3 Tips on How to Land Your Dream* Job in a City Where No One Knows Who the Heck You Are" (*I’m
Hello, hello! My name is Karina Walker and I am a Cal Poly DI alumni from the 2016 - 2017 graduating class! January can be a tough month for the internship after coming off the holiday break high and realizing the closest break is not until graduation. Bummer, I know. But I’m here to try and help you see the light at the end of the internship tunnel - a job as a newly minted RD!
It’s now a little over six months since my graduation and I’m living in the sunshine-filled city of Orlando, working two jobs I absolutely adore: one as a dietitian at an outpatient cardiovascular clinic and the other as an adjunct nutrition professor! My path towards getting these jobs involved my second cross-country move in less than a year to a new-to-me city and was not without a lot of trial and error. Although we all have unique circumstances, I’m sure many of you will be job hunting in places unfamiliar to you. The following is how I was able to find my jobs and the advice I have for anyone in a similar situation. Even if you are sticking around a familiar place, don’t stop reading! These tips will really help you out as you already have home field advantage and shouldn’t end up cursing Google Maps for giving you wrong directions on an interview day.
1. If you have an idea where you will be, complete your elective rotation there
During the January of my internship, my fiancée moved from West Virginia to Florida for a new job. As soon as it was official, I immediately began searching for potential preceptors in the area so I could complete my elective there. If you know the city you will likely end up for your first job, try and complete part or all of your elective rotations there. This will allow for you to get a feel for the area and jumpstart your networking with other RDs. Or if you are open to moving anywhere but have a particular practice setting or company you think you’d enjoy working for, try to work out an elective rotation with them. The elective rotation is awesome as it can be used as a trial run for both location and unique RD experiences you may not have had during the internship. I was able to complete my elective weeks with the Florida Dairy Council. It was a great time and I was hired as a nutrition consultant after I graduated my internship which was an additional perk!
2. Subscribe to multiple job sites and multiple job name alerts
This can be done months in advance before taking your RD exam or moving to the location that interests you. It allows for you to see how often dietitian jobs become available in the area, what the pay tends to be, and, obviously, gives you the chance to apply to the jobs. I also recommend signing up for local hospital job alerts and searching company websites for their career postings. My adjunct professor job listing was not on any of the job websites but was on their career opportunities page.
Some of the job sites I used include:
Be sure to subscribe to different alerts through these websites related to nutrition and dietetics as it will allow you to broaden your search. Some companies still don’t exactly know what an RD is. My current job as an outpatient dietitian was listed as “nutrition educator” even though the job description was for a dietitian.
Alerts I subscribed to:
“Dietitian”
“Dietician”
“Nutritionist”
“Nutrition educator”
3. Join local and state Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) groups, become involved, and don’t be shy!
This one is a no-brainer. As soon as you officially know where you will be, join. The old saying “It’s not about what you know, it’s who you know” does have some truth behind it. Thanks to networking and a boost from my wonderful elective preceptor, I am now the Florida AND newsletter editor and have met so many great dietitians through this position. Go to any meeting you are able to and introduce yourself to others. Also, if they have a listserv, sign up for it as well. My local association sends out nutrition related job openings before they make it to the common job websites.
Following these tips helped me get a solid idea of what the dietetics profession was like in my new area and allowed me to feel as though I left no pancake un-flipped as I searched for jobs (excuse my lame attempt to squeeze a food pun into this post). I hope they will assist you as well, RD2Be’s!