What Is It That I Do Again? It’s (Mostly) All Fun!
As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I passed my dietitian license a little over a year ago…and let me tell you, not only did I have a tough time passing the exam, but then there was AFTER the exam. You might think I had a million jobs to chose from, but no…that was DEFINITELY not the case. I sat on my computer day in and day out, applying for jobs just like I had BEFORE I passed the exam. At least this time I could say I didn’t have to worry about not having that “must be an RD” pre-requisite. Instead, I had the whole “she is an RD with no experience” thing weighing over my head. Awesome. It took me two years to pass this exam…would it now take me two more years to find a job?
Although I interviewed for clinical positions, I already knew none of these positions were right for me. The people who interviewed me knew it too. I knew nothing about clinical nutrition. I knew enough to pass the RD exam, but moving forward, I knew very little about tube feedings or writing clinical nutrition notes. I don’t understand 90% of the scientific mumbo jumbo that the clinical dietitian world revolves around and to be quite honest…I don’t care. Just being honest here.
I had a rotation in my internship that enabled me to work in corporate wellness (thank you again to my amazing mentor and friend, Lori Zanini). Corporate wellness programs have been designed to nurture wellness in workers. Basically, companies that have a large amount of employees (and money) want their workers to stay well and be productive.What does a corporate wellness dietitian do? Well, she (or he) does many things, but one of the main things I remember loving about my rotation in corporate wellness was setting up wellness tables in the cafe at lunch time revolving around different topics and teaching nutrition education seminars. My favorite final project in my internship was creating a seminar on how to create low cholesterol substitutions with desserts so people with high cholesterol don’t feel deprived and can still have sweets once in awhile. I had taken a chocolate chip banana bread recipe and made a lower cholesterol version for everyone in the seminar to sample as well. I remember how proud I felt when that seminar ended. I never realized how many people didn’t know basic things like adding flaxseed to baked goods for added nutrients or substituting a little apple sauce for some of the butter in a baked goods recipe could cut the cholesterol. I wanted to teach people these things…basic health education would enhance so many lives! Was there such a job out there?
Turns out, there was…and not just one, but 3 or 4 of them. I kept applying for jobs and interviewing. Then one day, I had spent a morning mindlessly applying for jobs and less than 24 hours later I got a call from a woman at a company called Guckenheimer. I knew very little about this company, but I had sent my application out to them after seeing that they were looking for a nutrition specialist to put on wellness events at their locations around Southern California.
The woman called me and told me she had received my resume and that I was exactly what she was looking for. I was a little confused, but when I thought about it, all I really had on my resume was health education based jobs. I had been a health screener while I was in school and done a ton of nutrition analysis during that time. I worked as a health educator for a diabetes program and was working as an online health coach for a company teaching people the values of basic nutrition. Guckenheimer wanted someone who knew how to socialize with busy professionals. They wanted someone who loved nutrition and wanted others to love it too, or at least understand it. They wanted me!
This fine dining catering company that services HUGE corporations like Google, Sony and Warner Brothers was hiring me to go to their locations across Southern California and set up wellness tables with quarterly topics provided by them. I am their dietitian. The voice of nutritional knowledge. I could hardly believe it. Also, not that this is paramount, but I was finally going to be financially compensated properly as a dietitian, which made this all the more rewarding a position.
Guckenheimer is the most fun job I have ever had in the field of dietetics. I have to say, as a dietitian, this is pretty much my dream job. I get paid to get dressed up and go to some of the most notorious corporations on the West Coast and teach people basic nutrition. Basic nutrition that regular people can understand and take home and practice on their own. I connect with a ton of cool and unique people every time I go to work. Guckenheimer has many accounts all over Southern California. I am always going somewhere new, so no one day is like the next.
Somehow, this opportunity spiraled into other companies finding me and contacting me to do health education seminars for them. I just got hired on by CIGNA and a company based in Laguna Beach called HealthFax. These two companies hire me per diem to do lunch and learn nutrition seminars. Basically, they give me a topic and I create a PowerPoint presentation on the topic, or sometimes they send me the already prepared presentation, and I just go over the notes and present it. When I get to create my own presentations, it is challenging but fun because I am learning and also being creative, finding pictures that are enticing to go along with the words I am saying. When I am using a presentation that has already been created, it can still be challenging, because I want to keep audiences engaged, so I have to think of questions to ask them, or prepare myself for the questions they might ask me.
Another perk of all of these jobs is I never work an 8 hour day, I never sit at a desk all day, and sometimes days I work from home. On my couch. I always have time to get in my exercise and often have time to visit with friends or run errands during the times others are working (Hello, Trader Joe’s is awesome on a Tuesday afternoon! ). Sometimes it gets tough piecing jobs together, like right now during the holidays, a lot of companies are not doing as many seminars because people go out of town during this time (or companies don’t want to hear about overindulgence when they are in the midst of planning extravagant Christmas parties! ). However, I love my freedom. I love leaving work feeling fulfilled and wanting to do it all over again the next day. Who doesn’t want to say that about their job?
