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I don't come from experience. Let alone, Biostatistics is my backup plan, but I do truly enjoy it (so I am not going into something I dislike). BUT I have had a talk with a guy who is a head nursing management director at a big hospital in Boston and he said that all the biostatisticians they hire have their MPH in Biostatistics. He did say that the graduates with the PhDs get jobs practically handed to them, but he also works at a hospital that tends to accept the Yale and Harvard MPH grads. Yet, he does say most of the people in the Biostatistics have a PhD for a chance at a great job. When I looked into an MPH as a new plan instead of PA school or podiatry I did think about the Epidemiology aspect more but then I went more down the Biostatistics route. What I have been told is that getting the PhD will open numerous doors for you, while an MS or MPH doesn't give you amazing salaries and benefits.
I do know someone who got her Bachelor's at UofM and then got her MPH in Epidemiology at UofM. She spent a few years at a hospital in a low income area but a major hospital in MI and then worked her self up to one of the top 3 hospitals in the state of Michigan. I don't know how much she gets paid and what she even does, but from her family has told me it sounds as if she is one of the heads of the epidemiology department at the hospital. Again, you can't expect the $60K a year job fall into your lap once you get an MPH, but if you got a PhD then you would expect a $60K a year job. There are many fields in which the salary difference between a Masters and a PhD aren't worth it, but then there are several fields where it is one of the only ways to get a great paying job with lots of responsibility like Biochemistry, Economics, Biostatistics, Biophysics.
For people in the Biostatistics field what I have been told is that after you get your M.S. or MPH really the ONLY jobs you can find is an SAS analyst job.
I do know someone who got her Bachelor's at UofM and then got her MPH in Epidemiology at UofM. She spent a few years at a hospital in a low income area but a major hospital in MI and then worked her self up to one of the top 3 hospitals in the state of Michigan. I don't know how much she gets paid and what she even does, but from her family has told me it sounds as if she is one of the heads of the epidemiology department at the hospital. Again, you can't expect the $60K a year job fall into your lap once you get an MPH, but if you got a PhD then you would expect a $60K a year job. There are many fields in which the salary difference between a Masters and a PhD aren't worth it, but then there are several fields where it is one of the only ways to get a great paying job with lots of responsibility like Biochemistry, Economics, Biostatistics, Biophysics.
For people in the Biostatistics field what I have been told is that after you get your M.S. or MPH really the ONLY jobs you can find is an SAS analyst job.
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What would you do with a PhD if you were to get one? Is your goal academia, are you wanting to get on the tenure track? Or would you then take it and work for a think tank/research institution?
I am not pursuing a PhD, I have no desire to, so my knowledge of the job market is based on things I have read. It seems for those wanting to pursue academia, it's a saturated market and many are spending years in postdoctoral positions.
But in your opinion, what is a lucrative career? Is it all about how much money you make or whether your work has an impact on people's lives?
The salary also depends on what you do. I know people working as government analysts that are making 90k+ after being promoted to team leaders. Working in consulting tends to also have higher salaries.
I was in health policy and management, focusing on policy. Many of my classmates that went into analyst type roles started around mid 50s, low 60s in salary. My job, which is also federal, every 6 months, I get a raise.
With public service, I believe with 10 years of service and making payments on your loans for 10 years, you can apply for loan forgiveness. That's kind of the reward for taking a lower paying job.
Some public health jobs (you can view many at www.publichealthjobs.net), have low salaries. I have seen some starting around 36k, I don't know how comfortable I would be taking on that level of debt because MPH is expensive, and start out at sub 40k.
For Epi, the CDC has a 2 year fellowship program every year where you get sent off into the field for training. I'd try googling that and see what the compensation is and doing federal work makes you attractive to the private sector.
I am not pursuing a PhD, I have no desire to, so my knowledge of the job market is based on things I have read. It seems for those wanting to pursue academia, it's a saturated market and many are spending years in postdoctoral positions.
But in your opinion, what is a lucrative career? Is it all about how much money you make or whether your work has an impact on people's lives?
The salary also depends on what you do. I know people working as government analysts that are making 90k+ after being promoted to team leaders. Working in consulting tends to also have higher salaries.
I was in health policy and management, focusing on policy. Many of my classmates that went into analyst type roles started around mid 50s, low 60s in salary. My job, which is also federal, every 6 months, I get a raise.
With public service, I believe with 10 years of service and making payments on your loans for 10 years, you can apply for loan forgiveness. That's kind of the reward for taking a lower paying job.
Some public health jobs (you can view many at www.publichealthjobs.net), have low salaries. I have seen some starting around 36k, I don't know how comfortable I would be taking on that level of debt because MPH is expensive, and start out at sub 40k.
For Epi, the CDC has a 2 year fellowship program every year where you get sent off into the field for training. I'd try googling that and see what the compensation is and doing federal work makes you attractive to the private sector.
It varies in public health; anywhere from $20,000 a year to $250,000 a year. On average, I would say between $40,000 - $80,000 a year. Federal jobs always pay higher than state/local jobs. International jobs may not be paying that much as well. If possible, try to graduate with as little debt as possible.
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I expect many of the 6-figure salaries are earned by people who have a MD or other doctoral-level degree and have supplemented it with a MPH. It's the MD that leads to the high salary, not generally the public health training.
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It's varied because there are so many sectors to go into.
Executive consulting will pay more than working for a non-profit. Working for a biotech will earn more than academia. And on and on.
There's no limitation of earning potential, but the degree alone won't get you a high paying salary and job. It requires honing of skills and being productive.
As for the 6-figure salary thing, I wholly expect my next position to be into the 6-figures (within the next year).
Executive consulting will pay more than working for a non-profit. Working for a biotech will earn more than academia. And on and on.
There's no limitation of earning potential, but the degree alone won't get you a high paying salary and job. It requires honing of skills and being productive.
As for the 6-figure salary thing, I wholly expect my next position to be into the 6-figures (within the next year).
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One piece of advice regarding salary: I've taken time over the last 2 years to learn a lot of tech & data science skills, including some basic programming, R, Github, Open Refine, etc. Because I've had experience with cleaning & analyzing data sets with 3-11 million records, I feel like this has given me a big advantage compared to many of my peers. I haven't graduated yet, and I get offered at least 1-2 jobs a month without any effort on my part. These skills are really in demand in public health, since more and more people need to work with big data. Taking time to learn how EMRs work could also really boost your earning potential.
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Agreed. Knowing how to use software makes you much more marketable in public health,
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Executive and management consulting is very competitive. Extremely competitive, even. This is referring to companies like Deloitte, Boston Consulting, McKinsey, Bain, etc. The process of getting into these companies is very strenuous (look up case studies for consulting interviews for an idea of what to expect). They pay well (specialized consultants make well over $110k/year) and they work very hard (60-70 hours/week is common) with long travel (80% travel is common). Ask yourself if that's the right lifestyle for you. For many folks (myself included), that is not the type of job I was interested in, but I have two friends who went that route and they're doing well.
$50-60k salaries for entry-level is pretty common. Particularly if it's not with a high-powered for-profit company. For-profit companies can often pay a bit more. But with just a MPH and limited work experience, there's few places that will pay someone $100k out the gate. Assistant Professors often start right at around $70-75k, for an idea for what a PhD might land you. This is a realistic outlook for those of us looking at academic careers.
