Skills
Environmental Health Specialist Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in environmental health specialists, and how to build and show them.
Environmental Health Specialists need technical skills such as food code knowledge, inspection techniques, and water and pool testing, plus people skills like communication and diplomacy. They also use tools such as Food thermometers and Chlorine and pH test kits.
Technical (hard) skills
- Food code knowledge
- Inspection techniques
- Water and pool testing
- Septic system evaluation
- Outbreak investigation
- Report writing
People (soft) skills
- Communication
- Diplomacy
- Objectivity
- Problem solving
Tools, equipment and technology
- Food thermometers
- Chlorine and pH test kits
- Water sampling equipment
- Flashlights and inspection apps
- GPS and mapping tools
- Data management systems
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how environmental health specialists put their skills to work:
- How to conduct a restaurant inspection
- How to test pool water chemistry
- How to investigate a foodborne illness complaint
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Food code knowledge” and “Inspection techniques.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “communication,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as Registered Environmental Health Specialist (REHS/RS) near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our environmental health specialist glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Environmental Health Specialist training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.