Do you dream of building a successful career in the area of Nutrition? Have you ever thought about a map showing how to get there? Well, that is the purpose of this content. In the next topics, we’ll show you in detail how to make your Nutrition career plan today!
It is common that, at the beginning of this journey, the student or professional has many doubts. After all, there are several possibilities, as well as different challenges that may appear along the way, right? Thinking about it, we decided to clarify what are the main points to include in your planning. That way, you will have much more security to walk your path and do your best every day.
Continue reading to develop your Nutrition career plan!
Faculty: the starting point
Anyone who thinks that a career in the field of Nutrition only starts after graduating is wrong. As much as before undergraduate you are not yet a licensed nutritionist, choosing the ideal college is already one of the most important decisions in your professional career.
While some people are only looking to have a degree (and end up paying for it later), others are aware of the benefits that a good College of Nutrition can offer. Check out some of the possibilities that high-quality graduation brings!
Scholarship
Who said that you need to have a high purchasing power to attend higher education? The best institutions in the market tend to provide some scholarships to those who are really committed to the course.
Exchange options
Currently speaking a second language is practically a must to stand out in the market. In addition to being a requirement of employers themselves, professionals who understand English and other languages find it much easier to seek new knowledge, as there are many quality publications around the world.
Now imagine being able to spend time studying Nutrition outside of Brazil, still practicing English or Spanish, for example. That’s possible! When opting for a renowned institution, you can have the chance to take a semester of the course abroad through an interchange.
Encouraging entrepreneurship
Many Nutrition students aim to open their own practice. Therefore, it is essential to study entrepreneurship and learn about the best business practices.
When choosing a good college, you have access to lectures, workshops and classes on business creation and management, even if you are not studying Business Administration. At UniNorte, for example, there is the Incubator UniNorte Empreende, which supports students from all courses towards this goal.
Bifurcations: the paths that Nutrition offers
Each day more areas of activity emerge in which the nutritionist can work. So it is important to always be aware of new possibilities. Find out now what are the main areas of activity within the profession!
Clinical nutrition
It is the classic in-office service, when the nutritionist takes care of patients individually, making diagnoses and elaborating personalized diets. For this, it is necessary to take care of the patient’s health as a whole, analyzing the person’s complete life context.
Sports nutrition
This branch takes care of the nutrition, health and preparation of athletes, who can be both professionals and amateurs. In this area, the nutritionist can work with individual and team services, and the places of activity vary from private practice to sports clubs and gyms.
Food industry
You may have noticed that every food on the market contains a label with nutritional information, right? This is just one of the jobs that nutritionists do in the food industry. This performance also includes monitoring the entire production process, controlling the quality and hygiene of food.
Academic research and teaching
Because it is such an important discipline for the health of humans and animals, Nutrition constantly needs researchers. In this case, it is common for the professional to act at the same time as a teacher and researcher, although this is not a rule. The work can be developed in laboratories, research institutes and universities, in addition to the food industry itself.
Collective nutrition
Unlike clinical nutrition, which usually serves one patient at a time, the collective takes care of groups of people. Usually, this type of work is carried out in restaurants, canteens, industrial kitchens or in the area of health surveillance. Choosing this area, the professional must be aware of changes in the laws, in addition to offering consultancy for the maintenance of food and the development of menus.
Goals: a requirement for clarity in everyday life
After choosing a good college, it’s time to set at least one goal for your role as a nutritionist. This can be done through long (10 years), medium (5 years) and short term (2 or 3 years) goals.
Your long-term goal may be, for example, to have a successful practice, act as a sports nutritionist or be a Nutrition manager in the food industry. From there, you can break that goal down into smaller goals for the medium and short term. You can, in a period of 2 or 3 years, establish the intention of getting an internship in the desired area, for example. Simple enough, don’t you think?
Flexibility: the ingredient for knowing how to adapt
We know that when we talk about goals, a lot of people feel pressured. But it doesn’t have to be that way, see? Remember that the career plan is not written in stone. In fact, quite the opposite: the goals are temporary and must be maintained as long as they make sense. Later on, if you find that you prefer to follow another path within the profession, change the goal!
The same goes for market changes. There will be times when a particular segment within Nutrition will be on the rise, while in others this same path will have less demand. This does not mean that you should review your career plan all the time, but at least keep yourself open to the possibilities, as they can bring great surprises!
Continuous learning: the big difference
Most people think that the Nutrition career plan encompasses only work and graduation goals and activities. But that’s not true! The ideal planning is one that provides for continuous learning, going beyond the university classrooms.
To stand out in the labor market, it is essential to participate in symposia, congresses and seminars. Also, always check what’s out there on social media. There, it is quite common to find opportunities for events and lectures that will contribute to your academic and professional evolution.
When setting up your Nutrition career plan, therefore, consider from the college where you are going to graduate to the resources that will be used for further studies. Also, don’t forget to take into account the other tips that we’ve passed here, such as setting goals and making goals more flexible at times and that makes sense.