Global Health Jobs
Weekly Highlights May 17-23
Published May 24, 2009 @ 03:47AM PT
Guest blogger Michael Keizer started off the week with a fascinating dissection of international treaties and agreements relevant to the question, Is Health a Human Right? Check it out to learn what the acronyms UDHR, ICCPR, and ICESCR mean for the right to health.
Did you know that Your Old Cell Phone Can Make a Difference to Global Health? An exciting cell phone collection campaign launched this week called Hope Phones. Donating your old Blackberry will give 3-5 cell phones to healthcare workers in the developing world.
Two interesting reports came out this week: Guest blogger Mara explores an IOM report on why the US should invest in global health and what's different between 2009 and the past, while Global Health Guide Alanna Shaikh provides the highlights of an amfAR report on Men Who Have Sex With Men.
Mara also wrote about HIV Prevention and Behavior Change, using the success of Uganda to illustrate that HIV prevention requires not just condoms or just abstinence programs, but both in combination. Sometimes, though, the necessary behavior change may be as subtle as changing perceived norms, as Alanna explores in her post on Child Nutrition and Shifting Baselines.
Last week, we learned that Paul Farmer is considering a job as the Director of US Foreign Assistance and Administrator of USAID. In response, Alanna wrote An Open Letter to Paul Farmer imploring him to not take the job, because foreign aid reform is going to be "a long, slow slog through a thicket of bureaucracy and entrenched interests."
For those who are in graduate school or considering that option, on career Wednesday Alanna wrote a helpful post on How Not to Waste Your Grad School Tuition.
And if this blog is not enough to satiate your global health appetite, check out Alanna's list of Recommended Reading for information on the World Bank's self-evaluation, PEPFAR's new coordinator, and a neat new HIV/AIDS monitoring tool.
Dissecting a Job Ad
Published May 20, 2009 @ 04:17PM PT
One theme that comes up over and over when we talk about global health careers is the challenge of choosing the right job. In response to that, I am starting a new feature, where I've take one of our jobs for change, and walk you through its likely pros and cons. Today we'll look at a Program Manager position with the Program on Global Health and Technology Access at Duke University.
My overall take on this job is that it's primarily an administrative job, heavy on writing, detail work, and herding cats. If you like that kind of work (and I do, I'm not knocking it) it sounds like it has some real chances for growth, particularly if you are interested in research.
I've pulled out some of the job responsibilities to comment on:
Oversee day-to-day administrative operations including facilitating arrangements for Program staff meetings both on- and off-campus, development and implementation of work plans and timelines, and oversight of subcontracts. Big pile of secretarial work, and sounds like a decent portion of the job.
Assist PI with budget planning and monitoring. Master and maintain software that tracks grant submissions and program expenditures. More secretarial work. Someone else makes financial decisions and you do the typing.
Enhance the communications of the Program's work, both on campus and to the broader policy community, through the utilization of traditional (website, newsletter) as well as newer (blogs, multimedia) means. This could be a chance to shine if you're a good writer and you're good with the web, or it could be more admin work.
Manage and support-with other team members and partner organizations-the GHTA Program's fellowship and training programs, such as the Global Health Fellows Program and the Pharmaceutical Policy Leaders in Medicine Institute. Supervise research assistants and support staff, as required. Assist in training personnel. Even more administrative work.
Working with the PI and research staff, prepare reports for funding agencies, briefings for policy meetings, and abstracts/presentations for domestic and international meetings. Once again, this is what you make of it.
Assist...in the development and preparation of new research protocols and grant applications, including conduct and oversight of formative research, writing of scientific and technical grant sections, and development of supporting materials. This is good stuff. Assisting with grant prep can teach you grantwriting skills without having to learn it alone. Also seems like a chance to develop research skills.
Review journals, abstracts and scientific literature to keep abreast of new developments and to obtain information regarding previous studies to aid in the planning of new studies. Effectively summarize reported research findings on priority issues, and their applicability to the Program's research activities. That just sounds awful.
