Companion to the Career Development Workshop

During the session, you worked through four things: which global health problems resonate with you, which career pathways fit your constraints, what skills you need to build, and what you'll do in the next 4 weeks and 6 months. This document helps you follow through.

How to use this: Start from whatever you wrote in your worksheet. Part 1 gives you general tools — where to find roles, how to get career advice, and how to build skills. Part 2 gives you pathway-specific guidance based on what you chose in the session. Part 3 collects country-specific entry points. You don't need to read everything. Find what's relevant, and pull it into your action plan.

Part 1: General Resources

Finding Opportunities

The session covered how competitive traditional global health roles are (Keralis: only 10% entry-level, 40% requiring 6+ years). These boards help you navigate that landscape — and find the non-traditional roles that don't show up on generic job sites.

Impact-focused (start here):

• Probably Good Job Board — Curated roles specifically in global health & development, climate, mental health, and other high-impact areas. Best coverage of the kind of roles we discussed in the session. You can set up filtered alerts by cause area and location.
• Devex — The standard job board for the international development sector. Over 950,000 candidate profiles. Free to browse; paid membership ($7.50/month student rate) unlocks full access and lets recruiters find you. If you're serious about the sector, this is where most organizations post.
• ReliefWeb — Strongest for humanitarian roles, UN agencies, and field positions. Good filtering by country, experience level, and sector. Free.
• Idealist — Broad nonprofit and social enterprise jobs. Skews U.S.-based but useful for remote and international NGO roles. Free.
• ImpactPool — International organizations, NGOs, and social enterprises. Good for multilateral positions.
• UNJobs — If you're targeting UN agencies and intergovernmental organizations specifically.
• Ambitious Impact (AIM) Job Board — Covers roles across AIM's charity network specifically, including many evidence-based global health organizations.
• Global South Opportunities — Fellowships, grants, and positions specifically relevant for LMIC-based professionals.

How to use job boards effectively: Don't just browse — set up filtered alerts so opportunities come to you. Use job boards for market research even if you're not applying yet: what skills keep appearing? What experience levels are they asking for? This tells you what to build toward.

Career Planning & Advising

During the session we used Singer's framework: find a problem, get mentors, choose platforms. These resources help you structure that thinking more rigorously beyond our workshop.

• Probably Good — Free 1-on-1 Career Advising — The closest thing to a free career advisor for people trying to maximize their impact, particularly in global health and development. Their advisors help you think through cause areas, personal fit, and concrete next moves. Apply if you're uncertain about direction after the session.
• Probably Good Career Guide — Walks through cause-area analysis, personal fit assessment, and impact evaluation — the same kind of analysis we did in the session, in more depth. Use if you want to work through it independently.
• Probably Good — List of Impact-Focused Job Boards — A meta-resource covering dozens of specialized boards organized by cause area, region, and type. Useful if you're targeting a specific niche (animal welfare, climate, French-speaking roles, etc.) that we didn't cover in the session.

Building Skills While You Plan

We discussed how skills are transferable — management consulting → health systems, tech → health data, finance → innovative financing. These programs let you build global health-specific skills without committing to a full degree.

Reference: your skills assessment and the "2 skills or knowledge areas" you committed to in your action plan.

Data Analysis & Quantitative Methods (R, Stata, statistics, econometrics):

• MIT MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy — The single best online credential for evidence-based development work. Designed by J-PAL, taught by Nobel laureates Duflo and Banerjee. Five graduate-level courses covering development economics, data analysis, RCTs, and cost-effectiveness. Tiered pricing ($250–$1,000/course depending on income). Completing it makes you eligible to apply for MIT's on-campus master's. If you do one thing from this list, seriously consider this.
• LSHTM Short Courses — Paid intensive modules in epidemiology, health economics, and disease-specific topics. The paid short courses carry real weight on a CV.

Health Economics & Cost-Effectiveness:

• LSHTM Open Access Course: Health Economics and Financing in LMICs — Free, self-paced.
• MIT MicroMasters also covers cost-effectiveness analysis.

Policy Analysis & Advocacy:

• Nigeria Health Watch — Science-Policy Communication Fellowship — 3-month hybrid program on translating research into policy-relevant communication. Nigeria-specific.

Program Management & M&E:

• USAID Global Health eLearning Center — Free modules on M&E frameworks, program planning, and topic-specific areas (malaria, TB, nutrition, WASH, and more).

