Career Success: How to chart your global health career

Global health is a particularly complex sector within development, consisting of many different technical areas and programs. This can make it difficult for global health professionals to figure out which position will best suit their skills and talents and allow them to fulfil their career ambitions.

Dr. Elvira Beracochea, president and chief executive officer of Realizing Global Health, joins Devex for this exclusive webinar to discuss the different paths to a career in global health. She explains how an effective career development plan can help you get there: “You need to understand that global health is a very complex field. There are hundreds of donors, government agencies, private foundations, thousands of NGOs, and consulting companies.”

“You need a plan because you need to know how to navigate the complexities of global health and I think it’s going to keep getting more complex,” she advises. “Also, careers in global health are not linear. How you move from one stage to the other has to be intentional and you have to have a plan to do that if you want to succeed,” she says. “Each person I have worked with has a unique story and a path, and when they chart that success story, that’s when they get the results they want.”

Beracochea talks through the different stages of building your own career development plan — from establishing your career goals to knowing the skills you need to work on and coming up with actions to do so. Your plan will also depend on what stage you are in your career and should be unique to your strengths, talent, and experience, explains Beracochea, who has helped hundreds of global health professionals find success.