40

Club . So if you've been looking

20:42

for a place to connect and build

20:44

meaningful relationships with other public

20:47

health professionals from all

20:49

around the world , you should join us in the Public

20:51

Health Career Club . We launched

20:53

the club with the vision of becoming the

20:55

number one hangout spot dedicated

20:58

to building and growing your dream

21:00

public health career . And in addition

21:02

to being able to connect and build

21:04

those meaningful relationships with other

21:06

public health professionals , the club also

21:09

offers other great resources for

21:11

your career growth and success , like

21:13

mindset coaching , job preparation clinics

21:15

and career growth strategy sessions

21:18

in the form of trainings and talks , all

21:20

delivered by experts and inspiring

21:22

individuals in these areas . So

21:24

if you want to learn more or want to join the

21:26

club , you can visit our

21:29

page at phspotorg

21:31

slash club and we'll have all the information

21:33

there . And you know , as a space

21:35

that's being intentionally curated to

21:38

bring together like minded public health

21:40

professionals who are not

21:42

only there to push themselves to become

21:44

the best versions of themselves , but also each

21:46

other . And

21:49

with that , I can't wait to see

21:51

how this is going to have a ripple effect

21:54

in the world , as we all work together to

21:56

better the health of our populations

21:58

and just have immense impact

22:00

in the world . And I hope you'll be joining

22:02

us in the Public Health Career Club .