Disease-Specific Knowledge:

• LSHTM Free MOOCs — Maternal health, vector-borne diseases, disability and health, trachoma, AMR diagnostics. Match to whatever problem area you checked in the worksheet. A low-commitment way to test interest in a specific area.
• USAID Global Health eLearning Center — Topic-specific modules on malaria, TB, nutrition, WASH, and more. Quick overviews, not deep dives.

Part 2: By Pathway

Reference: your pathway pros/cons table from the worksheet

Each pathway below includes: where to find roles, what skills matter most for entry, and structured programs that serve as on-ramps.

Government / Civil Service

The session covered how civil service in LMICs offers enormous leverage — one Indian civil servant generated $80M in annual savings; Sierra Leone's free healthcare policy halved infant mortality. Entry is competitive and varies by country.

Where to find roles: Government positions are rarely on international job boards. Search your country's civil service commission or public service portal directly. For cross-country policy roles, check ReliefWeb and ImpactPool.

Skills that matter most: Policy analysis, public administration, data literacy, stakeholder management. Quantitative skills (economics, statistics) are increasingly valued.

On-ramp: MIT MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy — directly relevant credential for evidence-based policy work.

Country-specific entry points:

• Nigeria: National Health Fellows Programme — 12-month fellowship placing young Nigerians (25–35) across all 774 LGAs to strengthen primary healthcare. Remunerated.
• India: UPSC and state PSC exams remain the main route. PHFI programs can build the public health credential that strengthens your candidacy.

Multilateral civil service equivalents:

• World Bank Young Professionals Program (YPP) — One of the most prestigious entry points into multilateral development work. Requires a master's degree and 2–6 years of experience. Two-year term with potential five-year renewal. Applications typically open in September.
• World Bank Pioneers Internship Program — Structured internship for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
• WHO Internship Programme — Internships across WHO's global, regional, and country offices in both technical and administrative areas. Open to current students and recent graduates (within six months of graduation). Living allowance available for eligible candidates. Positions posted on a rolling basis.

International NGO

The Keralis data applies most directly here — highly competitive, 40% requiring 6+ years, master's preferred for 61% of roles. The session emphasized that this is the default path people imagine, but often not the most accessible or highest-leverage.

Where to find roles:

• Devex — Largest development sector job board, 950K+ candidate profiles. Most international NGOs post here.
• ReliefWeb — Strongest for humanitarian and field positions.
• Idealist — Broad nonprofit roles, skews U.S.-based.

Skills that matter most: Program management, M&E, grant writing, stakeholder engagement, cross-cultural communication. Technical specialization in a disease area helps you stand out.

On-ramps:

• Princeton in Africa — Year-long fellowships at organizations across the continent. Stipended. ~50 fellows placed annually. Open to graduating seniors and young alumni from U.S.-accredited universities.
• Duke Center for Policy Impact in Global Health — Fellows Program — Paid fellowship for LMIC researchers (master's + 5 years experience) focused on health financing and systems. Preference for candidates from Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka. Includes 8 weeks at Duke.

Research / Academia

Relevant if you're drawn to generating evidence rather than implementing it. The session touched on this through the Gates Foundation innovations reading and the DNDi research model.

Where to find roles: Academic positions are usually posted on institutional websites. For research positions at global health organizations, check Devex and individual org career pages (WHO, IHME, J-PAL, LSHTM, etc.)

Skills that matter most: Quantitative methods (epi, biostatistics, econometrics), scientific writing, literature review, study design. Programming in R or Stata increasingly expected.

On-ramps:

• AIM Research Program — 12-week, fully funded and stipended. Work on real impact-focused research with mentorship. Good for testing whether research is the right path.
• NIH Fogarty LAUNCH Program — 12-month research fellowships at sites in India, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Peru, Thailand, and others. Stipended. For pre- and post-doctoral trainees.
• DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance — Research fellowships for early, intermediate, and senior career stages. One of the strongest mechanisms in India.
• TDR Postgraduate Training Scheme — Full academic scholarships for master's degrees focused on implementation research, at eight partner universities in LMICs (Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Lebanon, South Africa, and more). Funded by WHO/TDR. Over 540 students trained since 2015.

