Jamie Perry
Alumni
- Home country:United Kingdom
I work in the Evidence team of Birmingham City Council Public Health division, as a Public Health Officer. This team conducts research projects (termed 'deep dives') on a variety of public health topics across Birmingham, with a priority on reducing health inequalities. Examples of published deep dives have been Learning Disabilities and Dual Diagnosis.
Each 'deep dive' includes reviewing relevant local and national policy, statistics of the health problem in Birmingham, lived experience research, health economics, and recommendations. There is a large amount of variety from one day to another (or within in each day) due to the different types of research each of the above uses. Some of each week will be meetings with stakeholders, who may be people who have professional or lived experience of the health condition.
I am a medical doctor by background, and had studied part time while working as a GP. On graduating in 2022, I continued my GP role until 2025. Skills from the Masters of Public Health were directly useful for aspects of my role (such as knowledge used during medical student teaching), or indirectly due to having an improved understanding of how any daily clinical practice fit into the wider landscape. I decided in early 2025 to apply for a full time Public Health role instead of doing clinical medicine. In my case, I searched primarily for roles at universities, councils, and civil service. The application process at Birmingham involved a CV and application form (note- it now involves CV only for first step), with an interview and on-the-day test which I found the MPH materials very helpful for.
I valued at the time how applicable the Birmingham MPH was, with lots of worked exercises, and have found that it reflects a job in public health very well. The module types let you learn a variety of skills, and already in my role I've used aspects of most (e.g. Core Modules, Health Econ, Qualitative, Health Informatics, Systematic Review, and others).
I met the UoB careers network during the course, and had some helpful input. A strength finders questionnaire (which included considering both your likes and your natural strengths) was something I saved at the time (2021) and revisited during the 2025 career change, finding this very helpful in the decision making.
Be prepared to apply for a variety of job types. Birmingham has a 'mismatch' in job economy, meaning that it can feel simultaneously difficult at times for both job applicants and job recruiters. Good degrees which give transferable skills (like the Birmingham MPH) are exactly what help applicants in that situation, with CVs which emphasise how these transferrable skills help that potential role, although you may find that it's helpful to apply for a wider variety of job types than is sometimes the case.
I've so far emphasised in my answers the modules/learning which has directly helped my applications and work. Potentially as important has been the overall ethos (the so-called 'art alongside science of public health' as several lecturers called it). The theoretical underpinnings in modules such as Health Economics, Sociology+Social Policy and Health Promotion have changed the lens that I think about health with, and I'll always be grateful for that.
I really valued having the opportunity to do a 'service-based' dissertation with Birmingham City Council, using grounded theory interviews to investigate the role between acculturation and physical activity in refugees and migrants. I was very grateful that my University of Birmingham supervisors allowed a very robust but flexible approach to oversee the project academically, which can be a challenge for project types which change over time (as mine needed to).