mish said:
Hi, I'm much interested in Public Health and was considering MPH....problem is, I am in the 'investigation stage' at the moment. I really want to make sure I am making the right choice - career and financial. I would really like to know what career paths exists for people with MPH qualifications. On impression, it looks alot like epidemiology, stats and management. I quite like to do something on the lines of health education and disease control. Can someone elaborate what other opportunities are available with a MPH and why you chose to do it? What are the employment opportunities like - are there alot of unemployed MPH holders?
There are a few different areas of public health you can get into. You might want to check out the websites of some schools that you would be interested in attending to see what they offer. My school (Michigan) offered Health Behavior/Health Education, Epidemiology, Environmental Health Services, Health Management and Policy, and Biostatistics. There were different areas of concentrations within each. I decided on public health because I have always been interested in public health issues and took a few community health courses in undergrad. There are a wide variety of opportunities for people with an MPH. I don't know about the employment opportunities since I am back in school, but when I was searching for my field placement, the choices were incredibly varied. There are a lot of opportunities. You could work with a local department of public health, the state government, the federal government, do research, evaluate health programs, work in a community based organization, be a health educator, work in health promotion, develop and implement health care programs and interventions, become a consultant, work to develop/change/alter current health policies, work in hospital administration, work on mental health issues, develop nutrition programs, fitness programs, corporate wellness, health communications, disaster management, develop/conduct/analyze health surveys, write grants, review grants, teach, and I'm sure there is more that I am missing. If you look at Idealist.org or other service based job listings, you might get a better idea of the types of jobs available. There is a wide variation in salaries as well due to sources of funding - depending on the type of organization.