Ensure coordination and collaboration between Duke, the American Cancer Society, and the Southeast Asian Tobacco Control Alliance, and the research teams in Southeast Asia across seven target countries. Lots of email wrangling.
Ensure the creation of appropriate systems for managing and tracking subcontract efforts, manage the processing of grant-related invoices and expenditures, and handle reporting requirements under the grant for the NIH. More admin work.
Work with the PIs to ensure the creation of methodological tools for analysis, systems for managing data, and protocols for analyzing data. Support preparation of materials for disseminating study results. This sounds interesting; another chance to build research skills.
How Not to Waste Your Grad School Tuition
Published May 20, 2009 @ 09:35AM PT
(photo credit: Unhindered by Talent)
Patrick Mayne commented on last week's post, and asked me to write about "Now that you've gotten into grad school, how to make sure you're not wasting $40,000 and a year of your life." It's a great question. I identified four things you can do to make the most of your grad school experience:
1. Work while you're in school. People, even your university administration, will tell you not to do this. Ignore them. Mind you, I don't mean working in the library, the cafeteria, or even the computer lab. Being a grad student is an instant credential for jobs in your field. Take the chance to start building your resume. Paid or unpaid doesn't really matter; you're not going to make enough to defray school costs anyway. Pick a job with a decent sounding title, at an organization where you can learn something.
2. Connect with your professors. Make a point of going to office hours, and make sure your professors know who you are. If you would like to work with them on research, or co-author papers, let them know. It's okay to just tell them; this is not the time to be shy. Professors love to see motivated students. Do not sit around waiting to be noticed - reach out. If you're too shy to tell everyone, at least tell your advisor and see if she can help you.
3. This is your chance to form your base of ideas. You will never again have this much time to think about the concepts that underpin global health. Take the opportunity to do your reading and arrive at some conclusions. Some people come at global health from a social justice perspective. Others focus on technological innovation, health systems, or cost recovery. Do you think private health care is the answer, or public financing? Do you think health is a human right? What do you think are the major issues affecting global health? Would you rather see funding go to maternal health initiatives or vaccination programs? Bottom up or top down? There are a lot of big questions out there, and knowing where you stand on them will help you shape your career and make choices you can stand by.
4. Take your academics seriously. If you chose your school properly, these will be the hardest classes you've ever taken. Grad school professors expect more from you than undergraduate professors. Your papers have to have genuinely original ideas. You need to consistently do your best work. Do all your reading. Attend all your classes. Take notes and review them. Yes, I shouldn't have to say this, but I saw far too many classmates not giving graduate school the effort it deserved. Those are the people who wasted their money. None of the other things on this list work if you don't bring your A game to the coursework.
Getting the Experience You Need to Get Into Grad School
Published May 13, 2009 @ 04:19PM PT
Kate Jongbloed commented to ask "a lot of the entry level jobs that I'm looking at require a master's degree, but in order to get into grad school, they'd like you to have a bit of experience in your field. It's a catch 22! How do you recommend getting around this issue?"
People ask me that question a lot. Luckily, there is an answer that most people can achieve. Graduate schools don't need you to have experience in the exact field you want to study or work in after graduation. They just want you to have shown a real interest and commitment.
In the context of global health, that means either an international background or a health background will generally suffice, and you can do that with a bachelor's degree. There are a lot of vaguely administrative jobs you can get with an international slant - international education and exchange organizations, refugee resettlement, or even teaching English as a foreign language in the US or overseas.
There are also entry-level health jobs and volunteer work you can do in health. I was a volunteer for Planned Parenthood. I filed medical records and assisted with sexuality education programming. We had paid clinic assistants as well. Most health clinics have work like that. I know there are human services jobs open to people with bachelor's degrees, and program assistant jobs at health non-profits.