Country-specific research institutions:

• Kenya: KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme — One of Africa's leading health research institutions. Offers doctoral fellowships, postdoctoral positions, internships, and short courses. Jobs and training portal. Also: IDeAL — Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders, hosted by KEMRI-Wellcome, supports postgraduate diploma, master's, and PhD fellows.
• Uganda: Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program (UPHFP) — 2-year fellowship run by the Ministry of Health with Makerere University and US CDC. Tracks in field epidemiology, laboratory leadership, and health informatics. Requires a master's and 3–7 years of experience. Also: Makerere University School of Public Health for MPH, Health Informatics, and short courses.
• Tanzania: Ifakara Health Institute — One of Africa's leading health research organizations. Doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships, internships (3–12 months), and a Master of Public Health Research program with Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology.
• Bangladesh: BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health — 18-month international MPH taught in English, plus short courses. TDR scholarship partner institution. Strong focus on implementation research and community health systems.

Private Sector / Health Tech

The session covered Zipline (drone delivery, 21% vaccination increase in Ghana), AI diagnostics, and the Gates Foundation innovations. This pathway is growing fast and often overlooked by people who assume "global health = NGO."

Where to find roles: Standard tech job boards (LinkedIn, AngelList) plus Devex for development-oriented private sector. Search for health tech, digital health, and social enterprise roles.

Skills that matter most: Technical skills (engineering, data science, product management) combined with understanding of health systems and LMIC contexts. This is where "transferable skills" from the session discussion is most directly relevant — your tech/finance/consulting background is the asset, not the gap.

On-ramp: (No single structured program here. Best route is to identify specific companies (Zipline, Dimagi, Medic, Last Mile Health tech partners) and apply directly, or build relevant projects/portfolio.)

Entrepreneurial

The DNDi case from the session is the archetype — Pécoul saw a market failure and built an organization. Your worksheet asked what problems aren't being solved by traditional approaches.

• Ambitious Impact (AIM) — Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program — 2-month, fully funded incubator. AIM's research team identifies the most promising intervention ideas; you get co-founder matching, seed funding (~$100K+), and mentorship. Over 40 charities launched, including LEEP and Fortify Health (which you encountered during the fellowship). Applications typically open mid-year. This is the most structured and de-risked path from "I see a problem" to "I'm running an organization that fixes it."
• AIM Research Program — 12-week, fully funded and stipended. Good stepping stone if you're considering the incubation program but want to test your fit first.
• Add more For-profit/social enterprise incubators
• Add more nonprofit incubators
• Add microgrants

Part 3: Country-Specific Fellowships & Programs

If the civil service and LMIC pathways discussion resonated — or if you're looking for structured entry points in your own country — these are worth exploring. Some also appear under specific pathways above.

Nigeria:

• National Health Fellows Programme — 12-month, government-backed fellowship across all 774 LGAs. Ages 25–35. Remunerated.
• Nigeria Health Watch — Science-Policy Communication Fellowship — 3-month hybrid program. Early/mid-career.

India:

• DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance — Research Fellowships — Early, intermediate, and senior career stages.
• Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) — MPH programs and research positions across five Indian Institutes of Public Health. Scholarships available.

Kenya:

• KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme — Fellowships, internships, and short courses. Jobs portal.
• IDeAL — Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders — Postgraduate and doctoral fellowships with KEMRI-Wellcome.

Uganda:

• Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program — 2-year fellowship. Field epidemiology, lab leadership, health informatics.
• Makerere University School of Public Health — MPH, Health Informatics, short courses.

Tanzania:

• Ifakara Health Institute — Fellowships, internships, Master of Public Health Research.

Bangladesh:

• BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health — International MPH, TDR scholarship partner.

Pan-African & Cross-Regional:

• Princeton in Africa — Year-long fellowships. ~50 fellows/year. Stipended.
• Duke Center for Policy Impact — Fellows Program — Paid fellowship for LMIC researchers. Preference for Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka.
• TDR Postgraduate Training Scheme — Full scholarships for implementation research master's degrees at partner universities in LMICs.

Multilateral Entry Points:

• World Bank Young Professionals Program — Master's + 2–6 years experience. Applications typically open in September.
• World Bank Pioneers Internship — For undergraduate and postgraduate students.
• WHO Internship Programme — Rolling positions across all WHO offices. Open to students and recent graduates.

Deadlines for fellowships and programs are typically annual. Set calendar reminders for the ones relevant to your pathway. If you found a resource during the fellowship that should be on this list, share it with us — we want this to grow with each cohort.