Chart Your Course in Dietetics with Your Elective Rotation
One of the highlights of the Cal Poly SLO Dietetic Internship is the opportunity for interns to choose their own “elective” rotation. The many options are exciting – and can also be daunting! Here are a few quick tips to help you make the most out of these self-designed rotation opportunities.
Know the Guidelines
Be sure you have answers to a few vital questions before you start considering elective options:
Are there restrictions on where the rotation can take place geographically? At Cal Poly, your elective can take place anywhere in the US or its territories.
Can the elective be in any area of practice? At Cal Poly, the answer is yes.
How long is the rotation? At Cal Poly, you complete one 2-week elective or two 1-week rotations if you prefer.
Can the elective be completed at a site already being used for rotations by the internship? At Cal Poly, the answer is yes.
Set Yourself Up for Your First RDN Job
One solid strategy for choosing your elective is to pursue an opportunity at a facility where you think you’d like to apply for a job after the internship. If the program allows it, get your foot in the door in the geographical area where you hope to live, and show the team there just how much you have to offer!
Also consider area of practice. If you know you want a job in, say, public health, find an elective opportunity that earns you more experience in the field doing exactly that. Even if your internship already offers a public health rotation, you will gain fresh perspective, novel insight, and more opportunity to sharpen your skills by putting in additional hours in this area of dietetics, especially at a facility that’s new to you.
Start Taking Steps towards that Dream Job of Your Future
Sure, you might not know exactly what your dream is yet, but you probably have some ideas. If you’re considering a highly-specialized area of practice (think pediatrics or renal), you likely won’t land a job doing that work until you’ve gained several years of experience as a dietitian. Or maybe you’d like to tackle owning your own business one day, but you want to wait until after you’ve built a name for yourself and made more connections in your community.
Completing your elective in your desired practice area gives you at least a bit of relevant experience on your resume, and also ensures you’ve had ample opportunity to test the waters and get the feel for what that job would really be like. Perhaps most importantly, you can learn about the career paths that got your preceptors into those roles, and pick their brains about steps you can take to help you land – and be successful in – a job just like theirs in the future!
Let Your Imagination Run Wild
Try not to limit yourself to only traditional dietetics career paths for your elective. The beauty of this rotation is that you can try on just about ANY dietetics role for size and see how well it fits. Imagine what you might love to do. If you could design your own nutrition-focused position, what kind of tasks would you be doing each day? Which of your skills would you utilize? What kind of impact would you be making, and on whom?
Consider your answers and then, if you’re not sure that kind of job even exists, go online and do some research! Your program director, preceptors, and other connections may know where dietitians are doing similar jobs – and might even be able to put you in touch with one!
Just to get you started in this process, I’ll share a few examples. Sports dietetics, corporate wellness, and supermarket dietitian positions are still considered somewhat nontraditional, although rotations in these areas are becoming more common. Interns I’ve worked with have also completed rotations with agencies as diverse as the American Heart Association, The Monday Campaigns (home to Meatless Mondays), Rocky Mountain Gastroenterology (emphasizing functional / integrative nutrition), the Florida Dairy Council, and Kentucky Fried Chicken! And I just discovered today that Food & Nutrition Magazine posted an application for prospective interns seeking a communications and media rotation.
In my perspective, one of the best aspects of dietetics is just how many different directions our careers can take us. Use your elective to help chart your course in the profession!