Getting that kind of experience in the US will help build the skills you need to show graduate schools you are serious, and get that first job after you finished your graduate degree.
Why Having a Baby Was Bad for My Career
Published May 13, 2009 @ 09:09AM PT
(yes, that's my son)
I just wrote that title to get your attention. Having a baby has limited my career options, but I wouldn't say being a mother has hurt it. Just changed it. I can't take dangerous jobs, travel extensively, work tons of overtime, or go long periods without insurance. I've got a little boy who wants to see me, and who needs to be able to see a doctor for vaccinations and check-ups even if he never gets sick.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I can no longer take dangerous jobs or work at unaccompanied posts. That's pretty obvious. I am also unwilling to take jobs with substantial travel or overtime, because I believe parenting is mostly about showing up. That rules out a lot of stuff that I know I would enjoy and be good at.
This is less obvious: I am now totally obsessed with health insurance. I can't go long periods as a consultant and just hope I won't get sick, which is what I used to do. I need a level of structure I didn't require before. And as long as I hope to someday have another child, I have to keep a very close eye on the benefits offered anywhere I work. Health and short-term disability insurance are very important. I didn't know this until I learned it the hard way. Please learn from my error.
When I got pregnant with my son, I was working for an international NGO. It offered no paid maternity leave, and no short-term disability insurance. (It just never even occurred to me to check. I was a salaried, posted expatriate manager for a major international NGO. I simply assumed their benefits would be fine.) Short-term disability is the only other way one can get time off to have a baby. That meant that I had no way to take time off, except for vacation days (of which I got 15 a year) or uncompensated leave. We were living in Uzbekistan, so our housing was paid for by my employer, as was our health insurance. If I took uncompensated leave, we'd be homeless and uninsured. With a new baby. So I saved up all my sick and vacation days - worked right up until the day I was in labor - and was able to take 4 weeks off before I had to go back to work.
In case you are wondering - yes, that did suck. So now, I scrutinize the benefits package of any job I take. I need a good health insurance package, and good short-term disability insurance. I turned down a job last year because they didn't offer short-term disability; I've learned my lesson.
All that being said, I think being a mother has made me a better employee. Knowing I can't just stay late to finish something has given me a new focus on deadlines and timeliness. I can now multi-task like nothing you have ever seen. Being a mom myself has given me new insight and empathy into women's health issues. And I like the jobs I'd had since becoming a parent.
I wouldn't give up being a mother for anything. That is the other thing I have learned since becoming a parent - every cliché you've ever heard about a mother's love is true. Every cliché and more. I would happily give up far, far more than just overtime and dangerous postings to be a parent.
But as soon as my boy goes off to college, I'm on the next UN flight to somewhere I can do some good.
More About Career Mistakes
Published May 06, 2009 @ 10:42AM PT
I was asked by a couple of people to elaborate on my five career mistakes from last week. I figured, why not? I can self-flagellate for your benefit.
So let's talk about career mistake number one - my graduate degree. Now, I do not regret my degree one bit. I loved grad school with a passion I could never have anticipated. Getting to learn about global health every day was wonderful. It was like I'd been a fish my whole life and finally discovered water.
However, an international health concentration is about as non-specific as you can be and still be in graduate school. When you study for an MPH, there are at least a semester's worth of required courses that everyone in the program has to take regardless of major. Once you've completed those courses, you then take the ones that relate to your major. Considering that it is a two-year degree, that doesn't leave a time for a lot of specifics.
In my case, with an international health focus, my concentration courses were all introductory classes. Intro to maternal and child health. Intro to social marketing. Intro to health financing. It was a great survey of the major topics in international health. It was a great credential, and it grounded me in systems-level thinking. It taught me the vocabulary I needed. And I could handle a job interview or a conversation, but it didn't really ready me for work in anything specific.
If I could do things over, I think I'd double major, and add epidemiology or biostatistics. It wouldn't take that much longer, and it would give me a solid skill to leave school with.
