How To Become A Public Health Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a public health officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Experts

Dr. Julie Gast Ph.D.,

Tracey Spinato

Public health is the study of the health of communities as a whole instead of focusing on individual treatments. Those focusing on public health can study why certain diseases are prevalent in a community, combat unhealthy behaviors, and more. Public health officers are people who work with communities to improve their health so that all individuals have a better quality of life.

Public health officers can work for nonprofits, hospitals, the government, or even the military. Their daily duties may vary slightly depending on the place where they work and their specialty. Some public health officers research environmental factors behind the prevalence of disease, others work with community leaders to educate the public about health risks, and others help the government develop health policies that help the people.

Most public health officers have a master's degree in public health or a related field, although it is possible to find work with only a bachelor's degree or no degree at all.

What general advice would you give to a Public Health Officer?

Dr. Julie Gast Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Master of Public Health, Utah State University

Internships are required for most MPH degrees, and that is an excellent opportunity to network and let others know about the skills you have learned in your program, or your hard skills, your work ethic, and your soft skills (such as teamwork, communication, follow-through, ability to juggle multiple assignments). Take the internship and all networking opportunities seriously.

ScorePublic Health OfficerUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $59,172

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.9

Growth Rate 6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.23%

Asian 5.66%

Black or African American 10.01%

Hispanic or Latino 14.24%

Unknown 6.18%

White 62.69%

Gender

female 47.40%

male 52.60%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress Level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.6

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a public health officer

Explore public health officer education requirements

Most common public health officer degrees

Bachelor's

50.3 %

Master's

24.5 %

Doctorate

9.8 %

Start to develop specific public health officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Environmental Health	22.78%
Disease Surveillance	9.38%
Public Health Issues	8.00%
Public Health Programs	7.66%
Health Services	7.38%

Complete relevant public health officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New public health officers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a public health officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real public health officer resumes.

Research public health officer duties and responsibilities

Manage busy immunization clinics overseeing the administration of thousands of immunizations per day.
Review medical records of patients who suffer serious injuries in automobile accidents and classify injury by type.
Interview tuberculosis patients and monitor treatment during direct observation therapy.

Prepare your public health officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your public health officer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a public health officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Public Health Officer Resume templates

Build a professional Public Health Officer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Public Health Officer resume.

Apply for public health officer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a public health officer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do public health officers rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Public Health Officer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020

Pros

Working as a safety officer keeps a you alert at all time,you talk safety,act safety,wear safety, see safety,do everything safety,you even smell danger and prevent it before happening and that's cool.

Cons

Nobody loves to die but I guess its inevitable,working as a safety officer you must be ready for anything.